Partnerships Unraveled
The weekly podcast where we unravel the mysteries of partnerships and channel to help you become more successful.
Partnerships Unraveled
Shahar Divon - Check Point Meeting MSPs Where They Are
Live from Pax8 Beyond with Check Point: Reinventing Channel Simplicity for MSPs
In this special live edition of Partnerships Unraveled, we’re joined by Shahar Divon, Global Head of MSSP and SMB at Check Point, to unpack how a security giant is reengineering itself for MSP success. Recorded at Pax8 Beyond in Denver, this conversation dives into the evolution of Check Point’s channel strategy - from enterprise roots to a fully partner-centric, AI-powered MSP platform.
Shahar shares the bold transformation Check Point has undertaken, from acquiring key technologies like Avanan to redesigning its entire operational model around MSP needs. We explore how their radically simplified onboarding process (four clicks to revenue), predictable pricing, and single-policy deployment for multi-service management are making real operational efficiency possible at scale.
In this episode, we cover:
- How Check Point is translating enterprise-grade cybersecurity into MSP-ready simplicity
- The role of AI in powering both product innovation and operational automation
- Why co-building with partners and investing in platforms like Channext is central to future growth
From driving partner profitability to building a global program with local flexibility, this is a must-listen for anyone focused on channel success in a complex, AI-driven world.
Connect with Shahar:https://www.linkedin.com/in/shahar-divon-b9b9063a/
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Learn more about Channext 👇
https://channext.com/
Watch on YouTube ►
https://www.youtube.com/@channext
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Welcome back to Partnerships Unraveled, the podcast where we unravel the mysteries about partnerships, and channel on a weekly basis. My name is Alex Whitford, I'm the VP of Revenue here at Channext and this week I'm very excited to welcome our special guest, shahar. How are you doing?
Speaker 1:Nice to meet you. Hi, hi, hi everyone.
Speaker 2:I'm really excited to have you on. One because we've obviously built a excellent partnership between channext and checkpoint, which we'll get to, I'm sure, but two because we're getting to do this face to face at pax 8 beyond.
Speaker 1:It's, uh, really nice to see everyone face to face excited my first time in beyond, by the way and um, and I can tell you that I learned a lot from the experience only from today, and no doubt that that for people that want to discover how to do more things or new things and how to think again, they need to come to be on yeah, the energy is, uh is excellent, right the discovery, yeah, discovery, I'm.
Speaker 1:I'm in the discovery mode right now. Yeah, like every, every keynote, it's taking me to different direction regarding how, what can we do, and how can we do, and and what, even what not to do and and so maybe if the uninitiated you could give us a little bit of an introduction about who you are and what you do okay, so nice to meet you and thank you for hosting me.
Speaker 1:My name is shahad yvonne. I'm leading the global mssp and smb businesses in checkpoint and I'm responsible for the businesses and the strategy of the company of Checkpoint company, of course, and that's my title.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so one of the things that I think is cheers by the way is, in the afternoon we're having a little drink on the podcast, which is great. But one of the things that's, I think, really spectacular about Checkpoint as a program, as a product, we operationally simple for MSPs to execute. Talk to me about how important it is to be able to bring that level of service and that level of quality, but bring it down to the SMB.
Speaker 1:So, first of all, you're very right regarding the checkpoint, the people that know checkpoint and people that doesn't know checkpoint. Of course, checkpoint is a company that was born and raised in the enterprise market and, of course, we are providing the best security and the company was born from providing network security. And in the last two years, checkpoint was always a company that thought about how we as a company need to be innovative and we need to invent ourselves again and again, and we are very proud to say that we did amazing acquisitions in the last couple of years maybe the last six years of companies that are more tailored for S&P, commercial and even MSP, and we learned a lot from those acquisitions that we have an amazing market that's called MSPs and in order for us to be in the market, we will need to think a little bit different regarding the expectation of the MSPs or the partners itself, and so one of the phenomenal acquisitions you did was obviously email security with Havanan.
Speaker 2:We've seen that relationship with Pax8 has been blossoming. We're here today at Pax8 Beyond, which is excellent, but we're really seeing the integration of that into the wider Checkpoint story. Talk to me about how you make that sort of program successful, so one of the most you know.
