Gold Partner leverages WatchGuard’s best-in-class technology, management tools, and channel strategy.
Challenge
Concorde has been delivering cost-effective, leading-edge IT services and solutions to private and public sector organisations across the UK for over 35 years. Its success is built on trusted partnerships with strategic vendors and its commitment to harness the knowledge and experience to deliver best-in-class solutions to its customers. Innovation also underpins Concorde’s business, and it was quick to identify the as-a-Service model to become one of the UK’s fastest-growing MSPs. Concorde’s relationship with WatchGuard goes back to 2010 when Concorde acquired Blackburn-based, WatchGuard Partner Control Key, who were one of the first WatchGuard Expert Partners in the UK and had been a partner since 2005. Since the acquisition of Control Key, the relationship with WatchGuard has gone from strength to strength, says Concorde’s Matthew Wood, Chief Revenue Officer at Concorde. “We wanted to build a portfolio of strategic partners that not only offers best-of-breed technologies with a clear roadmap, but also delivers a mature channel strategy with professional deal registration, MDF, cooperative collaboration and strong account support. WatchGuard ticks all those boxes and we work together as a team. Quite simply WatchGuard business is good business.”
Solution
With its fast-growing MSP business, Matthew says, “WatchGuard Cloud has been a game changer to proactively manage multiple clients and unlock more remote services. WatchGuard Dimension also gives us vital visibility of what’s going on and the management reporting we need to demonstrate ROI at operational and board level.” COVID-19 and the sudden shift to remote working accelerated demand for as-a-Service solutions such as SSL VPNs, MFA and single sign-on. “The WatchGuard initiative to offer long-term free trials of DNSWatchGO, and Passport at the start of COVID proved extremely valuable to us and our clients and demonstrates the way WatchGuard is quick to respond and support its partners,” says Loz Kitchen, Group Head of Professional Services at Concorde. The WatchGuard Wi-Fi Cloud has also changed the way Concorde looks at its Wi-Fi. “It’s no longer just about coverage, we are able to offer the same levels of security as fixed networks – and all managed remotely,” continues Loz.“When the SolarWinds breach hit the headlines, we needed to know if our WatchGuard customers were at risk and got a response from the Threat Lab team within 24 hours,” says Loz. For Kitchen, it’s not just about the WatchGuard portfolio, but also the WatchGuard Ecosystem. “ConnectWise and KnowBe4 are excellent examples of how we have been able to integrate WatchGuard with other vendors’ technology to offer complementary solutions to the benefit of customers.“We are looking forward to strengthening our technical relationship with WatchGuard further in the future.”
Results
When it comes to the Partner Programme, “WatchGuardONE is one of the best around,” says Vanessa Whiteley, Group Marketing Manager at Concorde. “The focus on training and certification is important, and the partner portal is clear and easy to use with simple access to useful, professional assets for marketing campaigns and promotions. The Partner Programme is underpinned by WatchGuard’s commitment to support and works with their partners at all levels, from the local account manager and marketing team to senior execs.” Looking forward, Concorde is also embracing WatchGuard’s new endpoint security technology and sees major opportunities in being able to secure everything from the network to the endpoint. The products are already being used by Concorde itself. “We run our own test bed to put new MSP services through their paces,” says Matthew Wood. “That way, we are confident to offer them to customers.” He concludes, “WatchGuard is one of those rare vendors that is completely in tune with its partners and end user customers and is able to match its standout product portfolio with first class support.”