Distributors Beat MSP Drum

Last week, Synnex made a minority investment in Microland to bring managed services to customers. Ingram Micro recently detailed its plan to partner with N-able Technologies to offer hosted managed services and is looking at other providers. And Tech Data is right on its heels with plans for its own MSP program.

Solution providers are looking for new revenue streams and higher-margin solutions, said John Paget, president, North America and COO of Synnex, Fremont, Calif.

Speaking about the Microland deal, Paget said, "We felt it was an important thing to do. Clearly, it's an opportunity for distributors to [help] resellers make money and combat direct competition."

At Ingram Micro, Justin Crotty, vice president of channel marketing for the Santa Ana, Calif., distributor, said, "What we're trying to do is build a portfolio of services that resellers can leverage to support their customers through monitoring and management of their technology infrastructure.

"Small VARs don't have the capability to support a [network operations center] or develop a networking monitoring solution on their own," he added. "But they are looking to partners to build that solution."

Wright Business Technologies, a Houston solution provider, invested $65,000 to build a managed service practice with N-able last summer. The practice is growing more slowly than it had hoped, but it expects more success this year.

"We're extremely interested in managed services," said Steve Wright, president of Wright Business Technologies. "It's reduced our reactive emergency calls. We can do more intelligent staffing decisions and make better usage of time."

Tech Data has been reselling N-able since August and is talking with other providers about building a more comprehensive program, said Ken Lamneck, president of the Americas at the Clearwater, Fla., distributor.

"We're taking reseller feedback to help refine a more expansive offering. We expect to introduce something in the coming months," Lamneck said.