Podcasts about msps

A structural transfer of liability and risk is reshaping industry engagement models, with outcome-based contracting increasing across service agreements. This shift is being driven by buyer demands for accountability in technology solutions, notably in artificial intelligence deployments, and is illustrated by recent unpublished but credible reports that OpenAI is quietly allowing select large enterprise customers to pay only when AI tasks are successfully completed. Supporting research from Gartner and CIO Dive highlights a growing disparity: while 19% of service buyers seek outcome-based payment models, only 13% of agreements from sellers currently accommodate them. The core development spotlighted is the disconnect between expectations for measurable AI-driven business outcomes and the lack of empirical evidence that such technologies are delivering on those promises at the organizational level. A large-scale survey by the National Bureau of Economic Research, encompassing nearly 6,000 senior executives across four countries, found that over 89% reported no observable improvement in employment or labor productivity from AI investments during the past three years, despite substantial organizational changes and budget reallocations. Additionally, research by Thomson Reuters found that 91% of 1,800 professionals reported their organizations were not realizing expected AI value, identifying a gap in demonstrable returns even while the technology is being deployed. Supporting data from Techaisle reveals partner capability thins dramatically as customers progress into advanced AI adoption stages. Most channel providers retain capacity only for basic "estate" work, with capability dropping to near zero for the most advanced client needs. Forrester has also identified persistent barriers to reliable measurement, such as fragmented and inconsistent data baselines, as well as dependencies on customer-side decisions. These factors magnify contract risk and reinforce the liability shift toward providers, who become responsible for defining, measuring, and underwriting outcomes without always possessing necessary levers or data. The operational implication for MSPs and IT service providers is heightened exposure to contractual and financial risk when agreeing to outcome-based terms, especially without mechanisms to price or control every relevant input. Providers are often unable to flow contract risk upstream to vendors or technology manufacturers, as their own agreements typically exclude outcomes. The episode concludes that early engagement and proactive definition of acceptable, controllable outcomes is essential, as outcome-based demands are likely to appear pre-baked in future client agreements, shifting bargaining power away from providers unprepared to quantify their exposure. Using data from their own worst-performing months, documenting client dependencies as contract conditions, and piloting outcome-based lines in otherwise standard agreements are outlined as practical tactics to mitigate downside risk before broader market adoption. 00:00 Four Numbers, One Cause 03:45 What You Ask For When You Can't Tell 06:45 Nobody Underneath You 10:20 Why Do We Care? Supported by: Guardz ScalePad

The episode reveals a structural shift away from indiscriminate adoption of AI tools toward targeted deployment based on business needs within the MSP sector. According to Uptime Global, a channel-only outsourcing provider, premature or hype-driven implementation of AI frequently results in incomplete projects and missed operational gains. The review of AI execution within MSP ticketing environments shows that sustainable value emerges when organizations align AI initiatives with clearly identified business issues, rather than searching for use cases to justify a technology already acquired. Concrete evidence from Uptime Global's experience indicates that approximately 25% of their MSP partners have deployed notable AI solutions beyond ticket triage functions in the past 18 months, according to Jason Kemsley, Chief Revenue Officer. Outcomes vary: roughly half saw ticket volume reductions of 10–25%, while the remainder experienced limited value or customer dissatisfaction tied to inadequate human involvement in support processes. Uptime's operational model uses a confidence threshold for AI-driven actions, where only outputs above 98% confidence automatically execute—mirroring human engineer accuracy rates—and anything below triggers human review. Supporting developments further highlight the shift's operational impact. Uptime Global has eliminated dedicated triage and dispatch roles due to increased AI efficiency, resulting in a role blend where “first responders” now handle both traditional triage and basic technical support tasks within set time limits . The company's pricing structure is affected by AI efficiency, creating margin pressure as contract models based on per-ticket or per-device pricing are exposed to declining ticket volume and shifting customer expectations around service value and outcomes. For MSPs and IT service providers, the operational implications center on increased pricing pressure, the erosion of certain labor-based roles, and the requirement to redesign governance and accountability models to accommodate both automated and human ticket outcomes. Vendor dependency grows as MSPs rely on AI-driven platforms to triage, allocate, and resolve tickets, increasing exposure to platform-specific risks and necessitating clear thresholds for AI confidence and human intervention. Contract structures that do not account for dynamic efficiency gains may create pricing misalignment and customer dissatisfaction over time, emphasizing the need for providers to actively manage and transparently communicate both the tradeoffs and limits of AI-enabled support. Supported by:ProofpointScalePad

