ConnectWise, a provider of a professional services automation (PSA) and remote management and monitoring (RMM) platform plans to make available a software development kit (SDK) that will make it simpler for IT vendors to expose the company’s platform to channel partners via the vendors’ portals.
The SDK is the next logical step for ConnectWise after focusing much of its development efforts in the last year on exposing a set of open application programming interfaces (APIs), says ConnectWise CEO Arnie Bellini.
One vendor already making extensive use of those APIs is Cisco, which last year announced it would expose the ConnectWise platform via its online portal to channel partners.
Bellini says the SDK will make it simpler for other IT vendors to follow suit. In fact, there may come a day when more partners are using the ConnectWise platform via the company’s APIs than the user interface exposed by ConnectWise, says Bellini. Today Bellini estimates that only half of channel partners are employing PSA and RMM software to optimally manage their operations.
Unfortunately, Bellini says not enough channel organizations appreciate the potential APIs have to transform the way the channel operates.
“There’s not enough appreciation of the power and significance of APIs yet,” says Bellini.
In general, Bellini says ConnectWise plans to make the SDK available to all, including providers of rival PSA and RMM platforms. This week ConnectWise also announced that it would invite those rivals to also participate in the company’s IT Nations conferences. Bellini says ConnectWise because of existing channel partner preferences fully expects there will be plenty of instances where either its PSA or RMM platform will be integrated with rival platforms.
It’s unclear to what degree the so-called “API Economy” will transform the channel. Most cloud services already make extensive use of APIs to integrate applications. That same capability is now starting to find its way into channel management software in a way that should ultimately serve to make tools for optimizing the management of the channel much more accessible.
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