Recognizing Channel Meritocracy

Fortinet is a worldwide provider of network security appliances and a market leader in unified threat management (UTM). The company's products and subscription services provide broad, integrated and high-performance protection against dynamic security threats while simplifying the IT security infrastructure.

Fortinet's channel history in India

Fortinet was started in the year 2000 globally and in 2003, in India. While Ingram micro is its distributor, Fortinet's training part is taken care by Hyderabad based Datacipher.

Channel classification

Fortinet classifies its partners in three major categories, namely gold, silver and bronze. Based on the specialties of the partners' business, it classifies them into Forti DB, Forti main and Forti web. "Regionally speaking, Forinet is divided into four regions. Combining the west, central and east, we have one region, then we have north as another, Karnataka and Sri Lanka make the third region and the fourth one comprises of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala," says Jitendra Ghughal, who leads the channel operations of the company in Saarc region. "Constantly, we are in regular contact with the partners through our activities. We are also planning to increase our partners", he adds.

Channel reporting structure

A regional head takes care of the complete operations of the Fortinet. Going by the hierarchy, the technical, channel and sales head, report to the regional head. Under the channel head, there are regional managers of the regions which are divided geographically within the organization.

Fortinet's way of channel approach

Education first: Fortinet's new authorized training centers (ATCs) program is designed to provide additional sales benefits to existing ATCs and foster their presence at the local level. The objective is to help increase the product expertise of Fortinet's reseller community through access to localized training on the company's solutions portfolio. As part of its education strategy, Fortinet has also developed a series of marketing tools, which include free online webinars and targeted channel communications depending on the partner's status and product specialization. In particular, the ‘40-minute' quarterly program is specifically designed to educate Fortinet partners on new products and channel tools as well as IT security trends.

Profit

The introduction of the deal registration tool aims at protecting channel partners who actively identify new business opportunities and comprehensively share them with Fortinet. With this automated tool, resellers are encouraged to further take leadership on sales opportunities while, in exchange, benefit from Fortinet sales and technical support knowledge, to help close deals faster. Fortinet has also developed a simple web based interface, a renewal asset tracking tool, designed to help resellers identify renewal income opportunities.

Proximity

The recently launched Fortinet mobile application gives partners access to Fortinet's product information and threat research updates, at just the touch of a button, anywhere, anytime! Developed for the Apple iPhone and Google Android operating systems, the application includes a search engine to access full product information, an identification tool, to help find the right device according to the client's specific security requirements; a partner and Fortinet office locator (with ‘Around Me' option); and access to the FortiGuard security center for real-time updates on the latest global threat levels and the Top 10 threat list (according to main regions and malware types). In order to provide enhanced local support and service to its channel, Fortinet has created a new distributor RMA program that aims to encourage distributors to act as local RMA centers in order to provide best-class delivery, including next business day delivery, to Fortinet's resellers. Fortinet has also implemented local toll free numbers in most countries of EMEA and APAC regions to facilitate partner service and support.

A channel-friendly meritocracy

Vishak Raman, senior regional director, Fortinet, says, "We work very closely with the channel community and are always accessible to them. Whenever we formulate a scheme for the channel community, we look at factors like competitive scenario, channel welfare and channel profitability." He also adds that there are around 200 partners for Fortinet and plans are already in the pipeline for increasing the headcount. "Channels can taste better margins from us and we are expecting more of them in the near future.", he says. It may be noted, in a recent channel meet, Fortinet offered its channel partners, an opportunity to watch the IPL match live in Chennai.

Tier-2 go-to-market strategy

"We have started our road shows across the country and the opportunities are growing everywhere," says Raman, adding that the opportunities in tier-2 cities are shining especially for the players into security and storage. "We have just finished the roadshows for south and now we are planning for the west," he informs.