MSP Partner Program Success Is a 2-Way Street

MSP SUMMIT — “The world is indirect,” said Canalys chief analyst Jay McBain — an appropriate way to open the MSP Summit in Atlanta.

And the numbers back it up.

McBain in his “hot data” session described the opportunity for the managed service providers and other channel partners in the audience.

Canalys' Jay McBain at 2024 MSP Summit, Atlanta, Sept. 17.

The addressable IT market spend is $4.9 trillion, and partner businesses are getting their share, outgrowing the vendors they represent. Managed services sales are growing 12%, double the tech industry overall, said McBain.

Furthermore, 89% of salespeople around the world are working with partners to close deals. Of the remaining 11%, 58% are looking to work with partners soon, according to Canalys research. (Canalys and Channel Futures are both Informa companies.)

“The channel is in everything today. … We’re everywhere and our value is increasing,” the analyst said.

Maintaining or exceeding the growth rate to which McBain refers will require innovation, particularly in an age of artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation. Being at the forefront of industry “disruption” was a key focus of a Tuesday MSP Summit panel featuring executives from companies that made this year’s Channel Futures MSP 501 and Next Generation MSP lists.

“It’s automation everything,” said Chris Ichelson, CEO of Arizona-based 360 SOC. “If you look at it from the workforce [angle], the more technical skillset opportunities, there are a lot of areas of expertise with an aging workforce …  there’s a heavy automation play there. [In cybersecurity], AI is flipping this upside down and the ability to take playbooks or patterns of data … and be able to apply an answer to it and do that in real time or in a matter of seconds is obviously a game changer.”

Related:MSP Summit 2024: Insights, Honors, Networking

Another important part of an MSP’s success is the value of the partner programs to which they belong. Just registering for a program doesn’t mean much without education from the vendor.

Marcial Velez of MSP Xperteks and Tony Ferrigno of AiT Advisory Group quizzed a panel of vendor executives on stage to find out what they’re doing to make their programs partner-friendly and even more importantly, to create a true partnership that helps both the supplier and the partner grow their businesses.

“How is the partner going to grow with you?” asked Velez. “How are you going to educate me on new technologies so I can be the subject-matter expert in that technology?”

The vendors in unison agreed, with Granite head of channel sales Brad Dupee saying there are a couple of other important elements.

“And beyond education, it’s sales support,” said Dupee,. “Whether it’s presales support, solution development or support of a customer afterward. And then third is data exchange. We treat every partner the same, but data exchange is equal on that plane as well. And ultimately that has become the biggest part of our partner program now — sharing more information about their customers when they are customers.”

But the relationship is a two-way street. Partner feedback is key to the vendors improving their programs.

“It’s not going to necessarily be that you have a one-off problem and we’re going to fix that,” said Jason Pryce, channel development manager at Kaseya, “but when we start realizing that we’re getting the same feedback on issues that are affecting all of you, that’s when we can make a change to help all of our partners.”