Distributors key to Saviynt’s growth and success in APAC

“As we want to scale fast, it's much easier to be able to have a partner like Exclusive Networks that has a lot of those relationships and then be able to enter the market with them” says Todd Rotger, Chief Revenue Officer at Saviynt.

Identity security vendor Saviynt recently announced a partnership with Exclusive Networks in Asia Pacific. The partnership will see the cybersecurity specialist responsible for distributing Saviynt’s products across APAC markets, including Australia, ASEAN, India, Bangladesh, and Hong Kong.

According to Todd Rotger, Chief Revenue Officer at Saviynt, distributors like Exclusive Networks play a crucial role in the cybersecurity vendor’s growth in Asia as they understand the subcultures of each of the markets in the region.

“If you look at a company like us, where we're as fast as we're scaling and growing, we can't put people in fast enough. So it's much easier if we can go in and we have partners, or a distributor that can have other partners to get into those markets, and understand the markets and the customers. We then go in and partner with them and help back them up on the product. As we want to scale fast, it's much easier to be able to have a partner like Exclusive Networks that has a lot of those relationships and then be able to enter the market with them,” Rotger explained in an interview with CRN Asia.

For Rotger, what’s interesting about the partnership with Exclusive Networks is that while the distributor already works with a lot of other cybersecurity vendors, it still has a lot of good and defined programs that are available. Specifically, Rotger said that Exclusive Networks has got offerings around pipeline generation, demand generation and events.

“It's almost like a list of services that are potential and they're available for you. I think for us, we can look at what some markets are where we maybe need a little bit more awareness or some of those services that we can use, and we'll try those out and see how they work. And if they work well, maybe we'll continue to do more of them. I like the idea that they're big enough to have some services that can help us, because when we think of how do we get aligned around demand generation, whether it's SDR coverage or these other things, we don't necessarily have SDR coverage for every country. But we can partner with them on running some key plays or programs that might be ways to generate pipeline and get into the markets that way,” Rotger said.

Echoing Rotger’s views is Sunil Kedaraji, Vice President, Partner Sales, Asia Pacific and Japan. He pointed out that the partnership with Exclusive Networks was not something that happened overnight. Instead, there was a six-month long evaluation to make sure they understand where they fit with Exclusive Networks, including identifying a gap the distributor has in its portfolio when it came to identity governance and identity security, especially on the AI security part.

“The way that we are innovating, they've gone through the product, and they've seen and they believe in that, that it will add a net new value to their offerings. What they're looking for is how do they take this net new offering to their market, which is a fresh approach for them. It's just not about doing another vendor onboarding for them. So it looks like the six-month evaluation has given us the right approach and the mindset to go and onboard them as our distributor in this market,” Kedaraji said.

Competition and growth in the region

When asked about how Saviynt is dealing with the competition in the region, Rotger also acknowledged that there's definitely a lot more tension. This comes as identity security continues to see increased demand by organizations with larger vendors also acquiring smaller identity security vendors to boost their service offerings in the space as well.

“Attention and competition go to strong markets. That's a one good sign as there’s interest in those markets. When you look at large cyber players, they're making acquisitions on the identity space. We're really seeing the convergence of the former cyber world in the identity world. So, I think that's a good thing. What's really key is getting that right level of messaging and differentiation out there,” Rotger said.

At the same time, Rotger also highlighted that while there is a lot of interest in the market, there is also confusion.

“So, everybody's saying AI. But what do you do with AI? How does it work? For us, that's where we have really been focused on from a messaging standpoint. The announcements we're making is really trying to crystallize our approach around creating an AI-driven identity security platform, and really looking at how do we manage and secure the identities of all types, whether it's a worker, an employee, or it's an external consultant, or it's a non-human, or an agent, and being able to do that on a single platform with a single data model,” he added.

For Rotger, this is important especially with the confusion in the market where some buyers are still trying to figure out who does what and what is the best solution.

Rotger also shared that Saviynt continues to invest in the region, with APAC expected to a be a bigger driver for the company

“We've made Singapore our hub for the region, obviously with an office and other things and building an entity and things like that. And we’re really trying to focus on the four sub-regions,” he said.

The four sub-regions in APAC for Saviynt are India, Southeast Asia, Australia – New Zealand and Japan. Out of these four sub-regions, Rotger shared that Australia is one of the fastest growing, given its maturity in the market with Southeast Asia also seeing plenty of opportunities.

“Because APAC is so segmented, we’re trying to get customers, and they all want to know, who else we’re working with. So it's hard to replicate across Asia, but I think that's a really good challenge. And this is why we need really good partners to help validate us. For example, we've spent a lot of time in India to understand the market and playing a long game in that market. So, you have to just really get in, get some key customers and keep building it. And then Japan is very different too. So we've got a plan that we're working through right now that's kind of a multi-year plan around partnering with more Japanese entities to help us build our brand there,” Rotger explained.

Looking ahead, Rotger stated that Saviynt sees identity as the control plane to being able to move some of the AI initiatives forward that companies are trying to do.

“Identity is a core part of that and from a security perimeter standpoint, identity is kind of at the perimeter now. We're outside of firewalls and everything. So it's become a significant threat, a security threat, and then it's also an enabler of business. So if you want to go at scale and start deploying agents across an enterprise, you're going to have to understand and have privileges for those agents, even understanding what an agent is? How are they communicating? Do they have access? Am I giving access to this information to this agent? How can I tell if it's an agent? Those things are going to be massively important,” Rotger said.

For Rotger, that’s where they would love to see the market go and for Saviynt to go and lead that way, as opposed to keep doing what everybody's been doing.