INSIGHT Andy Bogdan - Kaspersky
“Two-thirds of MSPs admit that a shortage of qualified IT security professionals has contributed to the
challenge of ramping up their cybersecurity offerings.” Andy Bogdan, Head of UK SMB at Kaspersky
Challenges of building an
IT channel
The partner ecosystem
continues to change,
aecting all parties.
Each new business
model demands new skills
and processes from partners
and vendors alike. For those
companies committed to the
two-tier distribution model,
just like Kaspersky, it is
extremely important to track
these changes and help partners
evolve accordingly.
Businesses are increasingly
delegating their cybersecurity
and wider IT functions to
third-party service providers or
trusted advisors. In fact, in our
global survey in 2018, we found
that half (50%) of businesses
intend to use or increase the
use of outsourced IT support
companies or managed service
providers. is is no surprise.
anks to outsourcing, they
can have assistance managing
their core processes, whilst
saving on human resources and
money. Partners, therefore, need
to mirror this trend and meet
customers’ desire to purchase
services instead of products.
In many ways, switching to a
value added model is not even a
trend, it is a necessity. Partners
who still only do simple oer
transactions can’t remain
protable anymore. e margin
of transactions is very low. is
has driven the emergence of
value added business models,
such as managed service
providers (MSPs) and managed
security service providers
(MSSPs).
Evergreen challenges:
talent, product and business
processes
As is the case with many
What do you need to know to increase profitability for you
and your partners? Andy Bogdan Head of UK SMB Channel at
Kaspersky explains
tech companies, IT service
providers struggle to nd highly
qualied tech people. It is a
problem that eects a variety of
businesses in the industry. It is
no surprise either, considering
the shortfall of almost three
million cybersecurity specialists
globally. Two-thirds of
MSPs admit that a shortage
of qualied IT security
professionals has contributed
to the challenge of ramping up
their cybersecurity oerings.
A service provider business is
built on human resources, and
if a company cannot actually
nd resources it may struggle
to grow.
To overcome this challenge,
service providers often try to
train up specialists in-house
by recruiting them straight
from university without
any experience. Whilst this
demands big investments and
may not be the option for
companies wanting specialists
right away, vendors can help
by sharing their expertise.
is is especially useful in
dynamic subject areas such as
cybersecurity.
A vendor needs to adapt its
oerings to better match what a
partner can oer its customers.
Otherwise the partner will
be forced to charge clients
for the scal risk it is making
elsewhere.
Often, the vendor’s billing
model doesn’t match the service
provider’s. A vendor generally
sells subscriptions on an annual
basis, but a partner sells services
on a monthly one because
customers tend to pay for
services per month so that they
maintain exibility to shifting
needs. As a result, a partner must
risk buying a solution from a
vendor for one year that may
only be wanted by a customer for
six months. If the vendor doesn’t
minimise this risk, then the
reseller will have to pass on the
cost to its customers.
Partners want to feel
comfortable when working
with suppliers. at’s why the
ease of doing business is a key
success factor with a vendor.
Regardless of the product and
its protability, if the process of
working with that vendor is too
painful – be it poor automation
of license management or
mediocre support – it won’t be
worth it in the long run.
e other two important
factors are price and
functionality. For an MSP,
the price is more important
because it directly aects how
they can generate money.
Usually their clients don’t care
which specic product is used
for their regular cybersecurity
protection; therefore, price and
margin are the decisive factors.
With MSSPs, however, the
situation is dierent as they are
competing for the quality of
their services. eir customers
need specic high-quality
services so MSSPs should care
about the functionality of
product they use.
42 | Comms Business Magazine | October 2019 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
/www.commsbusiness.co.uk