Covisint Takes Cloud Identity Management to Channel Partners

Covisint, which is part of the Compuware family of companies, is looking to build out its channel presence with a channel partner program that will enable partners to gain margin from reselling and passing on referrals for the company’s identity services offerings. Additionally, partners will be able to white-label the services as their own and bring them to their customers.

The partner program that will support Covisint Identity Services has many of the typical elements found in channel partner programs, including a partner portal, sales training and support, marketing assistance and deal registration. Covisint is casting a wide net in the hopes of signing on a variety of different channel partners—from systems integrators to managed service providers to VARs to OEMs and traditional resellers.

“Covisint’s platform delivers three core requirements as a service for business advantage today: security, integration and presentation,” said David McGuffie, Covisint president and CEO, in a prepared statement. “We strategically designed the Covisint Partner Program to enable companies seeking aggressive growth to generate more revenue through our proven cloud identity services and portal solutions.”

Covisint’s claim to fame is in the identity and access management (IAM) market. IAM is a growing market space, and one that becomes increasingly important for companies that expand into the cloud over multiple services. Managing a variety of cloud services is tough enough, but then managing the rights and access of employees and ensuring rights are revoked when workers leave their employers makes access management even more difficult. Of course, the BYOD trend, which continues to rush forward at breakneck speed, only makes things worse.

Opportunities are growing for vendors and channel partners, and it’s only through vendors that trust in the channel that significant growth can take place.