Category Archives for "Managed Services News"

Comcast Business and several of its peers in the IT/telecommunications industry made an acquisition in the last month.

Our latest consolidation roundup features some of the biggest vendors in the industry. The Comcast acquisition of Masergy sent ripples through the traditional telecom channel and put pressure on rival cablecos, as did Lumen‘s decision to sell its ILEC business. Security providers Check Point and Ivanti both acquired technology partners, and other cybersecurity vendors made acquisitions.

We also saw consolidation on the partner side as Upstack bought another agent and NetGain bought a fellow MSP.

Not every story made the cut, but you can still read about them on our website. For example, ServiceNow bought an indoor mapping and wayfinding provider to improve its hybrid work strategy.

Go through the 13 images above to see the latest channel-impacting transactions.

Did you miss our previous M&A gallery? Check that out here.

A reorganization at Google Cloud puts its technical management team under the direction of CEO Thomas Kurian. The move reportedly is to help grow Google Cloud’s market share.

Google Cloud continued to trail Amazon and Microsoft in the cloud infrastructure services market during the second quarter, according to Synergy Research Group. Its share was 10%, while Amazon had 33% and Microsoft had 20%.

Google Cloud’s Brad Calder

According to ZDNet, Brad Calder will take over product and engineering for the cloud unit. In addition, Urs Hölzle will take over technical infrastructure for Google overall.

Hölzle had overseen parts of the day-to-day product engineering efforts for Google Cloud.

The reorganization was outlined internally by Google Cloud. It comes as the company has scaled its revenue, focused on industry sales and landed large enterprise accounts under Kurian, ZDNet said.

Google Cloud’s Urs Hölzle

Calder becomes the leader of Google Cloud‘s product and engineering team as vice president of engineering product for Google Cloud/Technical Infrastructure. He joined Google Cloud in 2015.

Hölzle will continue as senior vice president of technical infrastructure and Google Fellow. He will also continue to collaborate and work closely with Kurian as well as Google CEO Sundar Pichai. However, his focus will be on long-term architecture and infrastructure across Google.

When we reached out to the company, Google Cloud sent us the following statement:

“As Google Cloud grows, we regularly evaluate the best organizational structure to better scale our business and provide a world-class experience for our customers.”

Pandemic-fueled adoption translated into more business in 2020 than ever before for Google Cloud. The company also brought on more indirect resellers than the previous year.

Comcast Business and several of its peers in the IT/telecommunications industry made an acquisition in the last month.

Our latest consolidation roundup features some of the biggest vendors in the industry. The Comcast acquisition of Masergy sent ripples through the traditional telecom channel and put pressure on rival cablecos, as did Lumen‘s decision to sell its ILEC business. Security providers Check Point and Ivanti both acquired technology partners, and other cybersecurity vendors made acquisitions.

We also saw consolidation on the partner side as Upstack bought another agent and NetGain bought a fellow MSP.

Not every story made the cut, but you can still read about them on our website. For example, ServiceNow bought an indoor mapping and wayfinding provider to improve its hybrid work strategy.

Go through the 13 images above to see the latest channel-impacting transactions.

Did you miss our previous M&A gallery? Check that out here.

Kaseya on Thursday unveiled expansion plans in Canada, with a focus on hiring local tech talent as well as expanding its office space in Vancouver.

In addition to expansion in Western Canada, Kaseya now serves Unitrends and Spanning Office 365 customers through two data centers in Quebec and Ontario.

The Unitrends data center in Ontario will serve Unitrends Endpoint Backup customers, while Spanning customers will be served through the Amazon Web Services (AWS) regional data center in Quebec.

Due to more demand for Kaseya’s IT Complete suite of solutions, the company plans to add 75 new positions in Vancouver by the end of 2022. These opportunities include roles in Kaseya’s account management, and research and development teams. They work across Kaseya’s 27 IT Complete modules.

Stronger Customer Experience for MSPs

Holly Pateman is Kaseya‘s senior vice president of product marketing.

