Fortinet has announced the winners of its Australian partner awards, which recognise the achievements of partners that have helped customers to accelerate the move beyond traditional networks securely. The awards are judged on factors including year-on-year revenue growth, investment in training and marketing, and success in leading customer engagements with Fortinet.
Tim Fitzgerald, channel director, Fortinet, said, “Fortinet is excited to celebrate the value of the contributions made by its entire partner ecosystem in 2020. Due to their hard work, we saw record quarters as customers mobilised to meet changing workplace challenges. This year, Fortinet plans to extend its significant investment in training nationally, including continuing to offer free training, which was originally offered in 2020. Fortinet will also continue to invest in existing partners while selectively adding complementary partners and helping partners continue to add value for their customers. With new products in the pipeline and a strong team in place, Fortinet is well-positioned to support its partners for further growth in 2021 and beyond.”
The award winners are:
Australian Partner of the Year: Telstra Purple
The Partner of the Year is given to the partner with the highest revenue as well as growth.
Tim Fitzgerald said, “Telstra Purple is an extremely well-engaged partner with especially strong engagement at the executive level. With the highest revenue in Australia and significant year-on-year growth, Telstra Purple is one of Fortinet’s most active partners. Recent wins in key greenfield accounts from almost every state are the result of strong investment in training and enablement. Telstra Purple remains a key partner for Fortinet Australia-wide.”
Chris Smith, executive director, Telstra Purple, said, “Telstra Purple’s mantra is that it is people who bring purpose to technology, and this award is a credit to those people. As the largest Australian-owned team of technology services professionals, security is one of our foundation specialisations. We aim to help transform our customers’ businesses and every great digital transformation needs highly secure architecture to underpin its long-term success.”
Australian Regional Partner of the Year: Blue Connections
This award recognises partners in regional areas who do great work in a particular market. Blue Connections has shown excellent progress and results on numerous levels, primarily in Victoria, during 2020.
Tim Fitzgerald said, “Blue Connections has achieved strong growth by leading its customer engagements with Fortinet and demonstrating strong partner program compliance. The Blue Connections and Fortinet teams have really enjoyed working together and winning new business during 2020. We look forward to accelerating this even more in 2021.”
Gordon Brownell, sales director, Blue Connections, said, “Blue Connections and Fortinet have had a long standing partnership spanning more than 12 years. Our security practice has grown over this period from humble beginnings to being one of our key pillars, alongside our networking, infrastructure, Microsoft/cloud and product divisions. Along this journey, we have invested heavily in our staff and have carefully selected the right vendors to help us achieve this growth.
“Having Fortinet as a trusted partner has enabled both sales and technical staff to complete the highly regarded Fortinet NSE training program. This certification gives our clients the confidence knowing that they are receiving up-to-date guidance and product knowledge, while being fully supported by the Blue Connections technical managed service team.
“We work closely with Fortinet to ensure our customers are receiving the best advice for solutions that meet their business needs.”
Australian Fabric Partner of the Year: Slicedtech
The Fabric Partner of the Year award goes to the partner that has excelled in selling a range of Fortinet products beyond just the core Fortinet offerings.
Tim Fitzgerald said, “The Fortinet security fabric approach means that all Fortinet products integrate with each other to create a stronger overall security posture. Slicedtech has built a managed service using many Fortinet products and has taken these solutions to market. This approach saw Slicedtech achieve significant financial growth, making it a worthy recipient of this award.”
Australian Growth Partner of the Year: Comscentre
This award is based on net new business and pipeline growth. Comscentre was the stand-out partner in terms of new business in 2020.
Tim Fitzgerald said, “Comscentre achieved incredible year-on-year performance, going from a relatively modest amount of revenue to winning huge amounts of business last year, and continuing to grow from there. This award recognises the company’s engagement and commitment in a tough market.”
Cameron Quilty, executive director, Comscentre, said, “We’re very proud and incredibly honoured to have been named Fortinet’s Australian Growth Partner of the Year. Fortinet has been a fantastic partner to work with and the entire team has been highly supportive. We’re looking forward to further successes as we continue to grow this great partnership into the future.”
Australian Secure SD-WAN Partner of the Year: New Era
Awarded to partners that achieve a large deal in the secure SD-WAN space, this award recognises New Era’s work with a significant customer.
Tim Fitzgerald said, “New Era won a remarkable 500+ location Secure SD-WAN customer in 2020. It revolutionised the customer’s WAN, reduced costs, increased performance, and provided visibility into the network that hadn’t been possible before. New Era continues to expand its strengths in the SD-WAN space using Fortinet Secure SD-WAN technologies.”
Australian MSSP/Service Provider of the Year: NEC
This award goes to the managed security services provider (MSSP) that builds a strong managed service for customers. NEC was selected based on year-on-year revenue growth, leading with Fortinet technologies, partner program compliance, training and incorporating Fortinet technologies into a managed service offering.
Tim Fitzgerald said, “NEC has gone to market with a range of products and services aimed at the enterprise market, achieving significant success in this area. NEC has productised, launched, and sold these services in 2020; a remarkable achievement from a very strong partner.”
Nicholas Route, national cybersecurity solutions manager, NEC Australia, said, “Having worked with Fortinet for many years, it’s an honour to be selected for this award. NEC is constantly looking for new ways to add value to Fortinet technologies to deliver better outcomes for customers. We’re committed to this ongoing partnership and look forward to continuing to work with Fortinet into the future to deliver innovative and robust security solutions to our customers.”
Australian Specialisation Partner of the Year: Equate Technologies
Fortinet offers partners the opportunity to undergo additional training in specialist areas such as Dynamic Cloud, Secure SD-WAN, Zero Trust and Data Centre.
Tim Fitzgerald said, “Equate Technologies invested significant time and effort in achieving Fortinet specialisations and were rewarded with some outstanding wins in Queensland in 2020. Consequently, Equate Technologies saw strong growth in revenue, deal registrations, references and key wins.”
Stephen Richards, managing director, Equate Technologies, said, “Our partnership with Fortinet continues to grow from strength to strength, with many of our clients benefiting from our combined expertise. We’re thrilled to receive the Specialisation Partner of the Year Award and to secure our Advanced Partner status with Fortinet.”
Australian Telco Partner of the Year: Vocus
The Telco Partner of the Year is awarded to the top telco partner for both ‘sell-to’ and ‘sell-through’ revenue, demonstrating year-on-year growth, training staff, leading with Fortinet, and winning net new customers.
Tim Fitzgerald said, “Vocus is an excellent partner that uses Fortinet as its Secure SD-WAN provider. We have had an outstanding relationship with Vocus on all levels and we look forward to doing more in 2021.”
Julia Walsh, general manager, enterprise and state government, Vocus, said, “In just two years, we’ve built a strong and growing position in the market with Fortinet as a key partner for SD-WAN solutions. We know there’s plenty more we can do together for customers in this area and we’re excited about the growth opportunities.”
