N-able Empower Day 2: Addressing MSPs' Most Pressing Needs for Business Success

N-ABLE EMPOWER 2022 — During day two of Empower 2022, N-able outlined what MSPs want from the company and how it’s addressing those needs.

David Weeks is N-able’s senior director of partner experience. He told MSP partners that N-able’s success is “dependent on all of you in this room.”

N-able’s David Weeks

“All of you look to your peers for guidance, business decisions and sales decisions,” he said. “We want you to do that and will try to foster that in 2023, to give more access to your peers.”

There’s varying levels in terms of everybody on their journey as a service provider, Weeks said. All have hit obstacles, struggled and experienced wins.

“All of you are not competitors,” he said. “Everybody outside of this room is a competitor. You will continue to be market leaders in this industry. ”

MSPs are now small and midsize enterprises, Weeks said.

“You have all grown to that level,” he said. “Harness that, brag about it and be proud of it. We as a vendor have the best MSPs in the world. Everything you do is completely different from everyone else in this industry. It’s all about learning, educating and understanding what each of us require.”

Weeks said N-able wants homework from MSPs after the conference.

“We will respond and make sure you get what you need after the fact.”

6 Things N-able MSPs Want

Kevin Bury (pictured on stage above, Oct. 5) is N-able’s senior vice president and chief customer officer. He outlined a list of six things MSPs said they want from N-able.

Those are:

“This year has been exciting for our partner business,” Bury said. “We’ve expanded the team, added services and so much more. There are about 100 people on my team exclusively focused on your success. We’ve continued to build on that in 2022.”

N-able launched N-hanced services based on partner feedback, he said.

“N-hanced services unlocks the full potential of your N-able products,” Bury said. “That’s something we’re leaning into.”

N-able also conducts health checks to ensure partners are getting more value from its products, he said.

In addition, later this year, N-able is launching on-site product boot camps with in-person, deep training, Bury said.

Other ways N-able is helping MSPs succeed are through partner success managers, growth strategists and a partner care organization, he said.

N-able conducts strategic/executive business reviews with MSPs, Bury said. During these, two questions are addressed. Those include “What’s most important for you and your business?” and “Where are you in your relationship with N-able?”

“We’re going to ask you very candid questions,” he said. “It’s critical to us helping you achieve that.”

MSPs Undergoing Business Transformation Challenges

Robert Wilburn is N-able’s vice president of partner growth. He said over the past year N-able has conducted “deep dives” with more than 150 MSPs.

“Two things jumped out,” he said. “No 1, the top MSPs are …

… playing a different game. The way they’re running their companies, it’s almost like playing a completely different game. Second, most MSPs are undergoing some business transformation challenge.”

Rarely can an MSPs move to that next level in terms of going upmarket and increasing revenue by doing the same things they’ve done before, Wilburn said. To help MSPs with this, N-able earlier this year launched a set of business transformation programs. N-able brings in industry practitioners to facilitate the conversation. Operational efficiency is among the topics.

N-able’s Robert Wilburn

“The feedback has been tremendous,” he said. “They’re excited about actual transformation in these businesses.”

N-able also announced a benchmark program pre-launch, allowing MSPs to benchmark against their peers. Wilburn said it’s a “powerful conversation starter.”

Bury said MarketBuilder is also available to provide content purpose-built for MSPs to market themselves and their services. Whether looking to attract new customers or deepen relationships with current customers, MarketBuilder is “powerful and valuable.”

“We’re in a constant relationship, listening and trying to give you what you’re looking for,” he said.

N-able Partners On Board

Rex Easter is COO of PCA Technology Solutions.

“We’ve been an N-able partner since 2005, so we definitely get what we need from N-able for what N-able says they’re going to deliver,” he said. “N-able isn’t able to fill all MSP needs, but they’re good at what they can provide. But from N-able we’re getting exactly what they promise to deliver.”

The IT field is an ever-growing, ever-evolving industry, Easter said.

“N-able is doing their best to stay ahead of what we need, while also staying secure,” he said. “Security is ever evolving and the bad guys are ever evolving. I think they’re doing their best to keep up with it.”

Lisa Niekamp-Urwin is president and CEO of Tomorrow’s Technology Today. She said she’s getting everything she needs from N-able for success.

“I’ve gone through their business transformation program, and worked with them on both the operational efficiency and co-managed,” she said. “I’ve taken great strides from each of those workshops and used that to keep improving the business. I work with my partner success manager and he helps me a lot. We stay in touch. I think it’s great that they are doing business reviews with us just like we do with our clients. Working with us is a great partnership.”

James Emmett is a system engineer at Impact360. He said he learned there are things he was not specifically aware of in terms of N’able’s offerings. He said his only complaint is that some of the training sessions should have been more accommodating to users with varying levels of experience. This was particularly needed when addressing automation.

“That one kind of jumped very quickly to advanced stuff and was very fast-paced,” he said. “I think that is an area that could be improved upon because there are lots of very unique tools, but if somebody has never experienced them before or didn’t know about them, you can’t jump into something too advanced right off the bat. It needs to be taken a bit slower. Maybe having some hands-on … and you could have a test environment and they can walk people through some of these tool kits.”

Going Heavy on Cybersecurity

Stefan Voss is N-able’s vice president of product management. He said N-able is going pretty heavy on cybersecurity in its products.

“Our CSO was up on stage talking about all the ways to remediate risk,” he said. “And so the way that ties into Cove Data Protection among others is that it gives you protection copies, backup copies that are isolated that will be more likely to get to when you have to restore from a destructive cyberattack. So we covered a fair amount of ground there. The second piece is cloud. We’re cloud-first. We’re not cloud-only. But these advantages of just having data protection software that is SaaS -based is very similar to the benefits you would see with Microsoft 365.”

In addition, N-able’s products are addressing the ongoing skills shortage, Voss said. For example, N-able handles software patching infrastructure.

“It’s hard to retain people, but if you don’t spend time managing and maintaining patching infrastructure, you can really free up time,” he said. “So some of our MSPs going from five guys down to one, doing it part time. Now you can make that time available for whatever it is you want to do – SOC as a service, analytics – there are other revenue-generating things they can actually do with this time. So it makes sense.”