A growing gap between artificial intelligence (AI) adoption and effective data governance is reshaping the operational landscape for managed service providers (MSPs) and IT service providers. Industry data cited by GTIA's Data and AI Interest Group indicates that while 97% of providers have adopted AI, only 20% have implemented governance frameworks sufficient to extract value or mitigate risk. This structural mismatch is driving increased scrutiny from regulatory authorities and forcing MSPs to revisit internal decision-making, especially regarding data integrity and platform selection. Supporting this trend, a Federation of Small Businesses report found 86% of organizations in the UK are struggling with AI and data governance adoption, often uncertain about where to begin. Hollie Whittles, co-founder of Purple Frog Data, described practical barriers: many businesses believe their data is clean and structured but are routinely confronted with evidence of significant inconsistencies and errors during implementation. The cost of remediation and governance, including board-level buy-in, can climb to tens of thousands of pounds, highlighting the substantial upfront investment required before AI can deliver reliable business value. Operational vulnerability is further magnified by ease-of-use pitfalls and vendor relationships. MSPs lacking in-house data engineering or readiness tools frequently misjudge the scale and complexity of cleaning and securing client data estates. Whittles warned of scenarios where consultants, through careless or uninformed data modelling (such as over-exposing HR data in reporting tools), inadvertently increase both cyber and confidentiality risks. Some firms approach the problem by retaining all data and tooling within clients' own cloud tenants, shifting data residency and associated risks directly to clients, but raising new questions of contractual clarity and due diligence. For MSPs and IT leaders, these developments reinforce the need for explicit governance structures, clear contractual provisions regarding data handling, and internal upskilling rather than relying solely on third-party expertise. Short-term revenue can be lost to competitors willing to bypass governance, but there's an increased long-term risk of error, replacement, or regulatory sanction. Effective governance not only requires financial investment, but also consistent participation from leadership to avoid operational blind spots and to ensure client obligations—and liabilities—are clearly defined and managed. Supported by: ProofpointGoTo (LogMeIn)

The episode centers on a structural shift driven by the falling cost of AI-assisted insight extraction and its impact on how buyers assess technology providers. Referencing companies such as OpenAI and Google, as well as research from the AI Revenue Institute and Gartner, Dave Sobel highlights how lowered model prices enable automated systems to rapidly analyze vendor documentation and shape procurement decisions, fundamentally changing the basis of competition from persuasion to transparent, retrievable data. A recent AI Revenue Institute study, as cited by Dave Sobel, found that over half of surveyed decision-makers had removed a vendor from consideration after an AI assistant highlighted a documented shortcoming. Simultaneously, OpenAI and Google have reduced their top-tier AI model pricing, with OpenAI dropping costs by more than 20% and Google offering a temporary 50% cut before reverting. Analysis from TD Cowen and Business Insider shows that such price cuts have driven up both usage and revenue, with OpenAI's low-cost models experiencing a 14-fold usage increase post-reduction. These developments are reinforced by Gartner's identification of the “inference paradox,” where greater AI capabilities and lower per-query costs actually raise overall spend due to increased volume and complexity of tasks. Supporting data includes Google's reported 50x annual increase in tokens processed and a Deloitte case of a healthcare provider with unplanned AI costs rising as much as 3x in a year. Alongside this, Pew Research identifies that a third of new web content on commercial sites is machine-generated, leading platforms like LinkedIn to introduce AI-detection and downranking measures. For MSPs and IT leaders, the implications are direct. Automated buyer research now prioritizes concrete, extractable data over marketing language; any absence or non-disclosure—especially around pricing—can result in removal from consideration without notice. Publishing specific, measurable facts (service boundaries, pricing logic, response times with dates) increasingly determines whether a provider is surfaced or omitted by AI agents assembling comparative analyses. Failure to clearly define offerings and exclusions results in unfavorable inferences or comparisons, increasing operational risk and transfer of accountability away from the provider. 00:00 The Buyers Brought a Machine 03:45 Cheaper Made It Bigger 06:49 Your Website Is a Deposition 10:06 Why Do We Care? Supported by: Proofpoint HaloPSA