Kaseya’s Holly Pateman

“Kaseya is a customer-centric organization,” she said. “And the company’s Vancouver expansion provides MSPs across the globe with an even stronger customer experience, and even more of the features and integrations that they’ve come to expect from Kaseya. Additionally, the newest data centers for Unitrends and Spanning allow Canadian customers to store their data within the country to comply with data sovereignty regulations. Because this expansion is focused on meeting our customers’ needs, we do see this as a competitive advantage for us.”

Kaseya has continued to grow its customer base across the globe, Pateman said. However, it has seen increased demand in Canada. That’s due to the need for solutions that are “priced right and allow MSPs to automate away manual tasks in order to increase profit.”

“The digital transformation we saw from the pandemic has significantly impacted Canadian companies,” she said. “And we expect a greater number of MSPs to search for the types of solutions that Kaseya offers.”

In addition to Canada, Kaseya is rapidly expanding in its Miami headquarters in the United States, as well as in Dublin, Ireland, Pateman said.

“Kaseya feels strongly that in-person collaboration strengthens an organization, which is why the company feels it is important to expand its space in Vancouver to accommodate its fast-growing team,” she said.

Here at Corel, we believe that the decisive factor in ensuring great relationships with our customers and business partners is quality. This relates to both the quality of the products we offer, as well as the quality of the partnership we provide and maintain with each of our business partners.

Our goal as the Channel Partner team is to earn the trust and appreciation of every single company we work with, no matter how big or small. We want our partners to see our team as an extension of their own: there to help them achieve the goals they’ve set, whether that means providing the resources they need to effectively market and sell our products, or offering dedicated partner sales support or 24/7 access to online training so they can accelerate profitability and growth.

As outlined in a previous post, our new Channel Partner Program is founded on “the three Ps”: People, Processes and Products.

But that’s just the tip of the spear. The Corel Channel Partner Program also embodies a set of core values that are ingrained within every aspect of our team. These eight values guide everything from who we hire and how we train them, to the processes and workflows we create and follow, to the approach we take to nurture and develop deep, long-lasting relationships with our partners.

These eight values include:

1. Growth Mindset: Our actions are aimed to foster and develop growth with our partners.
2. Extreme Commitment: We recognize the value of our partner relationships and will continue to nurture them.
3. Consistent Communication: We produce valuable marketing assets and strive to deliver timely messaging.
4. Listen Intently: Our partners’ needs are our top priority, and we pay careful attention to this.
5. Maniacal Focus: We have high energy and attention to detail.
6. Results Orientation: We define, measure and report goals to optimize.
7. Performance Agility: We are flexible and adapt with the times.
8. Have Fun: We genuinely care and enjoy what we do.

Building strong relationships with our partners is central to Corel’s partner program—that’s why our first two values are focused so strongly on the “People” part of “the three Ps”.

The Channel Partner team is also committed to understanding each partner’s business so we can work together to build a customized go-to-market plan. This is why our third value focuses on communication, which is an essential part of building any effective process—the second of “the three Ps.”

Finally, the third of “the three Ps,” or “Products”, is embodied within the rest of these values. We make time to really listen to our partners, so we understand how to make to make our products even better.

We also prioritize measuring and analyzing results so we can identify ways to improve—and then we ensure that we remain agile enough as a team to act accordingly. Because, at the end of the day, we believe that the service our channel team provides is a product in and of itself.

Our No. 1 priority is to help our partners be successful and accelerate their growth. These eight values allow us to orient everything we do to meet this priority.

Interested in joining us? Partner with Corel today!

Jaime Becker is based in Austin, Texas, and joined Corel in 2021 as the Global Channel Chief. She leads the company’s sales and marketing initiatives for Corel’s global partner ecosystem. Jaime holds an MBA from St. Edward’s University and a BA in Marketing from Texas State University.

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.

Amazon Web Services is down one executive in the form of Charlie Bell. On Wednesday, top AWS competitor Microsoft officially acknowledged Bell as an executive vice president, although not in the Azure division. Rather, Bell will oversee a new division focused on security.

But he’s not in charge just yet. There are some legal issues to overcome.

Our slideshow above offers the skinny on Bell’s new role and what Microsoft is doing to get him started.

Converge Technology Solutions and Bam Boom Cloud are among recipients of the 2021 Ingram Micro Cloud Partner Awards.

