Businessmodel of Centrify

Customer Segments

Centrify has a mass market business model, with no significant differentiation between customer segments.

The company targets organizations of all industries and sizes seeking identity management services; that said, most clients are large enterprise firms likely to be hacking targets.

Value Proposition

Centrify offers five primary value propositions: accessibility, convenience, performance, risk reduction, and brand/status.

The company creates accessibility by providing a wide variety of options. Its solution can integrate with thousands of applications and systems. Apps include Google Apps for Work, Office 365, Salesforce, Workday, Box, and ServiceNow, and Concur. Systems include Microsoft Windows, Oracle Linux, Juniper JUNOS, Linux Mint, IBM AIX, Oracle Solaris, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

The company offers convenience by making its product easy to use. The solution secures identities across the cloud, mobile, and on-premises components of IT environments. It simplifies logging in through its single sign-on feature. Lastly, it provides frequent updates on operational status and upcoming maintenance of its cloud-based platform through a notification page on its main website.

The company has demonstrated strong performance through tangible results for customers. High-profile examples of positive outcomes include the following:

• Nine Network Australia used Centrify’s solution to enable a secure Mac expansion, simplify password management, and reduce password reset support calls by 50%
• CAA Saskatchewan used Centrify’s solution to reduce help desk calls, user fees, and internal development costs, resulting in cost savings of more than $30,000 a year
• Lithium Technologies used Centrify Identity Service for Mac to reduce help desk calls for password resets by 80%, resulting in approximately $128,000 in annual cost savings
• Morris Communications used Centrify’s solution to simplify user provisioning and reduce help desk password resets, resulting in thousands of dollars in hardware/administrator cost savings
• Simply Healthcare used Centrify Identity Service to reduce the prevalence of password reset complaints from 60 – 70% of help desk tickets to barely any at all The company reduces risk by maintaining high security standards. Its solution provides multi-factor authentication for logins. Centrify certifies the solution on a regular basis with quarterly third-party audits. It has maintained consistent SSAE16 SOC2 certification since its first launch. In addition, it has received the TRUSTe privacy Trustmark and is compliant with Safe Harbor.

The company has established a powerful brand as a result of its performance. It has over 5,000 customers, including more than half of the Fortune 50. These include companies such as Citi, Boeing, Delta Airlines, Duke Energy, GE Capital, Johnson & Johnson, and Microsoft. Clients also include seven of the top pharma firms, six of the top global telecommunications firms, four of the top 10 U.S. financial institutions, and four of the top 10 U.S. retailers. Lastly, it has won many honors, including a Bronze Stevie award for Company of the Year – Business Services Category, a Cloud Computing Product of the Year Award from Cloud Computing magazine, recognition as one of the“Top 25 Mobile Startups to Watch in 2016“ by Informilo, and placement on the CRN 2016 Security 100 list.

Channels

Centrify’s main channels are system integrators and direct sales employees. The company promotes its offering through its social media pages, webinars, demos, trade shows, summits, and conferences.

Customer Relationships

Centrify’s customer relationship is primarily of a personal assistance nature. The company assists customers in the following ways:

Support Services - The company offers the following three plans:

• Standard – Includes 24/7 support portal access, 24/7 customer community, product updates, and local business hour support
• Premium – Includes all Standard plan features as well as 24/7 global support
• Elite – Includes all Premium plan features as well as a dedicated Technical Account Manager and a Primary Point of Contact Training Services – The company provides onsite product training (at client’s location). It is recommended for those desiring a customized curriculum and in-person interaction. Centrify also enables customers to become Identity and Access Management (IAM) professionals through the Centrify Certification Program, where they can earn the title of Certified System Administrator.

Professional Services – The company provides consultants to help clients accelerate implementation, maximize internal resources, and optimize their investments. It claims that its services consistently reduce time-to-production by as much as 50% and have a 96% customer satisfaction rate.

Despite this orientation, there is also a self-service component. Centrify’s traning program includes online training courses that customers can take on a self-paced basis. In addition, its website features a “Resources“ section that includes self-help tools such as white papers, case studies, solution briefs, webinars, and product documentation. The site also has a “Support” section with articles and answers to frequently asked questions. Lastly, there is a community element in the form of a forum.

Key Activities

Centrify’s business model entails designing and developing software and maintaining its cloud-based platform for customers.

Key Partners

Centify maintains two key partnership programs:

• Centrify Channel Partner Network (CCPN) – Members of this program promote and sell Centify products to help extend its reach. They are resellers, distributors, system integrators, and managed service providers. Specific partners include Accuitive, CDW, NSEC, PCM, Sayers, and Threewire.
• Centrify Alliance Partner Program (CAPP) – Members of this program integrate their products into Centify’s unified identity platform in order to provide enhanced solutions. They are independent software vendors, original equipment manufacturers, and developers. Specific partners include Amazon, Apple, Citrix, Cloudera, Dropbox, EMC, Google, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and NetApp. The company also maintains the Centrify Developer Program, through which it invites developers to use its solution to simplify authentication and user management for their apps.

Key Resources

Centrify’s main resource is its proprietary software platform, which serves over 5,000 customers.

It depends on its human resources in the form of engineering employees to maintain and update the platform, sales employees to promote it, training/consulting staff to provide instruction/guidance, and customer service staff to provide support.

Lastly, as a startup it has relied heavily on funding from outside parties, raising $94 million from 10 investors as of May 2014.

Cost Structure

Centrify has a value-driven structure, aiming to provide a premium proposition through significant personal service and frequent product enhancements.

Its biggest cost driver is likely marketing expenses, a fixed expense. Other major drivers are in the areas of sales and customer support/operations, both fixed costs.

Revenue Streams

Centrify has one revenue stream: the subscription fees it charges for monthly access to its cloud-based platform.

For its most basic offering, Century Identity Service, pricing for a 12 month contract is $4 per user per month for the App plan and $8 per user per month for the App+ plan. Sales staff must be contacted directly for the Centrify Privilege Service and Centrify Service Suite offerings.