MALWAREBYTES is one company with multiple security products. Your business sells multiple services, but it’s all one company too. Shouldn’t your partnership with Malwarebytes be a one-to-one relationship?
Mike LaPeters (pictured) thinks it should, which is why he spearheaded the design and rollout of an all-new partner program for Malwarebytes with standard rules and rewards regardless of where you are in the world and whether you’re a VAR, MSP, or computer repair provider.
“”We want somebody to identify that I partner with Malwarebytes, not that I’m a gold MSP and a silver reseller,”” says LaPeters, who became vice president of worldwide MSP and channel operations at Malwarebytes last August after an earlier stint at AlienVault.
Launched in February, the Malwarebytes Premier Partner Program, or MP3, is designed to realize that goal. Unlike the earlier programs it replaces, which applied different parameters in different ways to different partners in different places, MP3 assigns everyone worldwide to four tiers: registered, silver, gold, and platinum.
All but registered members get free access to online security certification courses. “”If you’re silver, you get one per year; if you’re gold, you get two per year; and if you’re platinum, you get three per year,”” LaPeters says. “”This way, we are truly saying that if you invest in us by partnering with us, we’re going to invest back in you and make you better at providing security services for your customers.””
Additional benefits include a dedicated account manager for silver partners and above, plus dedicated technical resources and a listing on the Malwarebytes website at the gold level and above. Platinum members get a dedicated solution architect and premium access to 24/7 support. “”If they call in, they get front-of-the-queue service,”” LaPeters says.
Specializations Offered
Though MP3 is now Malwarebytes’ one and only partner program, it includes specializations for MSPs, resellers, and computer repair shops. The MSP track requires members to generate $100 of recurring revenue a month at the registered level, $750 a month at the silver level, $3,900 at gold, and $5,000 at platinum.
Like those qualifications, the prices members pay for licensing at the silver level and above are now monthly too. “”Our licensing model was built around annual subscriptions,”” LaPeters notes, adding that partners paid varying amounts deal by deal as well based on the number of seats involved. “”Now we are on a true usage-based model.””
Those prices are designed to be more in line with offerings from other vendors than before. “”For a period of time, we were significantly the most expensive out there,”” he says. “”Now we’ve got a competitive price that enables us to position true value and gives the partner a chance to not lose on every deal because pricing was too high.”” Roughly 90% of MSPs, La Peters estimates, will pay less for Malwarebytes software than they have in the past.
The MSP specialization is in operation now. A separate one for VARs and a “”Techbench”” track for computer repair providers are set to debut shortly. Both will have the same tiers as the MSP specialization, and partners who qualify at a given level in one area will get the same status in the others, as long as they complete appropriate training courses.
“”If you’re a gold reseller, you’ll be a gold MSP. If you’re a gold MSP, you’ll be a gold Techbench partner,”” LaPeters says. Partners can switch tiers flexibly too. “”Do you want to go up tier? You can do that any time,”” LaPeters says. “”If you want to go down tiers you just need to give us a couple months’ notice.””
With demand for managed security services rising fast, MSPs are Malwarebytes’ top recruiting target for now. LaPeters hopes MP3 enables the company to achieve “”critical mass”” among such partners eventually.
“”You look at people like some of our competitors who have 15 to 20,000 MSPs leveraging their technology,”” he says. “”We have a long way to go before we cap ourselves on market penetration.””