The Ingram Micro Cloud partner awards highlight partners who drive end-user digital transformation within the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace. Key criteria included overall cloud business growth, peer-to-peer leadership, and level of engagement and alignment with Ingram Micro Cloud.

Ingram Micro’s Victor Baez

Victor Baez is senior vice president of global cloud at Ingram Micro Cloud.

“Digital transformation is not slowing, and neither is the hard work of our elite partners,” he said. “We are proud to recognize this distinguished group of channel partners who continue to deliver best-in-class programs that are typified by superior tech talent, an array of expertise and excellent thought leadership.”

The 2021 Ingram Micro Cloud partner awards categories are Reseller Partner of the Year, Marketplace Growth Partner of the Year, Solutions Partner MVPs and Breakthrough Partner of the Year.

The award winners by country are as follows:

United States

• Reseller Partner of the Year – Converge Technology Solutions
• Marketplace Growth Partner of the Year – GreenPages Technology Solutions
• Solution Partner MVP, IaaS – The Henson Group
• Breakthrough Partner of the Year – Lindsay Rae Perry Consulting
• Solution Partner MVP, Business Applications – Bam Boom Cloud
• Solution Partner MVP, Communication and Collaboration – Link Computer
• Breakthrough Partner of the Year – Network Doctor
• Solution Partner MVP, Security – WrightCore
• Solution Partner MVP, IaaS – Oak Rocket (formerly Kaizen)

Austria

• Reseller Partner of the Year – Axians ICT Austria
  Solution Partner MVP, Security – MP2 IT Solutions

Chile

• Solution Partner MVP, Security-IaaS – Ecomsur
• Reseller Partner of the Year – Last Call
• Marketplace Growth Partner of the Year – Tibox
• Reseller Partner of the Year – EGS

Colombia

• Reseller Partner of the Year – ITSE
• Marketplace Growth Partner of the Year – Advanced IT Consulting Services

France

• Solution Partner MVP, Security – Devensys Cybersecurity
• Solution Partner MVP, Backup & Disaster Recovery – Document Store
• Reseller Partner of the Year – Exakis Nelite
• Marketplace Growth Partner of the Year – JLL
• Breakthrough Partner of the Year – LCS Group

Germany

• Solution Partner MVP, IaaS – Basys EDV-Systeme

Hong Kong

• Reseller Partner of the Year – Nova Technology

Hungary

• Reseller Partner of the Year – Ingressus Kft.

India

• Reseller Partner of the Year – Embee Software
• Solution Partner MVP, Security – Logix Infosecurity
• Breakthrough Partner of the Year – PSR IT Services
• Solution Partner MVP, IaaS – Minfy Technologies
• Marketplace Growth Partner of the Year – Techjockey Infotech
• Solution Partner MVP, Communication and Collaboration – Sonata Software
• Solution Partner MVP, Business Applications – Matrix Technologies

Mexico

• Reseller Partner of the Year – Aevitas
• Breakthrough Partner of the Year – Cadgraphics
• Marketplace Growth Partner of the Year – Compucad
• Solution Partner MVP, Security – Cyberpeace

Peru

• Reseller Partner of the Year – Zeit Peru

Poland

• Solution Partner MVP, Security-IaaS – CompuTec
• Reseller Partner of the Year – Omega Enterprise Services

Spain

• Marketplace Growth Partner of the Year – Abast
• Reseller Partner of the Year – Ricoh Espana
• Solution Partner MVP, Backup & Disaster Recovery – ACK Storm

United Kingdom

• Marketplace Growth Partner of the Year – Example IT

No matter how you slice it, broadband internet is big business. Cable internet is imperative for many SMBs and small enterprises for cloud computing, unified communications (UC) and connecting to other enterprise applications. Cable also pairs well with newer SD-WAN technologies so that customers can run more intelligent and efficient networks. And, while some customers are moving to faster fiber circuits, there’s a large customer segment that will continue to rely on cable internet like coax to meet internet backup requirements and connect to enterprise cloud apps.

The Downside of Selling Broadband

However, as a technology advisor, selling broadband internet is no picnic. That’s because selling cable, whether coax or fiber, has traditionally been an incredibly time-consuming and manually driven process. Let’s review the major sticking points.

