Okta Updates Partner Connect Program With New Sales Engagement and Marketing Resources

Okta, an independent provider of identity for the enterprise, has made major updates and additions to its Okta Partner Connect program to propel partner sales growth in the new fiscal year.

Technical sales engagement and marketing resources offer partners new technical programs along with demand generation and marketing opportunities. With the Okta Innovation center, partners can develop a business strategy that incorporates deeper Okta product knowledge with a comprehensive marketing toolset.

The Okta Technical Champion program gives partners the ability to develop and showcase their technical knowledge to solve complex customer challenges. With the Okta Marketing Hub, partners have access to self-service marketing campaigns, as well as a program menu from which to select turnkey campaigns to drive demand. There will also be a new content management system filled with resources and a simplified Okta Partner Community user interface for easier engagement.

“Our ecosystem continues to expand globally, through new strategic initiatives and an enhanced focus on distribution,” said Patrick McCue, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Partnerships. “We have made critical updates to our program because as partners continue to play a bigger role in our business, it’s imperative to continue to provide comprehensive tools and training to build their Okta knowledge and ultimately drive our customers’ success.”

Okta has also made improvements to its Partner Accreditation program, closely aligning it with the training Okta’s internal teams receive. The updated accreditation will provide partners with the knowledge they need to identify customer needs, offer Okta solutions for those needs, and close sales that establish long term value for joint customers. Partners will have access to extra Okta demo orgs free of charge to demonstrate Okta live to customers.

The company is also making technical training at either no cost or reduced cost, contingent on partner tier. This enhanced training offering will help partners build the technical delivery expertise and skills necessary for deploying Okta solutions at customer locations.

Extended Ecosystem Support

As Okta builds strategic partnerships with other solutions provides, the company will support activities that help extended partner ecosystems market related products. For example, Okta announced new strategic partnerships with leading endpoint protection and management providers VMware Carbon Black, CrowdStrike, and Tanium. The new integration partnerships provide a broad set of device risk signals to the Okta Identity Cloud, enabling enterprises to combine endpoint risk detection with user identity to deliver unparalleled access security.

“We have built and invested in Technology Partner specific training, both technically and around use cases, to help our Solution Provider partners further understand joint messaging for strategic solutions,” McCue told Channel Marketer Report. “In addition, we work with our Solution Providers to understand the other products they sell and how they position them. In many cases we do specific ‘call outs’ to their customer bases where they have previously purchased a Partner’s Technology. In addition, we will do joint marketing as well as, in some cases, joint SKU’s, packaged via the Partner or Distributor.”