Andrew Mamonitis - Managing Director, Hemisphere Technologies
Cyber security vendor, Centrify, has bolstered its A/NZ channel strategy after striking a local distribution deal with Hemisphere Technologies.
The appointment of Hemisphere Technologies as the US-based identity management software provider’s first local distributor shores up its new local channel-focused strategy, aimed at bringing its A/NZ operation in line with its global channel model.
"Globally we're a very channel-focused company," Centrify’s A/NZ country manager, Lachlan McKenzie, told ARN. "Locally, we have always worked through partners directly, but we have seen a lot of success through the distribution model elsewhere.
“This aligns Australia and New Zealand with the successful distribution model used in Centrify’s other markets,” he said.
McKenzie suggested that Hemisphere’s distribution channel would give Centrify the ability to deploy its solutions across more organisations and industries in the local market.
Under the deal, Centrify's existing network of direct partners will now purchase the company's products and services through Hemisphere.
"That will be a little change for them. However, we've had some positive feedback from the partners in regards to the new arrangement," McKenzie said.
Meanwhile, Hemisphere Technology’s managing director, Andrew Mamonitis, said Centrify’s product portfolio would add value for its channel.
“Centrify solutions stand out in the market for their effectiveness and ease of use. This bolstering of our portfolio will strengthen the breadth of technologies and solutions available to our channel,” he said.
According to Mamonitis, Centrify wanted to move to a more traditional two-tier distribution model, and the company saw Hemisphere as a good fit, due to the local distributor's relationships with its channel partners.
"The value of bringing us on board is the fact that we can now start to introduce our loyal and strong partner-base to their technology, and we can introduce new partners that wouldn’t have otherwise have had exposure to Centrify," Mamonitis told ARN.
Over the past six months, Hemisphere Technologies has been working to identify areas in its portfolio that it needed to plug, according to Mamonitis.
Identity management was one of the areas that came up as needing to be more comprehensively covered, a task that Centrify, with its product portfolio, could help with.
"We have been having discussions with our partners around privilege, and quite often what comes up is that identity management is just as important, and now we’re able to go out there with that total solution and sell that to our channel partners, and they can sell it on to their customers," Mamonitis said.
The distributor has already started introducing some of its partners to the Centrify offering, which is available with immediate effect to its customer-base.
"Quotes are already beginning, and enablement training is already underway. We can start quoting and transacting with our partners," said Mamonitis.
Centrify, which has had a physical presence in Australia since 2012, sees the partnership with Hemisphere as an opportunity to increase its visibility and reach across the local market.
The deal follows Hemisphere technology’s exclusive A/NZ distribution agreement with Finnish cyber security provider, F-Secure. Like Centrify, the company had maintained a local presence for years, but wanted to make a push into the channel.
"We believe the A/NZ channel is well and truly ready for a global European brand that is a pioneer in internet freedoms,” F-Secure global director of new business development, Tapio Koskinen, said at the time.
