Security Startup Nevis Wades Into The Channel

On Monday, the Mountain View, Calif.-based network access control (NAC) vendor, which last September launched under a mostly direct-sales model, took the wraps off a two-tier channel program that offers discounts and deal registration.

Nevis hopes the program will boost the amount of its revenue that flows through its North American channel partners from about 10 percent now to 80 percent by year's end, said COO Shane Buckley.

The new program consists of two levels, Certified and Premier, and stems from what Buckley described as "exponential growth" in the number of customers interested in Nevis' NAC and LAN security offerings.

In the program, Certified partners get a 20 percent discount on products and an additional 5 percent for registered deals. Premier partners get a standard discount of 30 percent on products and 10 percent for registered deals, in addition to better support and co-marketing activities.

Nevis' strength, according to Buckley, is its ability to offer full pre- and post-connect NAC, as well as threat prevention and identity-based access control.

"Each of these areas is hot right now, so we combined all of them into a single product," he said.

Identity-based access control and policies are particularly lucrative services opportunities for the channel, and Buckley expects that to attract new partners.

"Policies are like living breathing organisms, and they need to be changed and modified over time," he said.

Still, Nevis' goal with the new program is not to sign up as many partners as possible but to have one or two partners in each major geographic region and add around 15 new partners by the year's end, according to Buckley.

Nevis on Monday also launched a partner portal that's integrated with its CRM system. The portal enables partners track customer escalations and registered deals, which is essential for preventing channel conflict, Buckley said.