New Centrify Partner Program Enhances Deal Registration, Certifications

‘We don't do jump-ball renewals anymore where multiple partners come in and bid on those renewals. We give an advantage to the incumbent partner,’ Centrify Global Channel Chief Chris Peterson tells CRN exclusively.

Centrify has revamped its partner program to make it easier for solution providers to win their own renewals and get certified around services opportunities.

Chris Peterson, vice president of worldwide channels and alliances at the Santa Clara, Calif.-based privileged access management vendor, said the Centrify Reliance Partner Program will register customers to a specific partner, making it easier for the partner to build up a big annuity of Centrify bookings.

“We don't do jump-ball renewals anymore where multiple partners come in and bid on those renewals,” Peterson told CRN exclusively. “We give an advantage to the incumbent partner to encourage them to engage with their customer and ensure the customer satisfaction that we need.”

[Related: Centrify Names New CEO, To Spin Out Identity-as-a-Service Business]

Going forward, Peterson said registered partners will typically have a 20 percent margin advantage over unregistered partners when pursuing a renewal. Giving preferential treatment to incumbents in renewals will make it easier for them to optimize customer satisfaction and expand their footprint in existing accounts, according to Peterson.

In the past, Peterson said Centrify’s certifications were primarily focused around sales and presales engineering. But a revamped certification program will allow partners to get credentialed as a full-on consultant by verifying their ability to provision implementation and integration services as well as regularly scheduled health checks, according to Peterson.

The services certification will include virtual instructor-led training as well as shadowing the solution provider on their first instance of delivering services to a customer, according to Peterson. And in addition to the existing full-on sales certification, Centrify has rolled out a new on-demand certification for salespeople that are just being exposed to the company that’s easy to consume.

From a tiering standpoint, Peterson said Centrify will now have enhanced certification requirements as solution providers work their way up from Silver to Gold and from Gold to Platinum. Going forward, Gold partners will be required to have someone certified on implementation services while Platinum partners will need a consultant certified on implementation, integrations and health checks.

Partners at all three levels must have personnel certified in sales and presales engineering, according to Peterson.

Partners will enjoy an enhanced Salesforce.com implementation that makes it easier for them to track their opportunities within Centrify, Peterson said. Specifically, he said partners can now update customer records, track what’s happening in an account during a sales campaign, and watch what’s going on with a particular campaign after they’re a customer all directly from the portal.

Centrify is focused on its stable of 50 to 60 Platinum- and Gold-level partners that can move the needle for the company, Peterson said, and isn’t looking to recruit a large number of new partners. The company has a robust reseller base, some systems integrator partnerships, and a managed service program in its infancy that it is looking to invest more in going forward, Peterson said.

Peterson primarily plans to track customer satisfaction and renewals to determine the success of the Centrify Reliance Partner Program. Specifically, he hopes the new program will drive add-on sales and deeper relationships with the company’s Fortune 500 and Global 1000 customers, as well as solution provider access to key assets, people and information within Centrify.

“We want to do a better job with our partners, setting them up as a trusted adviser to customers,” Peterson said. “And this new program allows us to really do things in a measured way.”