McAfee Overhauls Partner Program

McAfee is giving its aging partner program an overhaul to better reflect its partners’ purchasing behaviors and trends in the security industry, the company announced this week. The new Intel Security Partner Program will begin Jan. 1 and will feature simplified solution competencies, expanded training opportunities and additional specialization programs for partners.

McAfee is reducing the amount of solution competencies to three from five to give partners an easier way to eliminate some of the confusion surrounding its portfolio, according to the company. The three new competencies are Endpoint Security, Network Security and Security Management. Additionally, partners no longer will need to complete their baseline certifications, as more emphasis is being placed on expanding the existing continuing education programs to give partners the ability to earn more relevant training credits.

In addition, the new Managed Services Specialization will replace the current Managed Service Provider Program, while the Authorized Support Specialization will incorporate the McAfee Authorized Support Provider Program.

“Together with our partners we have a massive opportunity to lead the security market transformation,” said Gavin Struthers, senior vice president of Worldwide Channel Operations at McAfee, in a statement. “In order to do so, we must ‘think big’ about how we partner together to protect our mutual customers as they embrace a new computing era and deal with today’s more sophisticated threat landscape.”

The Intel-owned security provider revealed the details of its new partner program during McAfee’s Partner Summit  this week in Las Vegas, where several other announcements were made regarding partner engagement, including new initiatives to boost enablement and the overall partner experience.

Partners will have access to a new suite of enablement tools and training as part of McAfee’s push to deliver increased continuing education opportunities. The new CloudRunner Platform is a free, in-demand platform that allows partners to access McAfee’s portfolio through the cloud and quickly develop demos, while new post-sales services enablement training and certifications are expected to help partners beef up their basic knowledge in areas including next-generation firewalls, Advanced Threat Defense and more. The CloudRunner Platform is expected to be available in November, with an additional Service Delivery specialization becoming available in Q2 2015.

Partners looking to view an analysis of their performance and profitability metrics will have access to a new Partner 360 Dashboard, and the SMARTmarketing platform, which will help McAfee partners get the tools they need to expand their marketing efforts. The SMARTmarketing platform is available immediately, while the Partner 360 Dashboard is set to begin a pilot program with select partners later this year.

Stay tuned to The VAR Guy throughout the week as we bring you more news straight from McAfee’s Partner Summit, and be sure to follow Michael Cusanelli on Twitter and LinkedIn for more updates.