Kaseya software expansion, sales support targets MSPs

Integrating the Kaseya software portfolio

The prospect of adding new capabilities to existing products, purchasing new software and bundling applications and hardware together to create a single pane of glass for network administrators prompted Brett Johnson, president of Simpleroute LLC, an MSP based in South Burlington, Vt., to speculate on how far Kaseya can build out its product.

Securing a $500 million investment allows Kaseya to do a few things, which include research and development.

"Securing a $500 million investment allows Kaseya to do a few things, which include research and development," Johnson said. "At this point, they have some great technologies and it really comes down to how will they integrate those together."

Johnson, whose 10-year-old company has 11 employees and is a Kaseya partner, said he would love to see deeper integration of Kaseya software products. Such integration would result in MSPs using Kaseya's cloud platform, security tools, back-end operations and documentation software, as well as other applications to capture key customer metrics and performance indicators, he noted.

Brett Johnson

"To me, the dream is to be able to seamlessly move between these products, but they are still a long ways off and a lot of money is required to get there, but you are seeing glimmers of hope," Johnson said. "If we can track the efficiency of our customers' employees and it is all seamless through one pane of glass, we can provide value to our clients by being able to see the data across all of those previously disparate systems."

Channel program boost

To boost its channel program, Kaseya also took the wraps off its Powered Services 2.0, which provides MSPs with a set of offerings that help them build recurring revenue in strategic areas such as security, compliance and backup services.

Kaseya Powered Services 2.0 targets four key areas to assist MSPs. They are:

• Service readiness: Powered Services guides MSPs on ways they can best position and sell their services by offering a marketing plan that addresses everything from overcoming objections to effectively positioning bundled solutions to increase monthly recurring revenue. MSPs also receive help on how they can expand business opportunities in specific verticals such as healthcare, financial services and legal.
• Sales and marketing readiness: To help MSPs effectively sell Kaseya software products, the company provides a sales and marketing toolkit that includes email marketing content, sample prospecting emails, suggested website landing page content to help convert leads, presentation content, training courses, and sales and marketing materials. Under the Goal Assist initiative, MSPs receive help from Kaseya support agents who deliver hands-on assistance with direct sales to help MSPs close deals.
• Service delivery: MSPs receive a 30-, 60-, and 90-day course that helps them with their go-to-market strategy.
• Business review: To help MSPs implement their IT projects, Kaseya  conducts quarterly business reviews to gauge participating MSPs' progress and identify any barriers to success.

Getting help with sales, marketing

"MSPs are very sophisticated in their ability to deliver IT, but they are not sales and marketing people," Voccola said. "Powered Services 2.0 is a way for Kaseya to help an MSP literally build a $1 million dollar recurring business by helping them with Marketing collateral, pricing, packaging, positioning, sales training and, in some cases, with actually getting on the phone with our MSPs when they are trying to sell an IT solution to a new customer."

At Sandwire Corp., an MSP based in Farmingdale, N.Y. and a Kaseya partner, Adam Schwam, the company's CEO, said effectively executing a marketing plan often presents huge difficulties.

Adam Schwam

"One of the biggest challenges that MSPs have is to figure out how do we market ourselves," Schwam said. "We are good engineers and good technology people, but we are not good marketers in a lot of cases. Powered Services 2.0 tells us how to market and package our products and get it in front of potential clients."

Persuading SMBs to buy security technology is another challenge MSPs face.

"Convincing clients that they must be compliant and that threats are real is a huge challenge," Schwam said. "There are so many products that clients have to purchase to be compliant or to be secure, and MSPs have to convince smaller businesses to spend on those products."

Kaseya's latest moves will help Sandwire's 15 employees provide support as they implement technology and professional services to clients in the medical, accounting and legal verticals, Schwam said.

"Kaseya is providing my company with a much newer, more modern set of tools that are affordable and they are giving Sandwire sales and technical support," Schwam said. "Their product works well and I go to one single place, a single order source, that is focused on service and has all the products in one place so one call does it all. They make it easier on our company and our customers."