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DigiCert Tuesday unveiled its enhanced Certified Partner Program, the first phase of an ongoing effort to work with partners and provide added benefits from the company’s acquisition of Symantec’s website security and related PKI services.

The program is designed to help DigiCert’s global partners “capture the multibillion-dollar opportunity” offered by SSL, PKI and Internet of Things (IoT) security. It features four tiers with discounts based on sales volume and expertise with dedicated sales, marketing and technical assistance.

DigiCert’s Victoria Cloutier

Victoria Cloutier, DigiCert’s head of global channel, tells Channel Partners her company has a substantial global footprint, with sales in more than 150 countries and 16 global offices, “and that’s what we’re building off of and leveraging, and enhancing onto this.” DigiCert has about 5,000 partners globally.

“You have to be agile in this market, and if you stay behind with a static model, you’ll get left behind,” she said. “We want to stay ahead of the market and to make sure that we’re current, agile and responsive. We [also] believe that we can offer the best suites and services, so it’s enhancing and tweaking, and is part of that continuous improvement to make sure. And we had a tremendous forcing function and catalyst with DigiCert acquiring the Symantec business because that gave us the opportunity.”

The enhanced program includes an invitation-only, platinum elite tier with premium dedicated technical support, quarterly business reviews across technical, sales and marketing, and access to market-development campaigns to include support at trade shows.

“It’s for our really dynamic partners who are making some really bold business moves and really leveraging our technology and our infrastructure, and we’re working collaboratively with them in new and exciting markets, Cloutier said. “We have a very holistic, integrated approach to them because they are international; so we are able to look at that sweep of the products that they have by region and the geographical nuances of that.”

The enhanced program also includes DigiCert Managed PKI (MPKI), which partners can use to help their customers simplify enterprise authentication, mobile-device management and encrypted communications, the company said. With cloud and hybrid options, organizations can secure employee and partner access to sensitive information via a web-based application or extranet portal, which offers many benefits for IoT use cases, enterprise mobility initiatives and access via a wireless network or VPN.

DigiCert has certified three platinum partners – Acmetek, CertCenter AG and JNR – to offer products within the MPKI program, with more partners to follow later in the year.

“It’s part of helping our partners get to that next big market and the value that they can have going to market with PKI and IoT,” Cloutier said. “And with that we have the certification because we want to make sure that we scaffold our partners so that they’re set for …

… success with the right tools, the right resources, the knowledge and the right portfolio to be able to go out and be very successful, and pioneer for us and work with us.”

Other new features include: a DigiCert partner enablement kit, growth incentives and rewards, and a partner portal that includes campaigns, collateral and education for each tier of the program.

Channel-only initiatives are designed to help partners win new business and create valuable up-sell opportunities, DigiCert said. Through the DigiCert Encryption Everywhere program, partners can offer basic encryption for free as part of a bundle within hosting packages.

DigiCert will grandfather its existing and former Symantec website security partners into the combined program at their current tiers, and begin the first of its new training and certification workshops during the second quarter of 2018.

“A lot of companies just regurgitate what they’ve had year after year, after year, and maybe change up some of the language,” Cloutier said. “This has given us the ability to take this and really enhance the program and put some meaningful changes into it. But the other part of it is we want to make sure we get our partner feedback as well. We don’t want to suddenly [say], ‘We’re doing this.’ We have a very intricate, collaborative discussion style with our partners.”

Ramesh Nuti, founder and CEO of Acmetek, said the new DigiCert PKI program offers the support and training to “expertly win both mindshare and market share.”

“In the last few years, the significant growth of internet-connected devices has created a need for our clients to leverage IoT and enterprise PKI,” he said. “Whether our clients are securing corporate users and devices, or manufacturing smart systems (such as smart cars, smart homes, Fitbit watches and more), the DigiCert PKI platform scales to address their challenges.”