Meet the channel manager: Intel Security

Intel Security ANZ channel director Luke Power tells CRN why IT security is more about the people than the product.

Journey

I’ve had an extremely lucky career. It’s very hard to learn to be a channel manager as it requires skills you learn from experience.

When I was 18, I was on a help chat room and I answered a tech question really well. The respondent asked if I wanted to work at a PC store in the city. The following two years really gave me a chance to learn how to build computers and sell them. There was a lot of competition, so I had to learn at an early age about buying from vendors and partners, and working with end users.

I’m a voice guy at heart. I’ve worked in multiple roles for companies very different to Intel , such as Nortel, Avaya and Cisco. 

It’s been a pretty unusual career so far. I’ve done all sorts of roles from account manager, sales, inside sales and distribution. The privilege I’ve had with different roles in the channel lets me go to other people and help them understand the channel.

Passion for the channel

Working in the channel is more of an art than anything. You could be working in voice, data centre or anything else and it will be the same. If you can get the channel right, everything else will follow.

Two years ago the managing director at Intel Security said growth was consistent, but if we still wanted growth in three to five years from now we had to build a channel.

Sixty percent of my time has been spent working with salespeople to educate them on channel and to think long-term, not transactionally. Intel’s strategy has always been to have one or two big reseller relationships, with hundreds of smaller partners. 

Our strategy [now] is to have a set number of partners and go deeper into those relationships, like our platinum partners Dimension Data, Loop and Telstra.

There are also some boutique partners that are smaller but only focus on security.

Security life cycle

There used to be a misconception that if you were in security sales, you’re selling either insurance or spyware. Security is more relevant now than ever and it’s a really good role for the channel.

One of the new things we’ve been working on is the Threat Defence Life Cycles, which is how to protect, detect and adapt. Brands have been damaged from security compromises, so we look at how we use our products to protect those brands. 

We work with more than 300 vendor partners such as Check Point, MobileIron and Brocade, which are all plugged into the security life cycle.

Lessons learnt

What I’ve learned about security is that it’s not about product, it’s about people and processes. There’s often a resource issue for customers, so for us it’s about working out how to leverage smaller resources. Then we go all the way up to more complex issues such as  BYOD and cloud, where visibility is a lot harder.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learnt is that if you don’t know the answer to something, it’s about finding the answer and responding when you say you will. 

One of the things I’ve seen happening out there is a lot of discussion around commitment that’s not backed up. That’s why I’ve gone out of my way in communicating what can be done in the channel.  

Resume

• Nov 2014 – present ANZ channel sales director, Intel Security
• Apr 2013 – Nov 2014 ANZ chief operating officer, Avaya
• Jun 2011 – Apr 2013 Director, APAC distribution, Avaya
• Oct 2010 – Jun 2011 Channels director ANZ, enterprise and distribution, Avaya
• Aug 2009 – Oct 2010 Distribution manager ANZ, Avaya
• Sep 2007 – Aug 2009 Channel account manager, Nortel
• Nov 2005 – Sep 2007 Account manager, Cisco
• Aug 2005 – Nov 2005 Inside sales account manager, Microsoft
• Nov 1999 – Aug 2005 Product manager, Bluechip Infotech