Laval, Quebec-based Terranova Security has launched its first formal partner program, part of a bid to increase its presence in the channel by offering more tools and greater rewards. Terranova, which provides content and tools around training customers’ whole crews around security risks, already works with partners,  said Matthieu Ouellette, vice president of sales, but it has seen an opportunity to dramatically grow that part of its business after being named Microsoft’s partner in choice for security awareness training.

“[The Microsoft partnership has] provided us a lot of visibility, so we felt it was a good time to make our partner program more comprehensive,” Ouellette said. 

The company currently “works with some partners” but things have been governed by one-off deals, Ouellette explained. Currently, the company does about 30 percent of its revenues through partners. But Ouellette said the company’s goal is to flip those numbers and be doing north of 70 percent of its business through partners by the end of 2021, suggesting a vast majority of its growth over the coming year will be through partners.

The new program formalizes greater margins for the company’s partners, Ouellette said. Partners at the entry-level Gold tier can expect to see 30 percent margins on selling the company’s offerings. Through volume, partners can move up to a Platinum tier, at which the resale margin rises to 45 percent. 

The company also offers a Silver tier with 20 percent margins, although Ouellette said that tier is primarily for agents and other partners that influence or refer deals, rather than managing the sale and implementation of its training offerings. New partners, he said, default into the program at the Gold tier.

Along with the program, the company has introduced a new partner portal that offers much of the expected training and business management tools, including access to partner-specific content and deal registration.

Ouellette said that the company helps fill a gap in many partners’ security offerings.

“We see a lot of partners focusing on the technology aspect of security, but they forget to address the human element of security,” he said. “We help them have a much more complete security stance.”

Terranova said the company’s training offerings are kept very up-to-date, an effort which has been aided by the Microsoft partnership. Through that arrangement, Ouellette said the company gets examples of the kinds of security challenges Office 365 users are seeing every month, allowing it to tailor its training to what’s going on “in the wild.” This year — to the surprise of no one — the big theme has been the rise of phishing attacks seeking to take advantage of curiosity, uncertainty and fear around the COVID-19 pandemic.

“From the beginning of the pandemic, there’s been a lot more interest in phishing attacks using scams based on COVID,” Ouellette said.

Terranova’s offerings for partners to educate customers include training material, but also a tool for partners to run a simulated phishing attack to test just how well customers have learned the content and operationalized their learnings.

That’s one of a number of services that MSSPs and other solution providers are typically able to layer on top of the service, Ouellette said, along with customization services. Of interest partners with managed services around security, the company does enable partners offering its services in a white-label manner, although Ouellette said many partners opt for co-branding Terranova with their own security brand.

The company has historically focused on large multinational organizations, but Ouellette said Terranova has the ability to deliver solutions to all sizes of customers and expanding the company’s reach in the solution provider channel should go a long way to raising its profile in the small-business segment. To that end, Ouellette said the company is open to working with partners of just about any profile, from large security-specific MSPs to local SMB-focused resellers.

“This is a must-have for every organization, regardless of size,” said Ouellette. “Everyone needs a solid security awareness solution.”

Partners are onboarded through the company’s partner portal with a series of training and certification offerings that focus on making sure partners understand the company’s best practices.