Orit Shilvock just joined Prevention-as-a-Service provider Perception Point as their VP of Channels and Strategic Alliances, and while the company has already begun its transition to a 100% channel model, her job is to take them there more quickly and efficiently.
Orit Shilvock, Vice President of Channels and Strategic Alliances, Perception Point
Perception Point, which provides protection for email and multiple collaboration platforms as a service in what they call a Prevention-as-a-Service approach, has named their first global channel chief. Orit Shilvock comes over from application security vendor Checkmarx as Perception Point’s VP of Channels and Strategic Alliances.
Perception Point was started in 2015, turned their offering from a box into a service in the 2017-2018 time frame and started going to market in 2019. In 2020, they tripled their recurring revenue from the previous year. They started out selling direct, and to the enterprise, but in 2020 they because to receive inquiries from MSP and MSSPs who wanted to sell them further downmarket.
“Our goal now is to be 100% channel as much as we can,” Shilvock said. “Our idea is to do everything through channels, as a channel-first company. That can be broadly defined, because some like to fulfill through marketplaces, for example. However, we won’t go direct unless we really really have to.”
Over the last year Perception Point has gotten much more strategic around their partner relationships, on both the reseller and technology partner alliance sides.
“We have become very strategic with our MSPs,” Shilvock indicated. “Acronis sells our email security, and only us, as part of their Cyber Cloud service, mainly targeting the SMB. We are already integrated into both the Crowdstrike Falcon and AWS S3 marketplaces. We also have a few more of these relationships coming up in the near future.”
Channel expansion is an important priority for Shilvock.
“When you work with channels, you need to build a channel machine,” she said. “It has to be channel friendly and it has to be easy to work with. We already have an excellent product, but to sell effectively through the channel you need channel support. We already have channel managers for Europe, and we will look on them as an extension of our sales. We have begun to start to expand our channel structure in Asia and Europe, and we will increase the numbers of partners that we have in North America and Latin America.”
All this will be accompanied, Shilvock indicated, by an increase in channel marketing support.
“We will hopefully also launch our upcoming partner program in the next few months,” she noted.
While the channel program is in its initial design phases, Shilvock indicated that the design philosophy will be based around simplicity.
“I believe in tiered programs – most likely two to three tiers – but I don’t want to confuse people and change it on a yearly basis,” she said. “The important concept is to simplify. It will be very simple.”
The idea will be to work with a relatively select number of partners.
“I believe in having a narrow focus with what I would term an efficient number of partners,” Shilvock said. “The issue is how many partners that a company of our size can support effectively. Recruiting is easy, but it’s more important to support them well so that they can be successful. We will hold their hands as much as is needed in order to make this happen.”
“Partners should consider that the same amazing technology is deployed from the Fortune 50 to SMB through MSPs,” said Karen Krivaa, Perception Point’s Chief Marketing Officer. “It’s exactly the same enterprise grade solution.”
