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Forescout, Cato, Produce8, IT Vendors Eye MSP Programs
Many vendors see managed service providers as a key avenue to new customers and revenue. But they'll need to invest the right way and take a fiduciary approach, one analyst said.
14 Slides
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A new program from Intel supports partners selling "AI-enabled PCs."
The program, which features technical training and sales enablement, joins Intel's AI PC Acceleration and AI PC developer programs. In addition, Intel Intel Partner Alliance members can use Intel's own tech support to build new solutions, the company said.
Christine Horton wrote about Intel for channel Futures.
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Kaseya has promised to help partners in the event of a disastrous business result.
Specifically, Catastrophic Loss Prevention from Kaseya applies when an MSP loses a customer that amounted to 20% of their revenue. Kaseya will forego the associated agreement, executives said.
"It’s not just we’re always there for the win. We’re going to take a hit as well when you take it," a U.K.-based leader said.
Kaseya also allowed smaller MSPs into its TruPeer program.
Read the article about Catastrophic Loss Prevention that Christine Horton wrote.
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Zscaler's sales efforts now start with the "partner ecosystem" and make their way out to the channel, leaders said.
In other words, the cybersecurity provider is establishing multidimensional, rather than bidirectional, relationships with its channel partners. The multidimensionality is meant to encourage partners to work together on joint projects.
Moreover, the vendor's EMEA structure is changing so that each region possesses a single point of contact for all types of partnerships and alliances. This is in service of "simplifying the interaction and impact," said Zscaler's vice president of partners and alliances for EMEA.
“In the past, we were inheriting a model in which if I were managing GSIs, I am managing GSIs. If I am managing distribution, I am managing distribution," she said.
Christine Horton wrote about Zscaler.
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Cayosoft will cater to managed service providers (MSPs) for the first time in 2025.
The Microsoft-focused independent software vendor (ISV) announced its plan to launch a new channel program in the third quarter. While it will originally focus on resale and alliance partners, MSPs will get in on the action next year.
Cayosoft focuses on Microsoft Active Directory management, monitoring and recovery.
Moshe Beauford covered the news.
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In a similar flavor, employee productivity company Produce8 is making an appeal to MSPs.
MSPs in the tiered program would use Produce8's software track and assess how their knowledge worker employees are using their time. The program contains marketing and training collateral.
Christopher Hutton penned an article about Produce8.
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Riverbed's new partner program in part works to drive more business in the midmarket.
Not long after the WAN optimization provider launched a new unified observability platform, Riverbed announced a reportedly less complicated version of its partner program. A key aspect of it is its incentives for consumption-based models. The program prioritizes annualized recurring revenue (ARR).
Edward Gately has the scoop.
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A new program at cloud marketplace and distributor Pax8 looks to help MSPs do more in the area of cybersecurity.
The program includes virtual education and content geared toward some of the vendors in Pax8's portfolio. In addition Pax8 is offering to assist with sales calls.
Christopher Hutton wrote about the program at the Pax8 Beyond conference.
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A new platform from Cato Networks lets partners deliver its SASE offering as a managed service.
The vendor offers a multitenancy partner dashboard that service providers can use to leverage orchestrate the technology life cycle. In addition, Cato has given partners "first-line" support tools and troubleshooting playbooks.
Cato channel leader Frank Rauch told Channel Futures about the offering.
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Ethical hacking platform HackerOne rolled out its first official partner program.
The program began with existing sales and referral partners and is now expanding to include resellers that carry complementary offerings. Down the road, HackerOne will expand to MSPs, executives said.
Dave Raffo wrote all about it.
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CrowdStrike is helping end customers get access to juicy cyber insurance rates through a new program.
The new program, geared toward cyber insurance providers, allows customers to get lower insurance rates from providers that participate in Falcon for Insurability.
Part of the thesis is that customers often must balance their insurance spend and technology spend when it comes to cybersecurity.
Edward Gately has the scoop.
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Data protection provider Veeam announced a new set of incentives and discounts for its channel partners.
The new Logo program incentivizes partners and customers to transact more than $75,000. An additional initiative gives extra discounts on certain deal registrations.
Christopher Hutton wrote about Veeam.
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Contact-center-as-a-service (CCaaS) provider UJET made a stark shift in policy that channel partners might like.
The vendor will drive all of its inbound leads to the channel, according to new channel leader Geoff Works. Works recently moved over to UJET with the goal of reinvigorating its relationships with technology advisors (agents) and their technology services distributors (TSDs).
Channel Futures profiled Works in a recent article.
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MSP automation platform provider Pia rolled out a usage-based pricing model.
Many customers had indicated to the Pia that they preferred a more flexible way to pay for its platform. The vendor will continue to offer a fixed price that comes with unlimited usage.
