Voltage Security captures new contracts, expands customer base with IBM benefits, resources and expertise

Ongoing threats of identity theft and increasingly stringent regulatory environments across a wide range of industries demand that businesses vigilantly safeguard sensitive customer and partner data, applications, documents and communications. Complicating that task is a growing dependence on third-party collaboration and outsourced IT environments.

Voltage Security, an IBM Advanced Business Partner which specializes in enterprise security and information encryption technology, has provided large enterprise customers worldwide with sophisticated protection for their data and messaging applications since its inception in 2002. Voltage customers are typically in regulated industries, such as financial services, insurance, banking, healthcare and, increasingly, retail. Voltage is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

As a small start-up, Voltage aggressively leveraged the credibility associated with participation in IBM PartnerWorld®. It has taken advantage of benefits and resources provided to business partners to improve their businesses. For instance, with help from IBM, Voltage secured a “seven-figure” deal with a global insurance company in Canada and a substantial contract with Eastman Kodak. Voltage has worked with the IBM Innovation Center in Waltham, Massachusetts, to gain IBM Ready for Lotus® validation and taken advantage of having a case study of the Kodak win published.

IBM Venture Capital Group provides strategic guidance

In 2002, Voltage was brought to the attention of the IBM Venture Capital Group (IBM VCG), by Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, a venture capital firm headquartered in San Francisco, California.
IBM VCG teams with top-tier venture capital firms worldwide to identify and nurture companies with portfolios that align strategically with specific IBM business units or technologies. The role of the IBM VCG is to be the early identifier of start-up companies with unique and upcoming technologies and to help bring innovation into IBM.

“Voltage Security’s breakthrough end to end encryptions solution represents huge potential in protecting sensitive data and communications across even the largest of IBM’s customers. Connecting Voltage with IBM VCG early on enabled Voltage to understand the engagement model, as well as the technology platforms for IBM’s top customers. Today, some of Voltage’s largest customers utilize IBM platforms across their organizations and rely on the strong relationships that Voltage has forged with IBM,” said Ann Winblad, managing partner, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners.

The particular Voltage technologies that provided entrée into IBM were Voltage SecureMail and Voltage SecureFile, collaboration security solutions that integrate with IBM Lotus Notes® and Lotus Quickr™ respectively. Both information encryption solutions extend the security provided by Lotus applications, enabling e-mails sent from Lotus Notes and files, as well as documents managed with Lotus Quickr, to be secured in an easy-to-use and easy-to-manage way.

Recognizing the strategic value of integrating Voltage collaboration security and encryption technology with IBM Lotus products, the IBM VCG became the single point of contact into IBM for Voltage. The IBM VCG helped Voltage make the right connections with executives within the IBM Lotus group and helped with any technical or business enablement required as an IBM Business Partner and member of PartnerWorld.

“The IBM VC Group was our door into different IBM product groups, making very strategic, very valuable introductions,” said Tim Choi, director of business development for Voltage. “Going forward, if we develop products that will be a strategic fit with IBM, the first place we’ll turn for direction is the VC Group.”

Innovation Center accelerates Ready for Lotus validation

Voltage aggressively leveraged the credibility associated with participation in IBM PartnerWorld, which opened access to the IBM architectural consultants, Lotus engineering teams and Lotus software necessary to fast-track coveted Ready for Lotus validation for Voltage SecureMail and Voltage SecureFile.

“When you’re a new venture backed company, it’s critical to quickly differentiate yourself, so we were eager to gain Ready for Lotus validation,” Choi said. The IBM technology team at the IBM Innovation Center in Waltham, Massachusetts, consulted closely with Voltage on architecting solutions and finding integration points with Lotus, “and they respected our desire to do the work as rapidly as possible,” Choi said.

Choi said the validation process took less than three weeks, due in part to the fact that the Voltage products were quite mature from the Lotus Domino® perspective. He noted that Voltage is leveraging the IBM Innovation Center, as well as IBM architectural and engineering expertise, in the development of an improved encryption solution to safeguard critical data, such as credit card and social security information, on the IBM System z®.

Voltage products already leverage System z, z/OS®, AIX® and z/Linux®.

Help from IBM sales representatives and IBM Global Services

Having solidified its standing within IBM, Voltage expanded its customer base by taking advantage of help from IBM sales representatives and IBM Global Services. “Our customers tend to be large enterprises and our market is global – North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific,” Choi said. Voltage was able to align its sales efforts with Lotus sales and technical teams, allowing the company to extend its reach into new markets and make a more powerful business case for the Voltage solutions. This was important, as the vast majority of the 80 Voltage employees are in the United States.

“For instance, the Lotus team was instrumental in our win at Eastman Kodak,” Choi noted. “A Lotus security team representative provided Kodak with validation of our integration approach, and a support team member who manages the Eastman Kodak account for the Lotus brand supported us on the ground level. So this is a case where we had already identified the account, but we found the synergy needed to close the deal through the Lotus account team,” Choi said.

Choi pointed to another recent win, a global insurance company with more than 20,000 users, which generated Voltage revenue in the “seven figures,” as further evidence of the value of the synergy between IBM and Voltage. “This company approached IBM Global Services, asking for a recommendation on an encryption solution. IBM Global Services identified us and teamed with us to deliver the solution,” Choi recalled. “It was a win for us and IBM. IBM Global services provided security consulting, and there was an element of the solution delivered as a hosted service through IBM,” Choi said.

Emerging marketing teaming

Voltage is taking steps to extend its marketing teaming with IBM. Gail Bower, senior marketing programs manager for Voltage, and an IBM marketing relationship manager are in the process of identifying the marketing programs available to the company by virtue of its PartnerWorld participation. They are deciding which benefits to leverage in the near term.

Already, an IBM-sponsored case study on the Kodak win has been published. “I was very impressed with how quickly we were able to complete this project, resulting in a high quality case study that will be of benefit to Voltage Security,” Bower said. A joint Webcast with IBM is planned. Lacking the internal resources and expertise, Voltage will rely on IBM to host and co-fund the Webcast, develop a list of prospective attendees, encourage attendance via telemarketing and provide a subject matter expert.

Choi said the Webcast will focus on the Voltage Ready for Lotus validated products. An archived version of the Webcast, along with the case study and marketing collateral on each validated Voltage product, will comprise a Voltage-hosted microsite. Voltage will create a comparable microsite, with the same elements and IBM participation, for its zSeries products.

”We’ve already received tremendous value from teaming with IBM, and we’re just scratching the surface,” Choi said. “IBM has been crucial to the growth and success of not only our Lotus products, but our company itself, from its very beginning,” he said. “We believe we’ll have the same success with our new products and are committed to continuing to broaden and deepen our relationship,” Choi predicted.