**Editor’s Note: Click here for our most recent list of important channel-program changes you should know.**

Operating under the Quest Software umbrella, One Identity today announced the launch of the One Identity Partner Circle, a new partner program for systems integrators, advisory and consultants, resellers and distributors.

One Identity offers solutions for identity and access management (IAM). The organization’s IAM solutions include: access management, identity governance, privileged account management and identity as a service.

“When we operated as part of [the] Dell Partner Direct program and Dell Software Group, it was challenging for us because what we did was diluted in the Dell context. It didn’t allow us to message to our ecosystem. So one of the things we’re very excited about with One Identity and Quest separating from Dell is our ability to cultivate our community of partners that are just focused on identity access management,” Josh Lewis, One Identity’s director of channels and alliances told us.

To help the company bring its value proposition to partners, it has introduced One Identity Partner Circle, a multi-tier global partner program that offers tools and resources such as deal and referral registration, incentives, training and product support, and the new Connect portal for collaboration with One Identity subject-matter experts.

The One Identity partner program is open to partners that resell, architect, configure, implement, deploy and manage IAM solutions.

The new program has four tiers: Registered, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. To move up the tiers, partners have to meet sales transaction targets for each level — as well as certifications.{ad}

There will be two flavors of certifications: sales and pre-sales, which are accreditations, and are typically taken via online training. Based on a partner’s tier level, they’re required to have a certain number of people trained in sales and pre-sales. These accreditations are being updated.

What are called Plus Certifications are tied to practitioners and a partner’s professional-services delivery practice. The Plus designation also is tied to Plus tier levels.

“The certifications are really about certifying that partner organization to be ready to deliver our complex enterprise IAM software,” said Lewis. A practice Plus certification also includes …

{vpipagebreak}

… other metrics such as trainings and successful deployments.

For current Quest partners, new contracts will be available to sign in June. They’ll sign a standalone agreement with One Identity and will also agree to be Quest partners, Lewis explained. However, there will be two separate programs — Quest Partner Circle Program and One Identity Partner Circle Program, both based on a common backend platform, or the systems used to run a channel business.

Today, in North America, there’s about a 65-75 percent partner attach rate that the company would like to see grow.{ad}

In June 2016, Dell announced the sale of Quest and SonicWall to Francisco Partners and Elliott Management. The transaction closed November 2016. Dell purchased IT management software provider Quest Software in September 2012 around the same time it acquired IT security vendor SonicWALL. Both companies were the foundation of Dell’s software division.

John Milburn, president and general manager, One Identity, noted that operating as an independent organization gives the company more control over its destiny, including the delivery of IAM cloud solutions this year and beyond.