McAfee Channel Partner Program Rolls with COVID-19 Changes

… the partner community. One of the things that we did while working with Peter is we had a number of partner meetings at RSA, which was very well received by our distributor partners and our reseller partners. We also went on a virtual road show with Kathleen where we set up interviews or introductory calls … with our top 10 partners. We also did the same thing for Rob, who’s my new boss and is running the America sales organization. We did that specifically to address the sea change that was occurring.

The outcome was very positive; it was very well received. And with Kathleen having known some of our channel partners in her previous roles. Rob knowing channel partners, and Peter knowing channel partners and their executives, we are in a great position. I can see the partner community benefiting from the executives coming on board and working with the executives in a very positive manner.

CF: What are you most looking forward to doing once the pandemic ends?

KM: One, I want to understand our partners’ concerns as we walk through their doors and meet with their teams, what changes have they gone through. Are they still pivoting toward the virtual environments or are they saying, “Hey, we have these new digital programs that have worked as we go through this”? I want to get back out there, meet partners and talk to customers again. I want to understand what changes they’ve made because they’re going to make changes in their environment and they’re going to make changes in terms of how they do business with their customers. We’re going to need to understand that in order to in order to adapt.

That’s the biggest thing that I’m concerned about, how the partner community will change — because when you look at your traditional SMB partner, some of those guys are probably suffering right now financially, so there’s a concern there on our long tail. Will some of those partners still be in business, or will we see partners moved more toward managed services? So we’ve got to take a look at the sea change in the partner community and then determine our next step.

So I’m really excited. I haven’t seen a partner at their facility since I think March 13. I’ve done some virtual calls; we’ve done virtual quarterly business reviews, but as you know I kind of brand myself as a people person and I want to get out there back in the field and talk to our partners and talk to their customers. That’s near and dear to me.

What people need to hear from McAfee is, we’re not my grandfather’s McAfee anymore. We’re not that antivirus company that people think about us. We have evolved to this company that is thriving across our enterprise and in our consumer business. We can secure more individuals in any other company. And I really hope that people understand that message, that this is a different McAfee.