Archive for Rich Freeman - Page 152

In little publicized moves, the distributor has equipped ISVs to join its cloud marketplace on their own in as little as a week and launched the first backend integration created through the self-serve API generator it unveiled in April.

According to U.S. finance chief Anthony Mackle (pictured), the distributor has doled out $1.4 billion in new credit to its partners over the last 18 months to help them fund the transition from product reseller to cloud and professional service provider.

Introduced at this week’s Ingram Micro ONE conference, the project management-as-a-service, training affiliate, and employee training programs are designed to help product resellers become providers of professional services and cloud-based solutions instead.

Announced at a time of accelerating vendor consolidation, the $1.6 billion deal adds a major security and backup player to a portfolio of holdings that already included Continuum, SolarWinds, and Bomgar, as well as a minority stake in McAfee.

Popular overseas and with large businesses, the Slovenian vendor’s flagship solution is now available in the U.S. and Canada at subscription-based rates designed to make it an affordable supplement to similar tools from RMM vendors.

The system lets users safely run pre-authorized local and cloud-based applications inside an isolated virtual sandbox on any PC, laptop, smartphone, or tablet with a web browser.

The new offering is the first to combine Microsoft’s productivity and collaboration suite with SkyKick’s data migration and backup products in a single, subscription-priced SKU.

In recent months, the IT management software vendor has rolled out “net promoter score” surveys and monthly executive reviews aimed at easing customer recruiting costs by boosting customer retention rates.

The new edition includes tools for defining and marketing service plans, as well as direct integration with ConnectWise and Autotask PSA software and a new Linux-based virtual appliance deployment option that dramatically lowers acquisition costs.

That’s according to the Usman Choudhary (pictured), the vendor’s chief product officer, who says that usability—especially on mobile devices—can be the single most important factor in a security system’s effectiveness.