VAR Turned ‘Master Solutions Provider’ Seeks MSP Partners

A long-time value-added reseller (VAR) is seeking to reinvent itself by leveraging its extensive technical capabilities to drive a new business model it calls the “Master Solutions Provider.”

LANtelligence, Inc., of Encinitas, Calif., has largely been a direct sales unified communications solutions provider during its 17-year history.

The firm spent the first half of 2017 fine-tuning its partner relations, and this week LANtelligence announced the launch of its new channel program.

The company is now actively soliciting managed services providers (MSPs) and individual sales agents to join its partner program.

“This year, it’s time to grow our own channel,” said Galina Marcus, marketing manager at LANtelligence. “Up to this point, we’ve been selling directly.”

LANtelligence has partnerships and expertise providing solutions from ShoreTel, PureCloud by Genesys, VeloCloud and 8×8.

The Master Services Provider model is described as combining the partnerships and purchasing power of a master agent, with the technical expertise of a mature IT solutions provider.

During beta testing, MSPs responded favorably to the arrangement, the firm says.

“There are not a lot of companies that are also providing the technical expertise,” Marcus said. “A lot (of MSPs) are failing on the project because the deployment isn’t being executed properly.”

As part of the LANtelligence channel program, MSPs can offer end users unified communications as a service (UCaaS) and cloud-based contact center as a service (CCaaS) solutions, complete with all necessary components for deployment and support.

LANtelligence works hand in hand with the partner to provide sales engineering, project management, network design and deployment, solution programming, integration and custom software development, training, field technical resources and around the clock support.

“We are integrating solutions,” Marcus said. “We are designing from A to Z.”

LANtelligence takes a vendor commission and a percentage of the recurring revenue from the partner deal, as per the program’s commission structure.

The evolution of cloud technologies has boosted sales of UCaaS and CCaaS solutions, leading to increasingly complex installations that many MSPs are not equipped to handle, LANtelligence, Inc., CEO Martin Tracey said.

“This large gap in the ability to deliver on the design, sale, deployment, integrations and support of these solutions has created a requirement for a new category of provider – the Master Solutions Provider,” Tracey said in a statement. “Since the early days of this evolution, we, being a Solution Provider, have advocated for the importance of deployment and support capabilities for the Cloud Solutions in the Channel.”

“We see a fantastic opportunity for our Agent and MSP partners in the Contact Center as a Service mid-market sector,” he added. “This is as a space where LANtelligence is focusing its extensive Contact Center experience and expertise for this new Channel.

“This market offers less competition and bigger payouts for our Channel Partners.”

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