1. The middle-man game: One of the biggest challenges is that technology advisors must go through third parties to access serviceability and pricing information. With a high level of coordination needed, it often takes several hours, if not days, to prospect each potential customer.
2. Manual-driven: Tracking down serviceability and pricing information generally requires going to each cable provider portal, inputting addresses and pulling that information to prepare a quote. Taking the approved quote and generating the contract also takes several manual steps and requires multiple emails. Prospecting for multisite locations is even more labor-intensive.
3. Low ROI: The manual nature of selling cable means that often small cable contracts equate to low-value opportunities. And potential multi-site cable contracts that offer high MRR (monthly recurring revenue) are often too time-consuming and cost-prohibitive to pursue. As a result, many technology advisors don’t pursue new cable deals or they fail to cross-sell cable services with existing customers, leaving money on the table.
4. Written proof: Another factor is that customers want to see accurate price quotes for each location in writing before moving to the contract phase. Coordinating with third parties to obtain written quotes is exceptionally challenging, and it can often delay or kill opportunities.
5. High customer expectations: In 2020, the customer experience was the No. 1 key brand differentiator, beating out both product and price. And it’s no different when selling cable services. Whether customers are looking for cable internet for one location or 100 locations, they expect the same level of service.

Finally, Technology That Accelerates Your Success

There’s new technology available that is changing the rules when it comes to selling cable services. Some master agencies offer tools to give technology advisors access to cable serviceability and pricing information directly, eliminating the need to coordinate with third parties to generate quotes and contracts. Here’s what to look for in evaluating cable selling tools.

• Automated and self-service: The best cable selling tools should be self-service and enable technology advisors to look up customer locations, serviceability and pricing for cable services from multiple carriers from a single interface.  Click on Page 2 to continue reading…
  

The “chaos factor” created by remote work has made it even more difficult for organizations to get employees to focus on security awareness.

That’s according to KnowBe4, which released its 2021 State of Privacy and Security Awareness Report on Thursday. It’s based on a random sampling of 1,000 U.S. employees in both SMB and large enterprises.

The report sought to gauge how much cybersecurity training employees get, and the impact it has on security and privacy best practices. The commissioned study asked a variety of questions on general cybersecurity and data privacy knowledge. It addition, it asked about the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on training.

Disappointing Highlights

Highlights from the security awareness report include:

• Only 48% of employees believe it is likely or very likely that their mobile device could become infected with malware if they click on a suspicious email link or attachment.
• Employees trained once a month are 34% more likely to believe clicking on a suspicious email link or attachment is risky than those who receive training no more than twice a year.
• Only 31% of employees feel they understand business email compromise (BEC) very well and can explain it to others. That’s despite the fact that this attack vector is a huge and growing problem that costs businesses many millions of dollars each year.
• A little more than half of employees had continuous cybersecurity and data privacy training continue throughout the lockdowns caused by the pandemic.
• An average of 44% of respondents were not sure whether their employer was subject to six different privacy regulations. That includes the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
• The finance industry is the most likely to receive security awareness training. Some 91% of finance employees reporting having received some form of training.

Negative Attitude Toward Training

Perry Carpenter is chief evangelist and strategy officer at KnowBe4.

KnowBe4’s Perry Carpenter

“Honestly, we were not super surprised by the results,” he said. “In my former role as a Gartner analyst, I constantly heard security and compliance leaders lament the state of compliance training. And, frankly, the way that compliance training was positioned by vendor and organizations was that it is a necessary evil. Because there has traditionally been such a negative attitude toward this type of training, we should not be surprised when we see lackluster results. And, in general, this mediocrity has existed both on the vendor side, as well as the organizations implementing such training.”

The situation gets worse with remote work, Carpenter said.

“Employees have much less segmentation in their lives than ever before,” he said. “And organizations have a much harder struggle to capture the attention of their employees for any type of training or activity that may seem irrelevant, boring or not in tune with today’s reality.”

Compliance and Cybersecurity Awareness Are Different Concepts

Organizations should view compliance and cybersecurity awareness as separate concepts, Carpenter said.

