Identity and access management service vendor Okta Inc. is slated to launch a new partner program called Okta Elevate on Monday, which the company said is designed to streamline engagement, create more opportunities for its partners, and accelerate growth in the current evolving digital identity space.
The Identity market, it said, is currently valued at US$80 billion and “sits at the intersection of cloud, digital transformation and cybersecurity. The strategic nature of identity creates huge opportunities for our partner ecosystem.”
Okta Elevate, the company said in a release, is designed to transform the partner experience in four ways:
- Simplifying Deal Registration to reward partners for helping Okta find new customers, and increase discounts for distributors and all partner tiers.
- Wider Range of Specializations to celebrate partner capabilities. Partners can gain specializations in Customer Identity Cloud, Workforce Identity Cloud, or Workflows.
- More Flexible Tiers that allow Okta to better recognize the six motions that matter so partners can help the company scale. Those motions range from finding, developing and influencing to delivering, managing and transacting.
- New Partner Badging model that will allow partners to stand out from the crowd and be recognized for the unique value they deliver to Okta’s customers.
Bill Hustad, senior vice present of partners and alliances with Okta, which is based in San Francisco and operates a Canadian subsidiary headquartered out of Toronto, wrote in a blog that organizations are “shifting from a tool purchase to a multi-year strategic decision as Identify powers are all parts of their business.
The strategic nature of Identity, he pointed out, broadens the company’s appeal for new partner types, “such as systems integrators, managed service providers, technology partnerships, and cloud service providers.
“It also allows our existing partners to evolve and expand their Identity practices. Some partners will expand from Workforce Identity into Customer Identity, while others will build managed services with Identity at the core.”
It is, he wrote, time for a company that was founded in 2009 to evolve its partner strategy in order to “elevate our game. Partners can help us reach new markets, scale our business and deliver unique capabilities. Historically, Okta has turned to partners primarily for reach.
“When you’re in startup mode, extending your reach is where most small teams can use a lot of help. While this made sense at that phase of Okta’s growth, the result was a lot of tactical engagements, where we’d meet the partner at the cash register.”
Today, wrote Hustad, the company needs to “engage with our partners more strategically. We need to recognize and reward partners for the full spectrum of value they can deliver to our customers and Okta – from finding, developing, and influencing to delivering, managing, and transacting. The more of these motions a partner offers, the more value they provide to Okta and our mutual customers.
“Our partner strategy will revolve around recognizing and rewarding our partners for embracing the motions that matter. The good news is that our partner ecosystem is already evolving, with many actively developing a breadth of capabilities.”
