At the Microsoft Inspire conference this week, Ingram Micro announced that AvePoint has now become the exclusive provider of migration and backup software for its Modern Workplace Accelerate program in place of SkyKick.
The Ingram Workplace Accelerate is a program through which the distributor provides marketing services, sales tools, training, preferential pricing, support and access to complementary cloud solutions to managed service providers (MSPs) building a practice around Office 365, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 related offerings.
As part of an ongoing review of the program, Ingram Micro decided that AvePoint is now a better fit for it channel partners, says Renée Bergeron, senior vice president of cloud computing for Ingram Micro.
SkyKick was surprised to learn of the Ingram Micro decision, said Peter Labes, vice president of business development for Sky. At the same time, however, Labes did acknowledge SkyKick has been making its products and services available via other distributors in the U.S. and around the globe. SkyKick claims to be working with over 20,000 partners.
It’s not clear how many partners will switch from SkyKick to AvePoint given the change to the Modern Workplace Accelerate. Going forward, however, Ingram Micro is making it clear SkyKick is no longer a recommended option.
In general, Bergeron says too many MSPs are not paying enough attention to the opportunities surrounding Microsoft cloud services. Margins for what amounts to reselling cloud services from Microsoft are now especially high. MSPs can increase the total value of any services contract by adding offerings based on third-party offerings such as AvePoint.
“Email is the entry point,” says Bergeron. “The end goal is to provide all the services around the mailbox.”
In general, Bergeron notes that there is a world of difference between technically becoming an MSP by reselling cloud services and investing in developing a full suite of managed services spanning a comprehensive set of services.
MSPs should also be wary of how they price those services.
Rather than simply marking them up based on the time and labor involved, MSPs should price their services based on the perceived total value of the integrated offering to the end customer, advises Bergeron.
However those services are priced, it’s clear MSPs will need more than just Microsoft to survive and thrive.
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