Speaker 1:When we started to think about how we're going to be able to take all of the amazing acquisitions that we did Avanon, p81, cyberint, dom9, we thought about what is the similarity regarding what really the partner needs and not, again, what we need from our side regarding what we're going to see? I think that Checkpoint was a company that we always thought about for many years regarding what we think that is best, but what we learned from the time in those companies that we acquired is that it's not about us. It's about what the people on the other side, what they need and what the similarity of all of those acquisitions is the simplicity of the way that they are doing businesses with Arabis and the simplicity of how people are going to be able to consume a product or maybe a solution, and that they are going to be able to augment that to a service and in the end of the month, basically, they are going to be able to consume it the way that you're consuming electricity or doing.
Speaker 2:Netflix.
Speaker 1:And I can tell you that we really like in the program itself, we really destroyed all of the way that we are doing business in Checkpoint and we build like a super simple tier pricing for our MSP that are going to be able to understand the predictable revenue from their side and, of course, everything is built like an MSP platform that is AI-driven, of course, that they will be able to consume everything at their own pace.
Speaker 2:So what's so important about that? We talk a lot on this podcast about humility, which is it would be really easy to build a program that is very checkpoint-centric. Hey, here's what would be great for us, but actually having the humility to sort of meet the partner where they are today and really drive the value that's what we see works so well within programs. What's the sort of feedback been like for MSPs, seeing that you've really made this operational simplicity, operational excellence?
Speaker 1:By the way, you know. I think that also something important that we learned from the time is that when you're honest, you know, when you're honest regarding the way that you're not part of something and you want really to drive behavior and to drive change, that's like a point that it was very flexible for us to start thinking about. Not about us, about what they need okay, but I don't know what was the question. So, if you want to ask, no, sorry, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:I think it's a perfect point, because when we talk about building trust in the ecosystem, understanding where you're strong, understanding where you're weak, and wrapping the value around what the partner actually needs, how has the feedback been from you building?
Speaker 1:a product, amazing, amazing, amazing. I can tell you that we it's like, first of all, to create something. As a creator, it's something like it's super unique, but for the better or worse. Of course, you want to listen to what people have to say to you, but also, of course, you want to listen to what people have to say to you, but what we learned is that, and what is the feedback we are getting from our channel ecosystem and our distribution ecosystem?
Speaker 1:That is not that people are thinking. That is not the way to check. That's not check. Are you sure regarding because are you sure that this is really a checkpoint offering from their side? Because, basically, one of the most important things that we did is that we really simplified the way that partners are going to be able to do business with us and, just to give you like a small example, we literally reduced the time that you're going to be able to add a customer from two weeks to maybe four clicks. So the efficiency, the way that we are thinking about MSPs, is how the MSP is going to be able to operate in four clicks to add any kind of customer that we will want and to add any kind of service that we want in four clicks from our side, and that's the target. By the way, four and four.
Speaker 2:So what's so important about that? Maybe for the audience who are unfamiliar with how MSPs work, when we talk about the operational ability to add customers, that's money right. If it takes two weeks to add a customer that's taking a technician, an engineer who's earning a salary is taking their time. You being able to reduce that down to three and a half seconds, four clicks. That is the ability for the msp to acquire more customers with the same size team and drive the profit.
Speaker 1:And, first of all, totally correct, and not only that. It's like when you're building a global program, you're thinking about so many things in the same way, because we are still a company that's providing the best security in the market. That's one Checkpoint is like a brand. We are still a company that is providing the best security in the market. That's one Checkpoint, is like a brand. We are doing detection, response and we are doing threat prevention Over 2 billion attacks on a day. We have over 50 engines of AI that are assisting us and everything is walking through one platform. That's our engine.
Speaker 1:But it's not only about the best security, because it's also regarding the best operation, the best business model, the best way, how we're going to be able to provide value for the partners and, in order, for you, also from the perspective, of course, operational efficiency, but also thinking about all of the things in the question regarding also how your SOC team is going to be able to monitor and to have the right to reduce the time for them to enter the tickets from their side. So a lot of things from our side.
Speaker 2:So we just sat in the keynote from the Pax8 CEO and really the theme.
Speaker 1:Was only one right.
Speaker 2:Scary, by the way scary, yeah, amazing, but really we're talking about one theme, which is how AI and agentic AI is going to really revolutionize. One, the productivity of the world, but two, how MSPs are able to deliver and drive value. Ai is at the core of what Checkpoint does from a product perspective. Talk to me about the impact that that's able to drive for MSPs.
