Check Point Rolls Out New Partner Program with Simplified Approach

Check Point Software Technologies has launched its new partner program that aims to strengthen partner capabilities and fuel growth.

Check Point announced the new partner program at its CPX APAC conference in Bangkok, Thailand. Francisco Criado, Check Point’s vice president of global partner ecosystem organization, said the vendor is changing how it's going to market in 2024 and how it’s representing itself as a company.

“In the past, we've led with our solution pillars, and really moving into 2024 we're leading with platform,” he said. “We're an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered, cloud-delivered cybersecurity platform. That's how we're positioning ourselves, and then we have the ingredients of our solution and the services underneath it. Channel is our only route to market and we don't win unless our partners win. So it was really imperative for us that we transformed our partner program to make sure that we're not only strengthening those partnerships, but we put our partners in the best position to win together in the market. So that's kind of the preface and why we're doing this.”

Check Point's Francisco Criado

Check Point heavily polled partners before drafting proposals for the new program, Criado said. 

Check Point Partner Program Enhancements

The new Check Point program features a range of enhancements including:

“We have a customer-first, partner-always strategy,” Criado said. “So this is all really built around that customer experience and then how can we best arm our partners to provide that rewarding, end-to-end holistic customer experience because that's what they expect today. Customer expectations have changed as they work with the partner community. So No. 1 is customer experience. We want to arm our partners to be successful. We want to give them a clear line of sight in that predictive pricing so they know how they can make money with us. We want to sell more with our existing partners. We want solutions diversification, so selling beyond the network security and the firewall. And of course, we want to attract new partners to the Check Point family. So I think with these changes, it'll be much easier for new partners to see how they can really work and partner with Check Point.”

Unique, Meaningful Tiers

Check Point is moving from six to four partner tiers, Criado said.

“And within the new tiers, we're really making them unique and meaningful," he said. “They have very specific sets of benefits that are unlocked by these distinct tiers so that we can help promote tier progression. We're making it very simple to understand now how to tier-progress with Check Point because we want our partners to invest in a Check Point practice and specialization.”

Partners previously used the mobile app mostly to engage with customers and earn rewards for engagement, Criado said.

“That'll still be a piece of it, but we have three new use cases, and one of them ties to competencies,” he said. :So we have training and enablement that they can just do literally straight from their phones or their tablets. The other one is access to subject matter experts, which is really important. We have a lot of very loyal existing customers that have been with us for many years, but as they hire new reps, not everybody knows the ins and outs of Check Point. So by solution area, by technology, by product, you can quickly be connected with a subject matter expert and that's also especially important for new partners that we're trying to attract.

"And then the last one is around deal registration," Criado continued. "So instead of having to go back to your computer, making it cumbersome, and submitting a deal registration, they can submit a deal registration from their phone or tablet, so they can do it quickly and make sure that they're protected. We want to make sure that we're known as a company that really cares about their channel, and protects their channel and their partners.”

Molly Rouch, president and co-founder of Six Degrees Consulting, a Check Point partner, said with the new program, “we are empowered to deliver highly competitive solutions to our clients while expanding our reach nationally.”

“The program's focus on specialization and certification aligns with our commitment to provide top-tier security services, ensuring that our clients receive the best possible protection against potential threats,” she said.