Cybersecurity Firm Lastline Snags New Channel Chief In Services Push

July 08, 2019, 09:23 AM EDT

Former Aperio Systems and ASSIA executive Jarrett Miller has been tasked with helping Lastline add new national, regional and local integrators with a background in consulting or managed services.

Lastline has hired a new global channel chief to identify and deepen its ties with the strongest solution providers throughout the world.

The Redwood City, Calif.-based network security vendor has tapped former Aperio Systems and ASSIA executive Jarrett Miller to serve as vice president of global channel sales and tasked him with adding new national, regional and local integrators with a background in consulting or managed services.

"The goal is to find more sophisticated partners and less fulfillment partners," Miller told CRN exclusively. "I want to be involved in a channel that's sophisticated and progressive."

Miller plans to focus on finding integrators with an emphasis on digital transformation and more experience in cloud environments than traditional IT ones. Lastline plans to maintain approximately 20 channel relationships in North America, Miller said, but is interested in expanding beyond national resellers to on-board focused boutique partners with more specialized skills.

Lastline today has roughly four highly sophisticated partners in North America, Miller said, and is therefore looking to recruit another 15 or so partners in the region with robust consulting or managed services capabilities.

"We don't have the 20 [partners] we want," Miller said.

The company wants to move away from fulfillment partners that only address needs identified by Lastline to more strategic partners that are sourcing opportunities on their own, Miller said. Acquiring more focused solution providers and increasing the visibility of Lastline's brand in the marketplace should increase the percentage of opportunities being sourced through the channel, he said.

From there, Miller said Lastline plans to direct its most focused and pointed effort on between five and seven partners in each region, which will include one or two national partners, a couple of regional solution providers, and a few boutique partners specializing in key verticals or customers.

Lastline was founded in 2011, employs 142 people, and has raised $52.2 million in six rounds of outside funding, according to LinkedIn and CrunchBase. The company previously had a global channel sales director, Miller said, and up-leveled the title to a vice presidential role to reflect Lastline's renewed commitment to the channel.

The company sells exclusively through the channel and reduces compensation for sales reps that take deals direct. Partners working with Lastline will see more channel-focused marketing resources behind the company brand, and will enjoy more demand generation campaigns and tools going forward, according to Miller.

The company is interested in adding product resellers that have a consulting practice and a deep background in security, Miller said. Lastline would also like to bring on managed security service providers with a deep background in delivering services around security, according to Miller.

"I'm certain that Lastline is in a position to displace legacy vendors and outpace others in the space," Miller said.

Optiv is pleased to hear that Lastline is looking to evolve its channel relationships from being transactional to being more strategic, said Christopher Woycke, enterprise regional director for the Denver-based company, No. 27 on the 2019 CRN Solution Provider 500.

Woycke would specifically like to see Lastline be more strategic not only with Optiv's sales associates, but also with the company's client managers so that there's more focus on actual customer needs instead of trying to create need artificially.

Lastline's product is very easy to install and perform proofs of concepts on and consistently delivers on what it promises to do, Woycke aid. Woycke particularly likes that customers are able to get up and running very quickly with Lastline.

"I think the relationship can grow, and that's what I'm looking for," Woycke said. "I think Lastline's an up-and-comer now, and I look forward to seeing where things go."