Speaker 1:So I can tell you that when we're thinking about AI, we're thinking about, of course, like how AI. When we're talking about how AI is going to impact MSPs. I think that's going to be taking you to many different directions. First of all, the security. You will want to have the best AI security regarding every agent that you're going to have, because you know, every day we have new attacks. Ai is like literally accelerating ransomware, and so, on one hand, you want to have the best security in AI coding from our side, but AI is also assisting you to the way that you're operating any kind of product offering. For example, if you have a checkpoint.
Speaker 1:We really have, I think, the widest range of solutions from our side. I'm talking about that in our MSSP platform. You're going to be able to consume, like an email security solution, sase, Endpoint, mobile, waf as a service, mdr and also Cloud Network, and think about that. You're going to be able to deploy and monitor everything under one platform, from one monetization from your side, and you're going to be able to add and to remove customers with one policy, to treat 500 users as one user from a global policy and deployment, and that's really something that the way that we are seeing the market. We are interested that AEI is going to be able to assist us to adapt operation efficiency, how to treat your customers when we we talk a lot on this podcast about the three p's of driving the channel product, program, personnel.
Speaker 2:And from a product perspective, obviously we've talked a lot on this podcast already around where your product is so strong, how it drives the operational efficiency, but building a successful program that allows partners to generate revenue, to acquire customers. Talk to me about what you're building with Chanix in terms of supporting the marketing go-to-market.
Speaker 1:So I think, by the way, that it's very important for you not only to have the best program, like you said, it's regarding what is going to be the values that you're going to be able to provide for your partners, because, again, it's not about us, it's about the partners. That's why we're also working with an amazing platform. I can say to you okay, I don't want to give a lot of.
Speaker 2:No, no, you're allowed to blow smoke.
Speaker 1:You can talk about why Chanix is amazing, but it's important for you to work with marketing platforms that are going to be able to assist you, the way that we are thinking about what's important for me, that we're going to be able to. We are seeing together like a tool for me, for me to scale and to share our thought leadership regarding strategic partners, and I can tell you that it's really value for me in order for me to think about the way that how can I provide better marketing awareness and better thought leadership and better automation via platform amazing platform like Channix. Not only that, by the way, also something that's important for me as someone driving global strategy, it's also leaving leaving really the job to the experts. That's the way that I'm seeing that.
Speaker 2:okay, so Chanix, no, no but what I love about the strategy is the view that, again, we're meeting partners where they actually are, not where they want to be where they are, and partners, often MSPs, particularly struggle to generate the level of demand that they wish, and so you've invested in a tool.
Speaker 1:It's very difficult to them. By the way, it's like you also need you know. It's like I can tell you that, as someone driving like global programs, many people are going in different directions. It's very important for me to focus about what I need to do and really outsource things that other people can do better for me. That's the way that I'm seeing that for myself.
Speaker 2:Perfect, one final one for you, shahar, before we let you get back to the gin and tonics. That's it. Yeah, I've got one more for you. Sure, before we let you get back to the gin and tonics. That's it. Yeah, one, I got one more for you. No, no, this is perfect. So, as checkpoint continues to build product and program, to drive partner success, what's what's next on the horizon, what's coming down the line that partners can be excited about?
Speaker 1:robots. Okay, the robots part today was crazy. I want a robot okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, for my house. Okay, I want a robot.
Speaker 1:But I think that what's next is going to be like really like to accelerate with the best platform ever. Ai platform is going to be able to provide partners all of the capabilities they really need from their side More offering and, I think, more and more and more marketing presence. To be honest, we have amazing platform, we have amazing solutions, we have amazing security, but what is important for us is really that we are ready and we want to do business with people and to extend the market also from our side.
Speaker 2:I've been, really we've been speaking a few months. It was good, no, no, perfect. We've been speaking for a few months with the Checkpoint team. I've been immensely impressed with how you guys really understand how to build value for partners, and that's more than just presenting good product, it's building great programs, which obviously responsible for I love the three p's, by the way. Yes, to me it's the is the call right. We're either advancing product persons and, like your team, the team, lillian, jessica, dave really, yeah, amazing, amazing team around you. Thank you so much for one coming on the podcast, but two being a Chanix partner. We're excited for what we're building together.
Speaker 1:So I thank you very much for hosting me first of all, okay, and I hope that you understand all of my Israeli English that I'm talking Perfect.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And let's say you know, let's say let's, let's continue to work together. Okay, Because we enjoy to work with people and it's very important for us that it's going to be like to have more and more and more good way how to do business for ourselves. Awesome.
Speaker 2:Thanks for coming on, shahar, it's been great.
Speaker 1:You're welcome. Thank you very much.