MSPs Mull Agency, White-Label Models for Product Expansion

As managed IT service providers (MSPs) dive into new technologies that their customers demand from them, the question of vendor and distributor alignment looms large.

Executives at Viirtue, the UCaaS provider-turned quote-to-cash platform provider, say they've cracked the code to helping suppliers sell their wares through MSPs and internet telephony services providers (ITSPs) in a white-label model.

Viirtue CEO Dan Rosenrauch told Channel Futures that many of the partners in Viirtue's have evolved from only selling and serving white-label voice to delivering recurring MSP services.

Viirtue functions as both a quote-to-cash marketplace to connect vendors to resellers and a wholesaler that uses its sales volume to get better rates for resellers. Its line card of suppliers has expanded to include contact center as a service (CCaaS), UCaaS-oriented AI and cybersecurity. It may also include providers in the connectivity space, Rosenrauch said.

An Anti-TSD?

The mention of connectivity draws questions about how Viirtue's platform relates to the technology services distributor (TSD) community. TSDs, formerly known as master agents, connect partners to hundreds of as-a-service vendors. While most of Viirtue's vendors actually sell their offerings to partners, who then resell them under their own brand, solutions in the TSD portfolio keep their vendor name and are managed and billed by the vendor. This is also known as the agent or broker model partner.

Viirtue's Dan Rosenrauch

Viirtue in its capacity as a UCaaS provider has been a supplier in TSD portfolios and sold through the agent model. But Rosenrauch said Viirtue intends to create the "next generation of TSD," which will cater better to MSPs that suppliers want to reach.

Courting MSPs

Vendors, distributors and marketplaces across the tech landscape have been competing to earn traction with MSPs and their sticky customers. The marketplace from cloud distributor Pax8 caught the attention of the channel last year, but plenty of other players have sought to make their platforms more business-friendly. Broadline distributor Ingram Micro hired a former MSP owner to build new services, and technology services brokerage Telarus is recruiting MSPs to sell connectivity, UCaaS, CCaaS and cybersecurity in an agent model.

Will we see MSPs choosing a single distributor or marketplace to house all of is vendors and technology solutions? And will they settle on one model – whether white-label, agent or something else – for selling all types of technology?

Channel Futures spoke to Rosenrauch, members of the TSD community and partners that sell in both agent and MSP models.

Read their commentary in the six images above.