Top trends emerging in the telco and IT channel and why its good news for MSPs
In March we attended the Channel Partners Conference in Las Vegas and what a great event it was. With an opportunity to network with friends and industry colleagues, we also saw firsthand some interesting new trends emerging.
Often the focus is on new tech, but this is getting old. Adding to your tech stack is probably the last thing you want to do. Instead, probably higher on the list of priorities is figuring out how to optimize existing tech stacks and getting them to work in a way that’s maximizes benefits. Now we’re talking!
This is exactly what several top-notch tech companies are doing. They’re actively partnering with managed service providers (MSPs) to help them improve their efficiency for the benefit of their clients. If you’re an IT service provider, this is good news.
These partners are helping MSPs become more efficient at what they do, helping them to save time and costs. The result? More profits, happier clients, more clients, and more effective ways of working to retain and grow that profitability.
But how do you find that value at an event when every booth has a sales person is trying to sell you more stuff anyway? Well, we used our best tech ninja skills to dodge the slick sales pitches and find where the real value was lurking for MSPs. In this snapshot, we highlight a few of the leading tech companies to watch and what they’re offering to partners:
PrimeVOX
PrimeVOX is a nationwide Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and hosted private branch exchange (PBX) provider based in Houston, Texas. They have a strong reputation for providing excellent support and delivering a reliable phone service. As an MSP, what’s in it for you?
There’s access to a generous commission program including monthly payments for duration of customer lifespan with support from dedicated account managers. PrimeVOX offers an aggressive pricing structure, and their network boasts a 99.999% service-level agreement (SLA) guarantee. If that’s not impressive enough they guarantee they’ll pick up in three rings at their fully US-based customer service.
MSPs get access to key training resources, marketing support and materials. But it’s not all talk. They back this up with robust encryption for improved security and leverage cutting edge AI technology ensuring reliable connectivity. For that extra stamp of approval, they’re Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant and third party verified. For MSPs in telecoms, it’s worth looking into.
Datagate
What’s the biggest headache in telecoms other than connectivity? Billing! Datagate offers a telecom billing solution, designed specifically for MSPs and telecom providers to fit within their ecosystem. This means that you don’t have the headache of trying to manage standalone billing systems.
Datagate’s platform covers unified communications (UCaaS), VoIP, tolls, cellular and data, and includes data plans, subscription services and other usage-based plans. The solution doesn’t just generate invoices and statements, it also generates data for compliance reporting and risk remediation. For MSPs this means more headaches alleviated and more value delivered to clients – a win-win all round!
For MSPs already in telecoms, Datagate helps you to create efficiencies that ultimately contribute to growing your valuation. For MSPs considering getting into the telecoms game, it certainly makes entry easier by eliminating the complexities of building a billing system from scratch.
Keeper Security
In cybersecurity, they say it’s not if you get breached but when. Keeper Security is the leading provider of zero-trust and zero-knowledge cybersecurity software protecting passwords, passkeys, privileged access, secrets and remote connections, and has the very rare bragging rights of having never been breached. Not many companies can say that! Keeper is best known for password management, as the most secure, certified, tested and audited password security platform in the world.
Should your clients trust Keeper with your passwords? Thousands of companies already do. MSPs have a hard time keeping ahead of threats because they’re constantly evolving. Having a partner to help you provide password and passkey protection, secure remote access, encrypted messaging and privileged access is well worth considering.
KeeperMSP is a separate platform from Keeper’s enterprise product, where managed service providers can independently provision, manage and monitor multiple customers from a central admin dashboard, with robust reporting and Control (ools to enforce security and compliance requirements such as Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), SIEM integration and event reporting, and other regulatory and industry compliance mandates. If you want to see how all this works, there’s a free two-week trial for MSPs. Have any questions? You get direct access to their CTO to provide feedback and collaborate. This level of access is rare in a partnership offering.
CAVELO
If you’re an MSP in cybersecurity you know how noisy it can get – everyone trying to tell you what you should be doing and what you should be focusing on. Really what it comes down to is knowing how to identify the most essential data to protect and being proactive in your approach to data risk management. If you don’t already have all the tools to do this, Cavelo can help.
Cavelo offers proactive data discovery and inventory to identify what data needs protection. This includes detailed identity access management to understand who has done what, with what data. This type of data vulnerability analysis helps to prioritize what needs to be patched and in what order.
Cavelo’s platform is designed for MSPs to build a service around it. They’re a vendor with a channel first mindset, eager to meet MSPs and form new relationships. If you’d like more information, you can book a demo or watch a virtual platform tour.
ManageEngine
Need lots of tools in one place with an easy way to access them? This is what ManageEngine, a division of Zoho Corp offers. They have a portfolio of more than 60 enterprise IT management products, which includes solutions for identity and access management, IT service management, and unified endpoint management. They also provide tools that cover IT operations management and IT security.
