Video: 10 Minute IT Jams - An update from ConnectWise

ConnectWise is on a growth path in Australia and New Zealand. The software provider, which focuses on serving managed service providers (MSPs) and IT resellers, is committed to expanding its capabilities and partner support in the region.

Greg Lally, Vice President of Sales at ConnectWise, recently discussed the company's operations and vision. "ConnectWise has been around for a long time now, and for those that don't know who we are, we are a global leader helping service providers really be the best that they possibly can be," he said.

The company offers an integrated platform bringing together software, services, and community to help MSPs and resellers advance business efficiency and profitability. Lally explained, "We provide a platform that has software, service, [and] community - really to drive business efficiency and kind of help them be the most profitable in their monetisation strategy as they could be. So, rolling out services with a high degree of profitability."

ConnectWise's platform focuses on three core areas: business efficiency, remote management and monitoring, and the rapidly growing segment of security solutions. "We have over three thousand partners in ANZ and continue to grow. We're looking forward to a great year," Lally said.

Channel-First Strategy

Traditionally, ConnectWise has pursued a channel-first go-to-market approach. The company sells its software through IT providers, including value-added resellers (VARs), telecommunications operators, and MSPs, rather than directly to end-users.

Lally elaborated, "Traditionally our model is always to the channel, so we sell to IT providers. They consume our software... to run efficient businesses and their internal structure."

He highlighted a new move towards a "sell-through" model, especially for security products. This involves not only selling solutions, but also empowering local partners to market, position, and monetise advanced security offerings. "We're teaching our partners that advanced security motion and setting up a programmatic approach to teach them how to position it, how to sell, how to market, and ultimately then to monetise to their customers," Lally said.

Currently, ConnectWise works through both distribution and direct models in Australia and New Zealand, offering flexibility to meet different partner needs. "There's kind of a hybrid model in ANZ, but traditionally it has been to the MSPs, IT service providers, and now we're really kind of excited about this sell-through motion that's catching on," added Lally.

Industry Trends and Challenges

Asked about trends shaping the MSP and IT reseller market in ANZ, Lally was pragmatic. "The business drivers right now are kind of all the same. It doesn't matter who you are - that's the easy part. The hard part is solving it," he said.

Unsurprisingly, security remains the headline concern, both for ConnectWise and its partners. "Security will be a broken record - everybody's talking about it, people have go-to-markets and plans, so we're helping our partners develop those and really kind of sink their teeth into it," he said.

However, partners are also searching for ways to boost business maturity, operational efficiency, and profitability. "Getting more efficiency out of what you're doing today - what button can I turn, what lever can I pull to get another one percent, two percent margin out of something? So really extracting maximum value," he explained.

He also pointed to the impact of mergers and acquisitions on the IT channel, with many MSPs now keenly focused on business valuation. "Partners want to know what their company is worth and how to drive that valuation... There's this pressure now to really accelerate that motion so there's a big drive into business efficiency," Lally said.

Attracting and retaining talent is another significant issue, with demand for help desk operators and technical staff high. "We have tools to help the MSPs work internally or we have a full outsourcing desk which makes us unique, that helps people supplement and able to scale as well. So there's a lot of scalability for you: retention issues, business maturity, operationalisation, and then ultimately security. Those are the three big drivers I see," Lally added.

Looking Forward: Security and Maturity

ConnectWise is doubling down on its security focus, launching enablement programs for partners that emphasise practical skills and internal readiness. "What we're doing is we're leaning in and we're investing a lot of time and colleagues into teaching our partners how to sell - but before you learn how to sell, make sure your own environment is locked down," Lally explained.

The company offers free licensing for partners to develop their capability before going to market. "We have this program that offers free licensing for partners to come onboard, that we really teach you how to do it and apply it to your own practice before you go out and try to sell to others," he said, adding that ConnectWise's training programs have won industry awards.

In another initiative, ConnectWise is adding benchmarking and analytics capabilities to help partners understand and achieve business maturity. "We're actually going to start showing people what good looks like. If you're going through the motions, responding, what should your time to ticket be, your first call resolution - what numbers should those be when you're best of class," he said.

Lally emphasised that local investment is increasing, with enhanced partner care and support operations now based in ANZ. "We brought partner success in for utilisation for our partner, and we have partner care in-region as well for the first time... We've actually got more staffing here than ever before, so we're really proud about the investments that we're making in-region to help the customer, the partner experience," he said.

Pandemic: An Unlikely Catalyst

While the pandemic has disrupted many industries, Lally shared that it had accelerated demand for digital transformation and cloud migration throughout ANZ. "For the most part, it's accelerated the move to the cloud, the digital transformation," he said. "If people didn't believe it before, if you didn't think it was coming, there's no better sign to say that it's happened, it's continuing to happen at a rapid rate."

He sees tremendous opportunity for partners who embrace change. "It falls into our wheelhouse when people are looking at migrating cloud solutions and servers from physical to the virtual world, when they're talking about work-from-home and strategies and remote control tools and being able to support and secure all those devices," Lally said.

He called the current period a "technology revolution" and suggested there is no turning back from the new, digital-first operating models. "Most of us would agree we're not going back 100," he said.

Looking ahead, ConnectWise's investments and partner programs are set to continue growing in the region. Lally concluded, "We're really proud about the investments that we're making in-region to help the customer, the partner experience."