BB's Colleen McMillan Offers a Nugget or Two to Chew On Colleen McMillan BlackBerry has fine-tuned its Cylance portfolio to deliver a bigger return on investment in the midmarket and SMB segment for MSSPs and their customers, said BlackBerry Vice President of Global Channel Sales Colleen McMillan.
BlackBerry’s ROI advantage in the midmarket and SMB is even attracting partners to move off competitive offerings, said McMillan in an interview with CRN.
Underlying the company’s aggressive push into the MSSP market is a product portfolio that is “an absolute must-have” for midmarket and SMB customers, said McMIllan. “We have the proven solutions in the midmarket and SMB,” she said.
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“The first thing that partners look at is do customers absolutely need what we are selling,” she said. “BlackBerry has one of the first and most advanced AI- and machine-learning-driven cybersecurity endpoint protection products through the acquisition of Cylance with CylanceProtect and CylanceOptics. It provides that prevention-first-type solution that customers need.”
That Cylance product portfolio, which BlackBerry acquired nearly three years ago with the $1.4 billion blockbuster purchase of Cylance, is resulting in “tremendous growth” in the midmarket and SMB segments, said McMillan.
Among the ROI factors driving MSSP wins, said McMillan, is a cybersecurity product portfolio that has been designed for more rapid deployment into those midmarket and SMB accounts, requiring less technical resources. “It [offers] a more effective ROI as well as being more cost-effective,” she said.
BlackBerry Vice President of Cybersecurity Products Nathan Jenniges, a 10-year McAfee veteran who joined BlackBerry in January, said the company has a razor-sharp focus on the midmarket.
“We are really honing everything we are doing, from products to go to market to sales to the channel, really understanding that midmarket customer segment, what their needs are and optimizing for it … [including] our messaging, the channels we are marketing in and the partners we are looking for in this space,” he said.
The BlackBerry midmarket sweet spot is customers with 500 to 10,000 employees, said Jenniges.