“There is minimal overlap here, if any,” he said. “Some compliance mandates may require security awareness. But security awareness, itself, is not compliance. Security awareness is about helping people make more secure decisions. It is about driving secure behaviors. And it is about reinforcing all of that by weaving security values throughout the fabric of the organization. So, increasing cybersecurity awareness involves everything from traditional communications and training techniques, to very nuanced behavior-shaping processes and organizational culture management strategies.”

The awareness is there, but organizations do not necessarily see themselves as potentially becoming a victim, Carpenter said.

“They must realize that they could just as easily be on the other side of the coin,” he said. “Unfortunately, awareness does not always lead to proactive countermeasures to fight these sorts of issues. Hard questions must be asked of executives. Also, having a disaster preparedness plan is critical.”

Stu Sjouwerman, KnowBe4‘s CEO, calls the findings “alarming.”

“[The results] highlight the critical need to implement new-school security awareness training for every U.S. employee throughout every organization in this nation,” he said. “Going a step further to build a security-minded culture becomes essential as cybercriminals pose greater threats to business operations.”

ServiceNow is again extending the presence of Microsoft Teams, which is available with the new Now Platform Rome release. The IT and workforce management platform provider has announced with Microsoft its third Teams integration partnership in two years.

Rome, the latest ServiceNow platform update, went live on Thursday. The Now Platform Rome release introduces Employee Center, a modern intranet solution that integrates with Teams. ServiceNow is the latest provider with a tool that provides personalized access to organizational resources. ServiceNow’s new Employee Center provides a common user interface that delivers personalized information to workers. It provides a single portal to resources including IT, HR, facilities, procurement and finance.

ServiceNow describes Employee Center as a collaborative app that its platform’s users can embed into Teams. The integration of Teams brings its chat, channels and meetings to ServiceNow’s Employee Center portal interface. As employees return to offices and work experiences become more hybrid, ServiceNow officials determined that workers now expect these capabilities.

ServiceNow’s Blake McConnell

“One of our longstanding principles in employee workflow has been meeting the employee where they are,” said Blake McConnell, ServiceNow’s senior VP of employee workflow products. “And that’s not just through a mobile device, or through a conversational interface. Employees are in collaboration apps like Microsoft Teams.”

Partnership History

McConnell told Channel Futures that both companies this year broadened their 2019 agreement to integrate Microsoft Teams into ServiceNow. Initially, in 2019, ServiceNow and Microsoft partnered to bring Teams chatbots into the ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM) environment. Earlier this year, ServiceNow and Microsoft announced another partnership focused on bringing Teams, SharePoint, Microsoft Threat Vulnerability Management (TVM) and Azure Sentinel into the ServiceNow’s Security Operations Management Suite.

“We do think Employee Center is the stepping-stone journey to a next-gen intranet, based upon how employees work today how employees want to get work done,” McConnell said.

The pandemic, which in many organizations has resulted in new hybrid work environments, was a key factor in developing Employee Center as part of the Now Platform Rome, according to McConnell. Employee Center could drive organizations to ServiceNow beyond those that have chosen it for ITSM, or operations management, he added.

“Ultimately, the more … self-service interactions you can push through these interfaces, the more targeted [communications], the better engagement you get,” McConnell said. “I just think it’s a moment in time where companies are really thinking about the workforce in a way that they haven’t thought about the workforce historically. And that’s why it’s time to rethink some of these interfaces or interactions.”

AI, Automation and Industry-Specific Features

The updated Now Platform Rome also introduces new AI and automation capabilities. The new release aims to improve workflows and resolve customer and employee issues faster, according to ServiceNow. For example, the company designed the new Customer Service Playbooks: Focused Layout to accelerate agents’ ability to resolve service requests.

Also in the new Now Platform Rome are enhanced industry solutions. For example, Manufacturing Connected Workforce includes Operational Technology Management. Financial Services Operations includes new client life cycle operations, complaint management and treasury management. And for communications service providers, it includes new Order Management for Telecommunications.

Finally, Healthcare and Life Sciences Service Management is an electronic health platform for health care providers, insurers and life sciences companies. Among other features, it includes ServiceNow’s Vaccine Administration Management (VAM) solution, designed to enable more effective vaccine administration, distribution and monitoring.