Partner content: 'Customer acquisition is the number one challenge facing MSPs' - Kaseya Q&A
Director of product marketing John Emmitt on the challenges, and opportunities, facing MSPs
As part of CRN's MSP Transform event taking place on 23 June, we catch up with Kaseya about how MSPs can capture the UK's post-Covid recovery.
Register for free to join MSP Transform on 23 June here. The event will feature panels and discussions with the UK's top reseller and MSP decision makers. Click here to view the full agenda.
What is the biggest challenge that your partners (VARs, MSPs, etc) will face this year, and how have you helped them combat these?
The top challenge for many MSPs is new customer acquisition. Coming out of the pandemic, many MSPs are looking to grow their businesses again and customer acquisition was the number one challenge in our 2021 MSP benchmark survey.
Kaseya helps its customers in a couple of ways. First, we provide Kaseya Powered Services to significantly improve sales and marketing for our MSP partners. Powered Services delivers the most valuable assets and tools in the channel, enabling MSPs to go-to-market successfully and profitably.
Second, Kaseya's IT Complete platform offers a wide range of IT management and security solutions that MSPs can leverage to add new services to their portfolio. Our Security Suite includes managed Security Operations Center (SOC) services, email security, dark web monitoring and more. These security solutions help our MSP partners acquire new customers and expand their footprint in existing accounts.
What do you see as the biggest opportunity for your partners over the next 12-18 months?
Our 2021 MSP Benchmark Survey showed that the biggest area of opportunity for MSPs is in cybersecurity. There was a huge uptick in cyberattacks over the past year and MSP clients are looking to their MSPs for help securing their businesses. MSPs can evolve from providing Antivirus and firewalls to providing a comprehensive set of offerings for "proactive" defenses (end-user security training, anti-phishing, dark web monitoring) to advanced detection and response by leveraging Kaseya's managed SOC offering.
What impact will customers returning to offices and adopting hybrid working models have on your business?
The hybrid work model means that MSPs will have to continue supporting remote (work from home) users while also setting up and supporting office workers. It costs more to deliver IT services to companies using a hybrid work model. MSPs need IT management tools that boost operational efficiency just to keep up with the increased demand on IT. Kaseya is laser focused on delivering IT tools that drive efficiency and reduce costs for MSPs. They can cut costs by 25% or more through efficiency gains and hard cost savings on hardware and software.
What one technology trend will shape the IT channel the most over the next 12-18 months?
Cybersecurity technologies will shape the managed services channel over the next 12-18 months. Advanced threat protection, EDR, backup and disaster recovery (BDR), and other security technologies will drive business growth for MSPs over this timeframe. Kaseya's VSA Remote Monitoring and Management solution, integrates with AV/AM/EDR, BDR and managed SOC services to enable efficient IT service delivery.
What is your advice to partners to grow their business with you this year?
MSPs are in a unique position to help their clients successfully adapt to the new economic environment and grow their businesses. They need to leverage a comprehensive IT platform like Kaseya IT Complete, to deliver the security, compliance, and endpoint management services that their customers desperately need to thrive in 2021 and beyond. In addition, with offerings like Kaseya Powered Services, MSPs can more effectively go to market, acquire new customers, and grow their business.
John Emmitt is director of product marketing at Kaseya