Thales focused on perfecting MSP framework with Australia planned as the first footprint in the region

According to Charles Lim, Vice President Channel Sales, APJ at Thales, there is a strong opportunity around their MSP offering, especially with the evolving dynamism of the political situations, whereby businesses are more apt to want to buy services rather than buying a technology, invest in a technology and manage it themselves.

With increasing threats in the region, businesses, especially the smaller and medium enterprises continue to struggle to cope with their cybersecurity needs. As such, these businesses are relying on managed service providers (MSPs) to help with their cybersecurity management.

For Thales, this provides an opportunity for them to enhance their capabilities as both companies look to build on their offerings following the completion of the acquisition of Imperva.

“The managed service providers possess an opportunity for us. While we do have a framework for a MSP, we're looking to enhance it and evolve it, especially with the evolving times. That's where the opportunity would lie for Thales as a whole,” Lim said.

Echoing Lim’s views, Andy Zollo, SVP for Sales, APJ at Thales explained that the cybersecurity vendor started this program initially in Europe about a year ago and realized there was an appetite for it.

“We've done a bit in France and done a bit in UK. So now we're making sure we've got the legal framework for it. The technology is already there, and then sort of decaying pricing structure, all those sorts of good things, need to be sorted. We can take industry-leading technology to the next layer down because guess the perpetrators don't care. They attack those guys as well as they attack the big banks. Outside of that, we've got to constantly keep on our toes. As an expert, we have high growth demands as a business. We want to keep growing and want to be seen as we're the guys to go to if there's a cybersecurity risk opportunity, we're the natural place for the channel, and the channel trusts us,” Zollo explained.

Lim also pointed out that Imperva is already working with MSPs in the region and while these are merely just a few pockets, the main focus is to enhance it further so that they can expand to reach out to a lot more MSPs in the region.

“Customers are usually very clear. If they want to buy a managed service, they want to buy a managed service. If they want to buy a technology, they host and manage themselves, they will buy it. Hence, we’re focused on addressing customers that want to buy it as a service,” Lim added.

In terms of when a new framework for the MSP program will be available in the region, Zollo added Thales is now focused on recruitment and perfecting the framework to make it more of a prevalent part of the channel program. For Zollo, the first footprint for MSPs in this region tends to be Australia.

“If you take any country in the world, the predominant businesses are SMBs. They don't necessarily have the investment in IT staff, etc. So that's where they go out to channel. The channel sees the value of an MSSP model because it puts value in the business. It means that we can get industry-leading technology to people that want it but just don't have the infrastructure necessarily in people to put it together. So, we'll start big time in Australia and then start putting it through. But the interesting thing was we had all the technology there. And now it is just putting those final touches together and saying, okay, now we're ready to go and do this,” Zollo explained.

Zollo also pointed out that MSP programs are robust for partners. When they have an MSP business, if they lose a customer, it can be frustrating. However, the MSP still has more customers than it serves.

“So, it's a kind of slow growth in a way because you're adding on $100 at a time, for example. So, you need a lot of them. But it's a very robust growth and you can see your target for the year done because you've got the order book that's already signed up for by these customers.”

“It's a really exciting market. It's dynamic and you have to keep on your toes because again, it's like your phone. If I'm not happy anymore, I'm going to switch to the other vendor. Because you're no longer buying the product, you're buying the service. So as a vendor, that means we've got to be on it,” he concluded.