Kaseya ‘Not Going to Apologize’ for Targeting ConnectWise Customers, CEO Says

Kaseya won’t apologize for celebrating the recent takeaway of a major ConnectWise partner or for telling MSPs that the rival software vendor might be positioning for a price hike on its remote monitoring and management (RMM) product.

Those were the comments of Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola, who spoke with MSPmentor this week shortly after ConnectWise accused Kaseya of lying during calls to poach customers.

Connectwise said Kaseya salespeople were trying to convince MSPs to switch platforms by suggesting looming price increases and the end of the former LabTech RMM, now called ConnectWise Automate.

“It’s just inaccurate,” the Kaseya chief said. “Nowhere have we said anything about the whole LabTech thing is going away.”

“If they are, I don’t know about it,” Voccola added. “If someone at Kaseya said it, they certainly said something that wasn’t sanctioned.”

As the far and away market leader in professional services automation (PSA) software, ConnectWise is naturally a competitor for the Kaseya Business Management (BMS) suite, Voccola said.

“We have – we believe – a much better product,” he said. “We’re going to tell the world why we think it’s better.”

“I think that’s completely fair,” Voccola added. “If you talk to a ConnectWise salesperson, they’re doing the same thing.”

The companies have lobbed shots at one another in the past, and the rivalry spilled public again last week when Kaseya issued a statement during its annual Kaseya Connect conference, touting the takeaway of former ConnectWise MSP, The 20 Group.

That news release mentioned ConnectWise by name several times.

“BMS rectifies the mistakes of first-generation PSA solutions, such as ConnectWise, by delivering a cloud-based solution that is fast and easy to deploy, and intuitive to use,” read one reference.

In a statement Monday, ConnectWise vice president and chief revenue officer Adam Slutskin said that ConnectWise is not closing the Automate RMM platform and has no plans to raise prices at this time.

Those reports, Voccola said, stem from a sales pitch during which prospective customers are told that ConnectWise informed Kaseya recently that it would no longer be updating the integration with Kaseya’s VSA RMM product.

“We have the communication,” Voccola said. “They’re saying that they will no longer update the connector and they encourage us to update the connector.”

It’s reasonable for salespeople to explain to target MSPs the implications if ConnectWise is discouraging integrations, he said.

“One of the things that we have stated is that usually those kinds of things – and I’m not saying that’s the case here – that’s usually the first step for a lock-in strategy,” Voccola said. “Price increases tend to follow.”

“We integrate with every PSA out there,” he went on. “We, on our dime, are going to be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to ensure that our PSA is integrated with the LabTech product.

“We are the ones putting our money where our mouths are and promoting an open ecosystem.”

He made sure to compliment ConnectWise as a “great business.”

“We just made some public statements; we believe we have a better product and that’s the only stuff we said,” Voccola said. “Any MSP-facing software company, who in the world complains about their competitors taking their customers?”

Read more: Arnie Bellini Weighs in on Kaseya-ConnectWise Flap

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