Editorial

SecureDrives in hunt for new partners to grow secure authentication business

Company says COVID-19 has accelerated interest in passwordless login and remote authentication

Posted 11 March 2021 by Christine Horton


Data security specialist SecureDrives is recruiting new channel partners to handle increased demand for its user authentication and secure storage products.

Company founder and CEO Paul Norbury said the pandemic has accelerated an interest in passwordless login and remote authentication.

As such, the company is keen to grow its business by developing a network of partners across the UK and Europe. Norbury said it is on the hunt for one major reseller in each EU country, on a non-exclusive basis.

“I won’t necessarily look proactively for a second reseller, but if sales are low and the new company is making the right noises, then of course I’ll consider it,” said Norbury. “However, we’ll invest time and effort in supporting our major reseller, as we want to help them become successful, rather than have them constantly looking over their shoulder. We’ll also pass any enquiries we receive in a particular territory to the lead reseller.

“In the UK there is an opportunity to use IT support companies as our reseller partners. I’ve had conversations with several companies, and they all seem interested, so I’m actively pursuing this as a key route to market. I think that over time we’re likely to be working with IT support companies across the country and will effectively divide up the UK channel on a regional basis. These companies are trusted by their customers and we aim to benefit from that relationship.”

Currently SecureDrives’ UK sales channel consists of a handful of resellers focusing predominantly on Safe To Go, its range of encrypted USB drives. The firm has established partners in Germany and France who handle our secure authentication products, and at present around 50 percent of its business comes from there.

Growing market

New partners will be offered the company’s complete product range, which includes biometric and proximity-based security keys and authentication products as well as secure storage. Norbury said the firm doesn’t have a formal partner programme, but partners can expect active support.

“We will provide training, product samples and all the marketing collateral we have available to help them develop the business,” he said.

On market drivers, the CEO said: “Clearly data security is a big issue for organisations, as is workflow management. Companies need to take a fresh look at how they operate and how they manage their systems and people in an online world.

“I believe many organisations simply don’t know that there are alternative solutions to passwords out there that are easy to implement and will integrate with the systems they already have. So, our role at the moment includes a lot of education. But the market is growing. Gartner predicts that by 2022 60 percent of large and global enterprises and 90 percent of midsize enterprises will implement passwordless methods in more than 50 percent of use cases. Microsoft says more than 150 million people are already using passwordless authentication every month – and our ThinC solutions are Microsoft approved, which will help us tap into their customer base.

“I also think the market will accelerate when governments start making secure authentication a corporate responsibility, not just an IT responsibility. Perhaps we’ll see two factor authentication added to Cyber Essentials in the near future.”