Orca Security's new partner program rewards net retention
The cloud security vendor says it will reward partners for renewals and expansion as well as new deals. It has not said how much any of that is worth
- The program and platform are available worldwide and localized in six languages at launch, according to Orca.
- Partner GuidePoint Security endorsed the platform in Orca's announcement.
- Orca's investors include Temasek, CapitalG, ICONIQ Capital and Redpoint Ventures.
Paying on net retention is likely to suit managed security service providers (MSSPs) and MSPs that run cloud security as a service, because renewals are where their margin sits. Until Orca publishes the numbers, UK partners can't tell whether the retention reward is material or a line in a slide deck.
The AI tooling looks most useful to smaller partners without a marketing team. Larger ones are likely to weigh it against the cost of feeding yet another vendor portal.
“AI gives us the opportunity to rethink not only what a partner platform can be, but the partner program itself”Gil Geron, CEO and co-founder, Orca Security
Orca Security launched its Partner POD Program on 16 September, alongside an AI-driven partner platform it calls the Partner Success Platform. Orca says the program rewards partners across the whole customer lifecycle, from new business through expansion to net retention, rather than on new sales alone.
Orca sells cloud and AI security through a platform that covers cloud, application and AI environments, and says hundreds of organizations use it. It says the program rests on three principles: being easy to do business with, building profitability into the program rather than negotiating it deal by deal, and applying its product thinking to how partners transact and are paid. The announcement gives no margin, rebate, tier or deal-registration figures.
Every partner gets the platform, which Orca says goes beyond a static portal. Its claims include a Demand Center that scores a prospect against Orca's ideal customer profile across 11 factors in under 30 seconds, and a campaign tool that produces co-branded social posts and landing pages in about a minute. There is also an assistant trained on Orca's product documentation, and generators for business plans and quarterly review material.
