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

Network security provider Tufin is enhancing its Global Partner Program to help VARs sell more and increase their margins.

Program improvements include updated partner designation tiers with enhanced benefits; better margins with deal registration; a new partner portal with personalized access to resources; and specialized certification training programs. Tufin will hold its inaugural partner awards in 2017.

Mike O’Donohoe, Tufin’s North American channel program manager, tells Channel Partners the company considers its partners an extension of its sales force. However, “when we re-evaluated our partner program, and solicited feedback from numerous partners, it became clear that we weren’t providing the adequate resources for them,” he said.

“As a result, we’ve enhanced aspects of our program that were working well and have added several new benefits such as online/on-demand technical training,” he said. “One specific area is the attainment of certifications in order to achieve and maintain program status. Our partners all carry products from other vendors who are also requiring them to get certified, which can become time consuming and very expensive. So taking that into consideration, we needed to come up with alternative ways for our partners to get trained and certified on our solutions.”{ad}

Tufin recently began posting its Certified Security Expert class online in a series of short videos and labs. The class used to take place in a classroom over the course of two full days.

Also new is Tufin’s Channel Chat series of webinars. Every 45-60 days, it presents and records a topic of value to its partner community.

“My personal favorites are the ‘How to Demo Secure Track’ and ‘How to Demo Secure Change,’” O’Donohoe said. “These and the other Channel Chats are available on-demand in our partner portal. Now our partners don’t have to wait for us to train them live. If they need to learn how to demonstrate our solutions, just like one of Tufin’s SEs, they just need to do so at their convenience.”

Tufin has about 450 partners globally, ranging from global SIs to local/regional partners. The company typically works with larger players’ security business units, while local/regional partners have built their practice around infrastructure and security.

Tufin serves more than 1,700 enterprise customers globally in finance, telecom, energy and utilities, health care and pharmaceuticals, retail, education, government, manufacturing and transportation.