Scott Goree, Senior Vice President of Channel and Alliances, Delinea

The channel landscape is evolving rapidly as identity security and AI reshape how vendors and partners collaborate to deliver value at scale. Scott Goree, Senior Vice President of Channel and Alliances, Delinea, tells us how modern partner programmes, AI-driven enablement and ecosystem collaboration are driving a new era of partner-led growth in cybersecurity.

In my prior role, I was responsible for vendor management across 600 security vendors in about 40 security domains. So, I had a purview across cybersecurity to see where the inertia is, where the massive growth is, and where the attention is: identity and AI.

When I look at Delinea, firmly in the identity space with a very strong AI story, it’ s a convergence of both strengths. Finding the right leadership and the right technology, at the right moment are part of my journey. And this moment feels like it was built for me.

I’ ve been in the channel for a couple of decades and have seen it evolve. In the past, it was simple: distributor to reseller to customer. Now we have many partner types. The vision I see is a modern channel evolution focused on partnering with influencers and hyperscalers, building a joint co-sell go-to-market, building out an MSP practice and working with other ISVs.

Delinea has over 600 technical integrations. Building a joint go-to-market with those companies is the next step in creating a scalable, high-growth channel motion.

In your experience, what differentiates a traditional partner programme, from one that truly drives value and impact for partners? When I think of legacy channel partner programmes, it’ s usually a case of‘ get this training’,‘ achieve this level of revenue’, and you get the branding of‘ I’ m a gold or platinum partner’.

A differentiated programme shows the differences in partner capabilities and partner types. Many partners span multiple partner types. They could be a reseller advising customers, have a professional services arm doing deployments or have a fully managed MSP offering.

In identity security, it’ s important to identify the type of partner, the depth of their capability and their joint commitment. For a truly stand-out partner programme, it’ s not only capability, but commitment to joint go-to-market that will define the level of advantage and value you give back.

How can security providers expand globally while ensuring consistency and quality across regions? The term I use is a globally consistent programme with regional flexibility – because we know what works in Chicago may not work in Dubai.

The best global programmes take a topdown and bottoms-up strategy. The top-down approach is going very deep with fewer partners, using more of a scarcity model: this is where we’ re going to focus our time, attention, investments and marketing funds. The focus is on those that have reciprocated

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