Monday Morning Impact – February 12

Two-Thirds of Businesses Report Sales Delays Caused by Customer Privacy Concerns

Data privacy concerns are causing significant sales delays for up to 65 percent of businesses worldwide, according to the findings of a recent study funded by Cisco.

The company’s 2018 Privacy Maturity Benchmark Study surveyed nearly 3,000 global security professionals in 25 countries. Two-thirds of the respondents indicated that data privacy was causing delays in their sales cycles, with an average delay of 7.8 weeks.

Respondents were asked to assess their current privacy maturity level, according to the standard AICPA model, which defines five privacy maturity levels: ad hoc, repeatable, defined, managed, and optimized. The study found that the average sales delay for those with ad hoc maturity was 16.8 weeks, but delays decreased for businesses with higher privacy maturity levels. Businesses with optimized privacy processes reported 3.4 weeks of sales delay, which is an 80 percent reduction compared to ad hoc organizations.

Geography and industry also appear to play a significant role in the length of delay. The pending May 2018 enforcement of the EU-based General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is potentially another factor in the delays.

Among the survey’s highlights, companies in the government and healthcare sectors exhibited the longest average sales delays—19 weeks and 10.2 weeks, respectively—compared to other industries. Companies in the utilities, pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing sectors reported the shortest average delays, all 3 weeks or less. Latin America and Mexico are experiencing the longest sales delays, at 15.4 weeks and 13 weeks, respectively. China and Russia have the shortest delays, at 2.8 weeks and 3.3 weeks, respectively.

Overall, 53 percent of respondents reported losses greater than $500,000 related to cyberattacks in the last 12 months.

Channel Impact^®
This study demonstrates the correlation between privacy policies and real-world economic impacts. Channel partners can leverage the data to assess impact on sales in relation to risk as they develop and deploy IT solutions.

Virtual Instruments Upgrades Partner Program to Focus on Engagement and Profitability

Virtual Instruments, a San Jose-based company specializing in application-centric infrastructure performance management (IPM), has rolled out a refreshed partner program that rewards partners for customer engagement.

The VIP Program is not only designed to recognize channel partners’ technology expertise. It also issues rewards based on the partner’s ability to drive sales, create new opportunities, expand their solution portfolio, increase profitability, and differentiate themselves from their competition.

Upward progression through the program is primarily dependent on business development success, as measured through the vendor’s deal registration infrastructure.

Other benefits include rewards for partner-originated, non-standard pricing opportunities, MDF, and an upgraded partner portal that offers online training, lead and opportunity registration, and marketing materials.

“We want to take the heavy lifting away from partners and provide a predictable program that is easy to navigate and doesn’t require additional partner resources,” said channel vice president Paul Brodie. “Just as importantly, we want to reward our VARs for bringing new deals to the table by leading with our industry-leading app-centric IPM solutions – because to us, that’s the definition of a mutually beneficial partnership.”

Channel Impact^®
The updated program is designed to encourage partners to excel in an extremely important facet of technology sales: hunting new opportunities as well as facilitating known opportunities.

Couchbase Extends Partner Program into New Markets and Joint Solutions

Couchbase, Inc., of Mountain View, California has launched PartnerEngage, a new channel program to support resellers, consultants, and solution providers pursuing the engagement database market.

Benefits include dedicated training resources, sales support, MDF/cross-promotional activities, and deal registration. The program offers two levels of participation, Registered and Advanced, with benefits scaling based on performance.

“Through Couchbase PartnerEngage, we are committed to giving customers more integrated solutions and a robust ecosystem of highly skilled and trained Couchbase partners to assist customers in their adoption of Couchbase,” said Matt McDonough, Vice President of Business Development at ‎Couchbase. “We’re committed to supporting our partners by providing them with more content, tools and training to support their own revenue streams.”

Channel Impact^®
The program takes into account the horizontal nature of database technology, and assigns program components that are in sync with the needs of partners working to build powerful customer experiences for targeted vertical markets.