Read the news on Pia's website.
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MSP automation platform provider Pia rolled out a usage-based pricing model.
Many customers had indicated to the Pia that they preferred a more flexible way to pay for its platform. The vendor will continue to offer a fixed price that comes with unlimited usage.
Read the news on Pia's website.
If you are the owner of a managed service provider (MSP) company, your inbox is likely shot to pieces with pitches from suppliers.
Channel Futures each month recaps impactful news about vendors and distributors that made changes to their channel partner programs, and new MSP programs frequently make the list. Last month it was IT behemoth IBM making a program for MSPs. This month visibility provider Forescout and secure access service edge (SASE) provider Cato Networks were two big names courting managed service providers to their portfolio.
Canalys estimates that more than 85,000 MSPs exist worldwide, as well as 10,000 MSSPs. That's a large pool of fish for vendors to lure. But with thousands of vendors all angling for the same mindshare, are there bound to be winners and losers in this race?
MSP Programs: Different Purposes
Robin Ody, who studies the MSP and MSSP channels for Canalys, sees a few different categories that an MSP program might fall into.
Canalys' Robin Ody
"Is the vendor targeting true MSPs, or are they really going after MSSPs? Or is it really a way to get big resellers to sell more managed services?" Ody told Channel Futures. (Informa owns bothCanalys and Channel Futures.)
Dave Sobel, host of The Business of Tech podcast, also delineated two different routes to market for software vendors that are courting MSPs: "sell-to" and "sell-through."
"A sell-to is something I'm going to sell to the MSP themselves, and they're going to use it internally. And sell-through is something that the MSPs are also going to sell to their customers," Sobel told Channel Futures. "From the software side, you love a sell-through, but sell-to ain't bad either."
Business of Tech's Dave Sobel
Sobel noted that the influx of private equity investment in the MSP space has incentivized these software vendors to court MSPs.
"Smart entrepreneurs are realizing, 'I can build software, I can plug into this model, and in my best version of it I get to 1,000 MSPs, and then I sell,'" Sobel said.
And many MSPs are very eager for new tools and technology that they can leverage to improve their operations or those of their customers, Sobel said.
Obstacles and Opportunities
Erick Simpson and Rich Freeman of Channel Mastered highlighted the missteps some vendors have taken in building MSP programs. An overarching problem is misunderstanding the MSP model.
"You’d be amazed how many vendors don’t have multitenant products, don’t provide subscription pricing that aligns with an MSP’s business model, don’t offer an intuitive billing process, and don’t integrate with RMM or PSA systems," Simpson said last year. "These are table stakes for MSPs, and if you don’t have them, you won’t have success recruiting MSP partners no matter how great your solutions are."
For Sobel, the fundamental challenge for vendors and their prospective MSP partners is the disconnect between "selling products and selling service solutions."
"IT service providers and MSPs are looking for answers. They're small entrepreneurs, looking for a way to do this," Sobel said. "And they turn to dynamic, well-intentioned salespeople, who promise them a solution and buy them a beer."
Ody said some vendors simply can't make changes fast enough to successfully partner with MSPs, despite their intentions.
"... because they are naturally trying to protect their current go-to-market methods, and they aren't willing to re-architect their sales incentives and benefits programs that quickly because the disruption can cause a lot of conflict between their current partners and the MSPs they may be going after," he said.
Points-based programs can allow for modular changes over time and help alleviate this problem to some extent, Ody said.
Ultimately, Ody said, suppliers must grapple with the concept of "the money and who makes it."
"Product vendors don't know how to value the business an MSP does if the money isn't flowing into the vendor's own pockets. But the better vendors realize if they become MSP growth consultants, then the rising tide lifts all ships," he said.
To that end, Ody said AI lead generation engines will dominate conversations for the next five years as vendors attempt make it easier for MSPs to gain new customers. For 51% of MSPs in Channel Futures' latest quarterly survey, expanding their customer base was a top challenge, followed by sales (42%).
"Perhaps ironically (given some vendors have questioned the value of distribution in the MSP space) this is an area where the distribution layer is well-placed to execute, and looking at some of the work TD Synnex, Pax8 and Ingram [Micro] are doing in building these kinds of initiatives, we are looking at a fascinating future," he said.
Similarly, Sobel encouraged partners to lean on distribution as a way to help them sort through the mass of vendors clamoring for their attention and dollars.
"Distribution has built out whole service orgs that will do this stuff for you ..." he said. "You don't want to spend your time managing 40 or 50 or 60 vendors to try and figure this stuff out. You want to manage three or four key relationships that are doing most of that, and I think one of those slots is a distributor."
In the slideshow above, read 14 updates about new or revamped channel programs.
Also, check out Channel Futures' May roundup of channel program updates.
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