Cybersecurity provider Netwrix, which focuses on data and identity threats, has made two senior channel leadership appointments. Stuart Robson-Frisby has become Vice President, Worldwide Channel, while Frank DeCicco is now Head of Americas Channel.
“Stuart has been promoted to run all the global channels, while I have been promoted to being the channel leader for North America, with responsibility for all of the Americas, so that is everything from Canada, US, Mexico, down through the rest of Latin America,” DeCicco told ChannelBuzz. Before Netwrix, Robson-Frisby led EMEA channel organizations at Tanium and Ivanti.
DeCicco joins Netwrix after more than two decades leading partner sales organizations at Tanium and Cisco. Throughout his career, he has built and scaled programs that strengthened partner ecosystems and expanded market reach.
DeCicco has very clear thoughts about how you build such programs successfully.
“In my experience, any time that we have focused on just selling a product, it’s not as successful as selling a solution,” DeCicco said. “To get tied into the conversations that our partners are having already makes us more relevant, and really gives us a foothold versus selling ourselves as a silo,” he continued. “So, for example, almost every partner is having some level of AI conversation with their customers today. We fit nicely into that box, and can address that in two specific ways.
“One is, there are some foundational elements that customers need to take a look at in terms of AI readiness, and our data access governance solution fits really nicely into that box,” DeCicco noted. “So we can tag along with the conversations that our partners are already having, or be at the forefront of that component of the conversation.”
The second one is some of the AI tools that our customers are using – that could be Cloud Desktop, that could be ChatGPT, or that could even be Microsoft Copilot. And I know that we’ve recently announced, over the last several months, an MCP server that connects basically the ability for customers to ask any sort of plain-English language question of their Netwrix infrastructure, and be able to get the data back in the way that they want to see it, and then be able to act on it as well.”
“So that’s one example of how we’re changing the narrative, and we’re building relevance of what we do and how we do it into the things that our partners naturally do, or the conversations they’re already having,” DeCicco noted.
DeCicco also emphasized the importance of identity-first security.
“Netwrix’s investment in its partner community, combined with its clear vision for identity-first security, creates a powerful opportunity for customers and partners alike,” he stated. “This clear vision is focused around data security that starts with identity, in order to access specific environments in the data sets. We will leverage partners who have a strong Go-to-Market and who also have strong identity practices.”
Netwrix’s partner program is not a small one.
“We have over 1100 channel partners today, and our plan is to prioritize our most invested partners,” DeCicco stated. “We do plan to realign our resources, particularly those that have monetary resources. We are going to do more with the larger partners than we do today. We want to be sure that we focus on quality over quantity. We want to expand our reach into specific target customer segments and geographies. We want to drive adoption of our new and core solution offerings.”
He also noted that Netwrix has more than 300 active MSPs globally, and that Netwrix 1Secure is now available to MSPs via the Pax8 Marketplace.
So what is the Netwrix strategy to scale its channel-first go-to-market strategy?
“The company understands that partnerships can act as a force multiplier for growth,” DeCicco said. “That is why the leadership team is all in. We want to make sure these are reciprocal partnerships. It’s a variety of partner types – including resellers, systems integrators and MSPs. It’s not a handful of people. We play up and down the stack. We have a very robust team, all the way down to the midmarket and commercial business. We work with customers and prospects of every size, with idea being to get them working together in a very cohesive way – in a platform approach, which can include on-prem, hybrid or SaaS.”
DeCicco reviewed partner opportunities in identity-first data security.
“It’s data security that starts with identity,” he stated. “If we’re taking a look at how secure is the data, how can people access the data, are there holes in escalation paths, or just the ability to access specific environments within the dataset – everything starts with that identity-first approach.
“There are a lot of identity practices with unique skill sets,” he said. “They include some of our largest and most strategic partnerships. We will double down on educating them. We may also recruit some partners who are identity focused — likely about a dozen or so. You’ll start to see the company continue to make investments in that space, create specific go-to-market strategies, and leverage partnerships that have strong identity practices. So we are optimizing our resources and our external partnerships right now to maximize the business impact that we’re going to have with our partners.”
DeCicco also assessed industry trends that are driving demand for data and identity protection solutions.
“AI is part of every conversation today,” he said. “PAM [ Privilege Account Management] is front and centre with customers as well. We can enter that conversation at the entry level.”
Decicco emphasize that the primary partner function is not fulfillment.
“Partners are able to make some money through fulfillment,” he said. “It’s more services, especially since we will not build a services organization to compete with partners. Our focus is more on sales and marketing, and that full story is the real value to us and our partners – not just the offering itself. The beauty in that is they want what we want.
“With Robson-Frisby taking the lead, we will continue to see our partner program evolve with the market,” DeCicco commented. “We will continue to offer partners the best experience possible. That’s the expectation of my team – focusing on 3Rs – relationships, relevance and Relentless engagement. We aren’t going away. We’re going to continue to invest.
“I’m really excited about the opportunity we have in front of us,” DeCicco concluded.