F-Secure’s Global Partner Program Wins “Program of the Year”

Protecting from cyber threats is never purely about technology. It takes human expertise to predict, prevent, detect and respond to breaches. F-Secure’s new Partner Program is built on this principle – providing not just the latest technology, but a framework for cooperation between F-Secure and our partners.

Supporting Partners to Become Trusted Advisors to Their Customers

69 percent of companies surveyed by F-Secure expressed interest in finding an IT security service provider with better technical know-how.* However, as the demand for cyber security expertise is growing across the globe, finding skilled experts to help with cyber security is not an easy task. In fact, according to the Cybersecurity Jobs Report for 2018-2021, there will be 3.5 million cyber security jobs to fill by 2021.

At F-Secure, we employ some of the brightest minds in the industry and work hard in protecting organizations from advanced threats. But that is not enough. To address the talent shortage and help as many organizations as possible in strengthening their security posture, we also want to invest our time and effort into supporting our global network of partners in growing their cyber security skills.

F-Secure partners have access to classroom trainings that cover a wide range of essential cyber security skills, as well as online sales and product trainings to help them become more competitive. Onsite trainings cover topics from the current threat landscape to security architecture, incident response and forensics, security assessments, phishing and behavioral sciences, and more.

“Supporting our partners’ growth into trusted cyber security advisors is vital in helping them learn to go beyond providing basic endpoint protection software and start delivering the detection and response solutions many businesses now require.”

Elena Zykova, Global Head of Channel Development, F-Secure Corporation

From Products to Security as a Service

In the cyber security industry, Security as a Service has become the new norm. According to our survey, only 25 percent of organizations are using cyber security as product-only, and 75 percent say that at least part of their cyber security is done by a managed or outsourced service.* We want our partners to jump on board this development in the market. What this means in practice is that not only do we grow the partners’ technical knowledge in providing more advanced services, but also guide them in the commercial aspects of growing their service portfolios.

Throughout the customer journey, F-Secure provides partners the tools and services to cover the 360 degrees of cyber security. Through F-Secure’s new Partner Portal, partners can easily submit support tickets, access online trainings, create orders, and more. Top tier partners receive 24/7 support and work with a dedicated technical service manager from F-Secure.

In addition, we constantly develop the support features that are built into our solutions. One example is the ‘Elevate to F-Secure’ feature within our Rapid Detection and Response solution, through which partners can work with F-Secure’s specialized experts in incident analysis and get response guidance.

Committed to the Success of Our Partners

We at F-Secure want to invest in the success of partners who see the world like we do. The new Global Partner Program is designed to help partners meet the high expectations of their customers by integrating sales, marketing, technical support, and incentives into a single program that rewards partners as they improve their cyber security know-how and become trusted advisors to their customers. Our teams work closely together with our partners’ technical and commercial counterparts, and we welcome feedback from our partners as we continue to develop our portfolio.

Our efforts have earned our Partner Program the “Channel Sales Program of the Year” award from Forrester-owned SiriusDecisions. This award is given to B2B organizations for “significant and innovative results” across product, marketing, and sales functions.

“All of the partners in the pilot grew their sales by over 50 percent compared with the same period in the previous year, which really shows how much we can achieve by working together.”

Elena Zykova, Global Head of Channel Development

* F-Secure B2B Market Research 2018 (n=3350)