Now you're speaking my language: ConnectWise CEO outlines continental Europe push

Arnie Bellini talks to CRN sister publication Channelnomics Europe about plans to roll out German, French, Spanish and Swedish versions of products

ConnectWise is planning to gain more traction among continental European partners through rolling out country-specific versions of its products to key markets by 2018, CRN sister publication Channelnomics Europe has reported.

Speaking to Channelnomics Europe, CEO Arnie Bellini (pictured) said that the firm's ConnectWise Business Suite, a platform containing management, automation, and billing products for IT companies, will be translated from English into various European languages including German, Swedish, French, and Spanish, in 2018.

Bellini said that adapting ConnectWise's product to suit specific European markets will enable the firm to grow its business on the continent.

"The internationalisation of our ConnectWise Business Suite will be completed in 2018, so that we can accommodate any country anywhere in Europe. We are doing a lot of business here in the UK and we are doing a decent amount of business in Sweden, Belgium and Germany and we expect that to pick up as our product is adapted to different languages," he said.

"[It will be] for all of the countries that we are currently doing business in. Germany will be first, then Sweden, but we also want France and we are working on Spain. There is an equal amount of market opportunity right here in Europe than we have in North America. With our dedication to the European market, and our London office, we are seeking to get a larger share of the European market."

ConnectWise opened up shop in London in 2014 as its EMEA headquarters, and has since been focused on growing the firm's headcount and customer base in the UK. Bellini said that headcount has grown by 400 per cent in the UK over the past two years, and claims that EMEA now represents 17 per cent of ConnectWise's overall sales.

Location, location, location
Bellini said that he has ambitions to open another European office in either Germany or Belgium in 2018 as part of his commitment to the European market.

"This is our EMEA headquarters, so we are going to build that our first. Probably the next place will be Australia then my guess is either in Germany or Belgium. I hope we can start putting people in an office as soon as 2018," he said.

ConnectWise is not the only management platform vendor to have landed in Europe in the last few years. One if its biggest rivals Kaseya set up an EMEA headquarters in Dublin last year.

Bellini said that, while ConnectWise contends with Kaseya and other rivals such as SolarWinds and Autotask on a regular basis, he claims that his firm is consistently winning business from its competitors as partners look for a more complete solution.

"We believe tech solution providers want a single platform to run their business, and that is what we have set out to achieve. All of our competitors are more focused on just one facet of the industry. SolarWinds is more on networking management, Kaseya is more on the MSP side… [our competitors] have more of a narrow focus but we can focus on the entire business," he said.

"We help you manage your business with our professional services solution that we call Manage. Then we help you automate with our Automate product - where we directly compete with SolarWinds and Kaseya. They either have no professional services automation solution, or a very light one. They are not taking care of the entire business and that is where we differentiate ourselves. Tech solution providers are looking for a full platform, not a partial platform."

ConnectWise acquired a remote support player in the shape of ScreenConnect in 2015, and Bellini said the firm is currently looking at more acquisition targets.

"We are always looking for that next solution that our customers need. We do have other acquisitions that we are looking at right now," he said. "The sole purpose of making additional acquisitions is to help customers become more successful in their own business. I would not say it is about expanding our portfolio but more about ‘what is the next solution that they need?'."