When NinjaOne launched its NinjaOne Now global channel partner program, the endpoint management vendor had already been working in the reseller channel for a decade, serving IT departments directly as well as MSPs and MSSPs, said Joe Lohmeier, VP of global channel sales, NinjaOne.
Lohmeier joined the company in late 2022 with the goal to build NinjaOne's own channel, and develop a thoughtful, deliberate partner program based on alignment with partners instead of the other way around.
"When I came on, instead of building a generic partner program out of the gates and then screaming, 'Hey, everyone, we have this program,’ we came at it from the opposite direction in building the channel first," Lohmeier said. "It was really about getting alignment first from existing partners, those who are first in the markets, making sure they got the most value from NinjaOne. And then we would build the formal program based on that," he said.
The NinjaOne Now partner program has been in the works for about a year and half now, Lohmeier said, and officially launched July 8, 2024. Lohmeier said the program includes benefits for every type of partner: From resellers to managed service providers (MSPs) to managed security service providers (MSSPs), distributors and cloud hyperscalers.
NinjaOne Now prioritizes partner advancement with what Lohmeier called a flat program hierarchy; he added that the goal was to oversimplify the program and make partner engagement incredibly easy.
"There's a portal that they can go to for easy deal registration, continuing education and learning, all the different standard things you would expect in a channel program that everybody has. But we wanted to oversimplify it and make engagement with us super easy. It's all about partner advancement, too, and making sure we have the solutions and technologies they want to sell," he said.
A big piece of that is the convergence of remote monitoring and management and cybersecurity, Lohmeier said, which NinjaOne is uniquely poised to take advantage of. The massive growth and expansion of endpoints means there’s a natural fit with RMM and cybersecurity, he said, and NinjaOne offers many integrations with cybersecurity companies to help partners address RMM and cybersecurity.
"Securing those endpoints to reduce risk is huge, but also to help partners increase their own and customers' productivity. If you're managing that right, you don't have to go on-site to 50 locations and that's what we do. That makes partners look really good to their customers because they can actually compress their tools by leveraging our platform. So they lower costs for the customers, and they can really reduce the risk through integrations with with world leading vulnerability companies in our platform in one place; one pane of glass," he said.
Matt Baringer, go-to-market director at MSP Port53, said it was an easy transition to make since his company had been working with NinjaOne for years before the formalization of the channel program.
"We've been partners with NinjaOne for just over two years now, and for us it felt like this was the formalization of something we'd already been doing with them," Baringer said. "When we consider partner programs as a whole, there are a few things we always consider: One, is this going to serve our customers? And it was clear out of the gate that, yes, because we already knew what NinjaOne can do. Second, does this help our top and bottom line? And Ninja has been really supportive in mutually growing the partnership. Third is keeping an eye on growth and development so they're not stagnant. They've been growing rapidly, and we want to align ourselves with partners that have long-term visions that we can grow with, that we can build our services around. So NinjaOne checked off all those three boxes," he said.