The benefit to MSPs is transparent and affordable pricing on a broad variety of IT management products, and the ability to integrate tools contextually. ManageEngine also offers training and dedicated support to MSPs. Service providers also stand to benefit from our highly customizable solutions, thereby allowing them to tailor services to meet the specific needs of their clients.
BitTaxi
A bit different from the others on this list, BitTaxi is a distributor that is built on the web, for the web, and only the web. BitTaxi focuses solely on cloud-based solutions and have designed an easy-to-use platform that doesn’t have 20 years of clunky integration and allows commerce to happen efficiently without human interaction. That doesn’t mean it’s all robots thought—in fact, BitTaxi provides a ton of enablement to partners: sales enablement, acting as an extension of sales team, getting on calls with clients to help sell (and identify upsell/cross-sell opportunities), and ultimately have the institutional knowledge to help you build long-term value with your customers.
BitTaxi founder Sean Lentner knows the struggles faced by MSPs first-hand having started one himself. In fact, that’s why he started BitTaxi in the first place. It’s this kind of personalized approach that makes the partnership invaluable for MSPs. Want to take up that opportunity and chat with Sean? You can book a call here.
BDRSuite
We’ve talked about solutions and support. Now, BDRSuite is a comprehensive Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) solution developed by Vembu Technologies. They cover endpoints, cloud workloads, servers and virtual machines and offer an easy MSP partner integration to BDRSuite.
The benefit is being able to provide reliable data protection for clients with agentless backup features and flexible restore options. It’s a white label solution for MSP partners that allows you to customize the solution for clients and manage backups centrally.
BDRSuite comes with support in delivering reliable data protection services to clients, and partner focused training and technical support. For MSPs it’s a way to integrate backups into a service offering to clients while being able to offer flexible licensing models.
Abundant IoT
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) and energy efficiency may or may not be on a client’s radar (hint: they should be, and on yours too). Watch out – ESG reporting requirements (and potential for fines) are right around the corner in 2025. These requirements are something that enterprise and mid-market companies might be well aware of, but small and midsized businesses (SMBs) not so much. It could also represent a huge upsell opportunity for MSPs.
Enter Abundant IoT. Abundant leverages sensors to seamlessly integrate connectivity with energy, driving efficiency and innovation in their operations. This involves reviewing legacy systems for efficiency gains, helping companies manage multiple disjointed systems and report on carbon emissions. Here’s another term to become familiar with: eIoT, which refers to the energy data in an internet of things (IoT) network and is a term Abundant IoT has embraced.
In partnership with Abundant IoT, MSPs can help clients to implement cleantech which has the potential to increase energy efficiency and reduce costs. This may involve consolidation into a single network or fewer tools, specifically tools that that have AI decision support. Energy efficiency is set to become an increasingly important aspect of business. MSPs that can help clients navigate this complex territory can gain a competitive advantage. This is made easier by Abundant IoTs ability to easily scale and make ESG reporting much easier. Want to learn more? Abundant IoT has an upcoming webinar to go over energy and IoT updates, new products in their ecosystem and more. Register here.
Channel Program
For MSPs, finding the right partners and managing those relationships can be challenging. Say hello to Channel Program – a homepage destination, providing resources to help MSPs select the right partners. As an added bonus, they actually pay MSPs to review technologies.
An updated database of reviews provides insight to MSPs so that they know what a partnership with a specific vendor really looks like. The benefits to MSPs are that there’s little risk and no commitment required. With a single login you get access to a database that can help you choose the best partners to help you deliver services to your clients. No more spreadsheets or agonizing over partnership options. Plus, there’s an industry event calendar you can easily reference if you have the inclination to be directly hounded by salespeople. Just kidding, we know there’s a time and a place! But seriously, Channel Program sounds like a no brainer. Want to see for yourself? Check out Channel Program’s NaviStack here.
Snapshot Wrap
For MSPs tasked with managing complex IT environments, there’s huge value in having partnerships with tech companies that focus on helping MSPs deliver benefits to clients and more. And it’s the “more” that makes all the difference.
Now we know reviewing nine companies seems like a lot, but it’s nothing compared to the thousands of tech tools that are out there. These nine caught our eye because of the value they place on partnerships with MSPs. Going it alone in the competitive world of IT service providers is not necessary when there are top notch tech companies offering something of value. Check out the links, especially the demos and free trials.
Tech companies offering partnerships and support to MSPs are demonstrating that they understand the value that MSPs have to offer in the industry. We particularly like the focus on enabling MSPs to provide better services to their customers and become more profitable in the process – let’s face it, who wouldn’t?
Here at ChannelBytes we’re always on the lookout for what’s new or what companies are doing differently in the world of B2B tech. If you want to read more of these snapshots, hit the subscribe button and they’ll go straight to your inbox. And if you have tech news that you think we need to know about, let’s connect and collab.
