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>> Welcome back everyone to theCUBE
and Horizon3.ai special presentation.
I'm John Furrier, host of theCUBE.
We're here with Jennifer Lee
head of channel sales Horizon3.ai, Jennifer,
welcome to theCUBE, thanks for coming on.
>> Great, well thank you for having me
>> So big news around Horizon3.ai
driving channel, first commitment you guys are expanding
the channel partner program
to include all kinds of new rewards, incentives,
training programs to help educate, you know,
partners, really drive more recurring revenue,
certainly cloud and cloud scale has done that.
You got a great product that fits into that
kind of channel model,
great services you can wrap around it, good stuff.
So let's get into it.
What are you guys doing?
What are you guys doing with this news?
Why is this so important?
>> Yeah, for sure.
So, yeah, we, like you said,
we recently expanded our channel partner program.
The driving force behind it was really just to align our,
like you said, our channel first commitment
and creating awareness around the importance
of our partner ecosystems.
So that's, it's really how we go to market,
is through the channel.
>> And a great international focus.
I've talked with the CEO, you know, about the solution
and he broke down all the action on why it's important
on the product side, but why now on the go to market change?
What's the why behind this big, this news on the channel?
>> Yeah, for sure.
So we are doing this now,
really to align our business strategy,
which is built on the concept of enabling our partners
to create a high value, high margin business
on top of our platform.
And so we offer a solution called node zero.
It provides autonomous pen testing as a service
and it allows organizations to continuously
verify their security posture.
So our, we, our company vision,
we have this tagline that states that our pen testing
enables organizations to see themselves
through the eyes of an attacker.
And we use the, like the attacker's perspective
to identify exploitable weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
So we created this partner program
from a perspective of the partner.
So the partner's perspective and we've built it
through the eyes of our partner, right?
So we're prioritizing really what the partner
is looking for and will ensure like mutual success for us.
>> Yeah, the partners always want to get in front
of the customers and bring new stuff to them.
Pen tests have traditionally been really expensive.
And so bringing it down and in one,
to a service level that's, one,
affordable and has flexibility to it
allows a lot of capabilities.
So I imagine people are going to get excited by it.
So I have to ask you about the program.
What specifically are you guys doing?
Can you share any details around what it means
for the partners, what they get, what's in it for them?
Can you just break down some of the mechanics
and mechanisms or details?
>> Yeah. Yep, so, you know,
we're really looking to create business alignment.
And like I said, established mutual success
with our partners, so we've got 2 key elements
that we were really focused on
that we bring to the partners.
So the opportunity, the profit margin expansion
is one of 'em and a way for our partners
to really differentiate themselves
and stay relevant in the market.
So we've restructured our discount model, really, you know,
highlighting profitability and maximizing profitability.
And this includes our deal registration.
We've created a deal registration program.
We've increased discount for partners
who take part in our partner certification trainings,
and we've, we have some other partner incentives
that we've created that's going to help out there.
We've put this all, so we've recently gone live
with our partner portal, it's a consolidated experience
for our partners where they can access our sales tools.
And we really view our partners
as an extension of our sales and technical teams.
And so we've extended all of our training material
that we use internally, we've made it available
to our partners through our partner portal.
We've, I'm trying, I'm thinking now back,
what else is in that partner portal here?
We've got our partner certification information.
So all the content that's delivered during that training
can be found in the portal.
We've got deal registration,
co-branded marketing materials, pipeline management.
And so this portal gives our partners a one stop place
to go to final event information.
And then just really quickly on the second part of that,
that I mentioned is our technology
really is really disruptive to the market.
So, you know, like you said, autonomous pen testing,
it's still, it's, well, it's still a relatively new topic
for security practitioners
and it's proving to be really disruptive.
So that on top of just, well,
recently we found an article that mentioned
by markets to markets that reports
that the global pen testing market's really expanding.
And so it's expected to grow to like 2.7 billion by 2027.
So the market's there, right?
The market's expanding, it's growing.
And so for our partners,
it just really allows them to grow their revenue
across their customer base, expand their customer base
and offering this high profit margin while, you know,
getting in early to market
on this disruptive technology.
>> Big market, a lot of opportunities to make some money.
People love to put more margin on those deals,
especially when you can bring a great solution
that everyone knows is hard to do.
So I think that's going to provide a lot of value.
Is there a type of partner that you guys see emerging
or you aligning with,
you mentioned the alignment with the partners.
I can see how that, the training
and the incentives are all there.
