Partner Profitability Minute: 3 Ways To Minimize Your Customers’ Cyber Threats

Fortinet’s Cyber Threat Assessment Program, CTAP, provides partners an affordable way to tell whether their customers’ networks are at risk.

Imagine an 80 percent-plus close rate after a sales conversation, all while showing your customers real-world reasons why a modern security approach is crucial. It sounds like an MSPs dream, but one solution provider says it’s his reality – thanks to CTAP.

“When you run it, they see, and they look at that as us running it with our security partner. So, they immediately associate us as security expert, which they should,” says David DeCamillis, vice president of sales and marketing at Platte River Networks.

CTAP, Fortinet’s Cyber Threat Assessment Program, provides partners an affordable way to tell whether their customers’ networks are at risk.

There are three assessment options including:

• Traditional Next Generation Firewall Assessment, which has been around a couple years and has recently been upgraded.
• Newer, more focused versions of the CTAP tailor-made for technologies like SD-WAN, mail and more.

“Typically, we leave the device online for about seven days. It gives us some visibility into what is traversing or coming into or out of their network,” says Carl Cayton, director of systems engineering at Fortinet.

Solution providers can either buy the box or have a loaner sent, either through Fortinet or their distributor. “They’ve made it really easy for us to access it,” says DeCamillis, “and they overnight it. You put it right in front of an existing firewall, and it’s easy to run.” Because this tool is complementary, it’s an opportunity for you to make money. All of the reporting is brandable, so you can charge for CTAP reports separately or package them with other assessments.

And, that’s just one benefit.

“When we have leveraged the CTAP report, 80 percent of the time we end up getting that opportunity. We win that business. It’s a very good presales tool. I think it shortens the sales cycle,” says Cayton. Solution provider DeCamillis says its generated thousands in revenue for his company. Not only that, but he says it’s easy to use. “It takes us about 10 minutes to run. It’s pretty cool that we’re able to do that.”

For those of you who have already run the Next Generation Firewall Threat Assessment, it’s worth doing it again. Fortinet has upgraded its reporting and provided additional charts that will provide more insight into your customers’ data.