Logicalis looks to bolster small MSPs
Larry Walsh examines the integrator's latest move to support smaller VARs in the quest for managed services growth
Logicalis is already one of the world's largest VARs, operating on three continents and providing an array of product, services and professional support to enterprises. It's now setting its sights on the SMB managed services market, but not entering directly.
Instead, Logicalis has launched a programme that supports SMB MSPs.
The Logicalis MSP Expert Extension Team is designed to provide this segment with expertise, technology, expert support, financing and marketing. One possible result is smaller MSPs will grow better and faster.
Julie Spiller, director of IBM sales at Logicalis US, has been quoted as saying: "We have the ability to extend our partnerships and our success as a large, global MSP to small to midsized MSPs that need help scaling their businesses to meet growing demand for managed services. We are offering full and complete access to all Logicalis' MSP services and relationships to our registered MEET partners."
MEET provides participating MSPs with five areas of support:
*Access to vendors with services-enabling technology
*Financing programmes that regulate cash flow and bridge investment costs
*Access to technology that provide MSPs with better automation, management and reporting capabilities
*Business and technology development resources, including professional sales and engineering teams, to build better infrastructure and management systems
*Marketing and training to build brand value and attract new customers that lead to higher revenue
The programme is similar to efforts being made by vendors such as IBM to crack the managed services and cloud categories by supporting VARs and MSPs in indirect market development. Expansion leads to the need for more support and infrastructure, which results in sales to the vendor.
Logicalis is different, though, as it is both an integrator and partner to vendors. In some regards, it's also a competitor to the MSPs it's trying to help.
What Logicalis may be doing is looking to tap a new market to accelerate its own sales. The SMB managed services market is huge, with as many as 60,000 providers in North America alone. With a total addressable market of that size, Logicalis could potentially expand consumption of its resources and products without having to tap into the broader enterprise market.
Many hardware vendors are experimenting with ways of redirecting their reseller partners to service providers in an effort to stimulate cloud consumption and greater product sales.
The Logicalis MEET programme could in my view signal a new era where larger solution providers develop their own channels to stimulate and accelerate sales expansion.
Larry Walsh is president and chief executive of Channelnomics
As part of our special editorial partnership, CRN is republishing this article from Channelnomics