Monday Morning Impact – October 3

CompTIA Study Reveals Top Business Priorities

Building greater operational efficiencies, enhancing employee skills and innovation are top priorities for businesses, with technology playing a leading role in reaching these goals, according to new research from CompTIA, a suburban Chicago-based trade association.

“Business priorities will differ and shift as market conditions change, but two constants are always present as companies seek efficiency, growth and innovation – technology and people,” said Graham Hunter, CompTIA executive vice president for global sales.

Other high priorities include launching new products and services, identifying new customers and markets and diversifying revenue sources,

Respondents from Japan (57%), Australia (54%) and Germany (47%) identified implementing new systems and work processes to enhance efficiencies as their top priority. In the United Kingdom and United States, operational efficiencies are on an even par with other objectives – enhancing workforce skills for UK companies and launching new products and services for US firms. Innovation initiatives and cultivating new ideas are top priorities for businesses in the Netherlands and Singapore.

About eight in 10 technology and business professionals report that leveraging their diverse workforce contributes to innovation. Respondents from Singapore are especially likely to indicate as such (95% net), followed by the Netherlands (88%), United Kingdom (86%), Australia (84%) and United States (84%).

Nearly one-half of executives indicate that their organization requires staff training and professional development. Another 44% describe it as solely voluntary – not required but encouraged. Mandatory professional development and training is most prevalent in the US, Australia, Singapore, the UK and Germany.

“Employers struggling to fill key technology job roles must recognize their responsibility to develop talent by making reskilling and upskilling of existing staff a priority,” Hunter advised. “Providing internal mobility and career advancement pathways to those already committed to the organization contributes to the sustainability of supply, which is increasingly important when considering talent development.”

CompTIA’s “Business Technology Adoption and Skills Trends” report is based on a July 2022 survey of technology and business executives and professionals involved in setting or executing technology policies and processes within their firm. A total of 1,053 respondents participated.

Channel Impact^®
The survey can be used as a roadmap to how channel partners can add additional value.

CrowdStrike Launches New Service Provider Program

CrowdStrike, an Austin, Texas-based cybersecurity company, has rolled out its new CrowdStrike Powered Service Provider Program (CPSP) program designed to help service providers unlock broader value-added solution bundles, enhance profitability, and expand their routes to market.

In addition, CrowdStrike is establishing a new Elite tier (currently invitation-only) that incentivizes CPSP partners with campaigns, capabilities and expanded market opportunities.

CPSP partners can choose to incorporate CrowdStrike package bundles or individual Falcon platform modules into their security offerings to their customers augmented by new incentive structures including discounts for specialized package bundles and add-on modules, as well as volume-based discounts for CPSP package bundles. Elite partners receive additional discounts plus additional technical support, go-to-market support, executive sponsorship, and partner campaigns.

“We wanted to make sure that service providers got additive value when introducing the CrowdStrike Powered Service Provider program,” said Michael Rogers, vice president, global alliances at CrowdStrike. “To that end, we developed the CPSP program in partnership with GSIs, MDR vendors, MSPs, MSSPs and Telcos to ensure we were meeting their needs and empowering them to grow their businesses.”

Elite CPSP partners include Cyber Defense Labs, Deloitte, eSentire, Marco Technologies, Orange Cyberdefense and Sirius.

Channel Impact^®
The CrowdStrike Falcon platform enables partners to deliver endpoint security and XDR, cloud security, identity protection, data protection, managed threat hunting, threat intelligence and log management.

Enhanced Kaspersky Partner Program Includes New Rebates and Training

Kaspersky’s new United Partner Program offers a revised rebate system, extended training courses and more rewards for MSPs. Training updates include new courses for MSPs, sales and technical specialists, and 10 new authorized training centers across the globe. MSPs will also receive higher rebates and simpler status progression from registered to platinum.

Within the current update, monetary rewards become available for more products, services, and premium support included in the Kaspersky price list. Partners can also earn rebates starting from Silver status and receive a progressive rate while moving to the next Gold and Platinum levels. The rate depends on which solution the sold product belongs to with the initial reward for Kaspersky Security Foundations, and increases for Kaspersky Optimum Security and reaches the maximum at Kaspersky Expert Security solution. The program also allows for a single sales target allowing partners to be more flexible in their priorities and sell any mix of products as they all are accounted for in one target.

Updates in education help IT providers become better versed in the Kaspersky portfolio and its new products and deployment. The new product courses include Managed Detection and Response plus Secure Remote Workspace. For pre-sales and tech support experts, Industrial CyberSecurity, and EDR Optimum technical courses offer hands-on labs, and are now available within authorized training centers. The number of such centers for specialized technical education also increases globally, with two new already opened in Middle East and Africa and a few more to be opened in APAC, Europe, Latin America, and Africa by the end of 2022.

To help MSPs advance through from registered to silver, gold, and platinum status faster and get more privileges with each level, Kaspersky introduced 5x multiplier for MSP subscription sales. This gives partner sales of subscriptions the ability to multiply five times allowing them to reach the target for the next status.

“Rewards should encourage existing partners to expand their sales focus and look more towards enterprise market including products from the Optimum and Expert Security portfolios,” said Ivan Tolok, head of channel at Kaspersky. “The benefits are also very attractive to new partners, as well as to MSPs in alignment with our strategic channel development priorities.”

Channel Impact^®
The changes allow for rebates to become more transparent and predictable, and cover more Kaspersky products and services.