Sounds like it's all going well.
Is there a type of partner that's resonating the most
or is there categories of partners
that can take advantage of this?
>> Yeah, absolutely.
So we work with all different kinds of partners.
We work with our traditional resale partners.
We're working with systems integrators.
We have a really strong MSP, MSSP program.
We've got consulting partners
and the consulting partners especially
with the ones that offer pen test services.
So we, they use us as a,
we act as a force multiplier,
just really offering them profit margin expansion
opportunity there.
We've got some technology partners
that we really work with for co-sell opportunities.
And then we've got our cloud partners.
You had mentioned that earlier
and so we are in AWS marketplace, our CCPO partners,
we're part of the ISV accelerate program.
So we're doing a lot there with our cloud partners.
And of course we go to market
with distribution partners as well.
>> Got to love the opportunity for more margin expansion.
Every kind of partner wants to put more gross profit
on their deals.
Is there a certification involved, I have to ask?
Is there like, do you get,
do people get certified or is it just, you get train?
Is it self-paced training?
Is it in person?
How are you guys doing the whole training,
certification thing?
Is that a requirement,
or not? >> Yeah, absolutely.
So we do offer a certification program
and it's been very popular.
This includes a seller's portion and an operator portion.
And so this is at no cost to our partners
and we offer it both virtually,
it's live, it's virtually, but live, it's not self-paced.
And we also have in person, you know, sessions as well.
And we also can customize these to any partners
that have a large group of people.
And we can just, we can do one in person
or virtual just specifically for that partner.
>> Well, any kind of incentive opportunities
and marketing opportunities?
Everyone loves to get the deals
just kind of rolling in leads,
from what we can see, out early reportings,
this looks like a hot product, price wise,
service level wise.
What incentives do you guys start thinking about
and joint marketing,
you mentioned co-sell earlier in pipeline,
so I was kind of owning in on that piece.
>> Sure and yes, and then to follow along with our partner
certification program, we do incentivize our partners there.
If they have a certain number certified,
their discount increases.
So that's part of it.
We have our deal registration program
that increases discount as well.
And then we do have some partner incentives
that are wrapped around meeting setting,
and moving opportunities along to proof of value.
>> Got to love the education driving value.
I have to ask you, so you do,
you've been around the industry,
you've seen the channel relationships out there.
You've seen companies, old school,
new school, you know,
Horizon3.ai is kind of like that new school,
very cloud specific,
a lot of leverage with, well,
you mentioned AWS and all the clouds.
Why is the company so hot right now?
Why did you join them?
And what's, why are people attracted to this company?
What's the attraction, what's the vibe?
What do you see and what do you,
what did you see in this company?
>> Well, this is just, you know,
like I said, it's very disruptive.
It's really in high demand right now.
And just because it's new to market and a newer technology,
so we are, we can collaborate with a manual pen tester.
We can, you know, we can allow our customers
to run their pen test with no specialty teams.
And then, so we, and like, you know,
like I said, we can allow,
our partners can actually build businesses,
profitable businesses, so we can,
they can use our product to increase their services
revenue and build their business model,
you know, around, around our services.
>> What's interesting about the pen testing
is that it's very expensive and time consuming.
And the people who do them are very talented people
that could be working on really bigger things in the-
>> Absolutely. >> In the customers.
So bringing this into the channel allows them,
if you look at the price dealt
between a pen test and then what you guys are offering.
I mean, that's a huge margin gap
between street price of say today's pen test
and what you guys offer.
When you show people that, do they fall,
do they say too good to be true?
I mean, what are some of the things that people say
when you kind of show 'em that?
Are they like scratch their head, like, come on,
what's the catch here?
>> Right, so the cost savings is a huge, is huge for us.
And then also, you know, like I said,
working as a force multiplier with a pen testing company
that offers the services
and so they can do their annual manual pen test
that may be required around compliance regulations.
And then we can act as the continuous verification
of their security, you know, that they can run weekly.
And so it's just, you know, it's just an addition
to what they're offering already and an expansion.
>> So, Jennifer, thanks for coming on theCUBE,
really appreciate you coming on,
sharing the insights on the channel.
What's next?
What can we expect from the channel group?
What are you thinking, what's going on?
>> Right, so we're really looking to expand
our channel footprint and very strategically,
we've got some big plans for Horizon3.ai.
>> Awesome, well, thanks for coming on.
Really appreciate it, you're watching theCUBE,
the leader in high tech enterprise coverage.
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