The central structural shift discussed is the repricing and erosion of the MSP business model as artificial intelligence (AI) and automation impact service delivery, pricing models, and margin structures. Analysis referenced recent polling and reporting, including the Omnia poll of 22,000 MSP partners and Service Leadership's financial benchmarking. The integration of AI is reducing direct labor requirements and shifting traditional cost structures—posing both short-term increases in service margins for top-tier MSPs and complex, longer-term risks to the per-user pricing paradigm. Vendors, such as ConnectWise and RapidScale, are central to these developments, as their platforms, pricing models, and reporting mechanisms increasingly determine downstream MSP economics. Supporting evidence from Service Leadership's recent profitability report shows top quartile MSPs achieved a service multiple of wages (SMW) of 3.01—a level reached previously only during periods of wage collapse. The report also highlights that this margin growth is isolated: while the best-in-class are realizing sharply higher service margins, the median and bottom quartile remain flat. Reporting and analysis attributed this phenomenon to the earliest and most effective adopters of automation, particularly service desk automation aligned with AI, according to theories discussed with Service Leadership and ConnectWise representatives. However, there is a notable lack of definitive causation, as Service Leadership states the link between AI adoption and observed margin increases remains a working theory pending further data. Additional developments reinforce the risk environment. Nearly 43% of surveyed MSPs are actively considering alternatives to per-user pricing, with another 17% acknowledging a need to change their pricing but lacking a defined direction. Industry analysis notes that consumption-based models—such as token-based or outcome-based pricing—present challenges, including unpredictable vendor cost structures and difficulties in measuring actual results achieved. Meanwhile, the risk of vendor-driven reenactment of break-fix economics and cost volatility increases, with some vendors already raising prices significantly to offset their own AI-related costs, pointing toward future margin compression downstream. For MSPs and IT service providers, the operational implications are immediate and material. Providers face growing exposure to pricing and margin risk, especially as clients begin to recognize and challenge efficiency gains achieved by automation. Structurally, there is rising accountability for justifying service costs and delivering new forms of value outside commoditized support. Continued reliance on legacy pricing models without adaptation to AI-driven changes increases the risk of eroded margins or adverse contract negotiations. The most resilient operators will need to stabilize internal cost structures, reconsider client contracts, monitor vendor behavior closely, and prepare for increased customer scrutiny on both cost and deliverables. Supported by: GuardzScalePad

Send us Fan MailSaurabh Sandhir, CEO and Co-Founder of Kipling Secure, joins Joey Pinz for a sharp conversation on AI risk, MSP opportunity, and the personal journey from India to Silicon Valley leadership. Saurabh shares how his early exposure to engineering, Atari BASIC, IIT Delhi, Purdue, Juniper, Ericsson, Nokia, and Nuage Networks shaped the way he thinks about technology, business, and leadership.The conversation moves into one of the most important issues facing businesses today: unmanaged AI. Saurabh explains how AI adoption is creating new risks around shadow AI, sensitive data exposure, AI-specific attacks, and misleading content. His message is clear: AI should not be blocked, but it must be governed.For MSPs and MSSPs, Saurabh sees a major opportunity. Kipling Secure helps service providers turn AI risk into a new recurring revenue stream through AI Detection and Response built for multi-tenant MSP workflows.The episode closes with a thoughtful discussion on discipline, identity, humility, and why lasting consistency comes from who you are—not just what you force yourself to do. Top 3 Highlights

A persistent governance gap is evident in current IT operations, as credential management and authorization checks fail to keep pace with increased automation and AI integration. This is visible in incidents involving major vendors such as N-able (through Passportal), Anthropic's Claude, AI-based retail management at Andon Labs, and legacy industrial controllers monitored by agencies like the NSA, CISA, and FBI. The episode highlights how systems are increasingly reliant on automated actors and credentialed assistants, while foundational questions of access rights and accountability remain unresolved. The most consequential case centers on a vulnerability in N-able's Passportal browser extension, disclosed by security researcher James Arnott. The flaw allowed any website—or embedded ad—to request and obtain session tokens, enabling decryption of entire password vaults. This affected approximately 2,500 MSPs and 165,000 SMBs, with each stolen token remaining valid for 100 days. N-able patched the issue quickly, but Dave Sobel emphasizes that the responsibility for checking permitted actions within such systems is often misattributed or left unaddressed. Supporting developments reinforce this governance gap. An AI assistant exploited poor authorization in an Australian gym reservation system, canceling another user's booking without hacking or unauthorized login. Similar risks persist in industrial environments, where controllers for energy, water, and agriculture often lack basic authentication—exposing them to AI-generated exploitation scripts, according to joint agency warnings. Additionally, retail automation at Andon Labs revealed AI-driven policy lapses, where systems cannot reliably document or enforce their own rules, highlighting operational weaknesses. Operationally, MSPs face increased risk from both their own service infrastructure and client environments. The practical recommendation is to issue discrete, revocable credentials tailored to each system agent, limiting their scope and ensuring traceable accountability. Providers are advised to formally define and document their responsibility boundaries regarding access and permissions in third-party applications. These steps shift the focus from attempting to control every client-side variable to clear documentation and compartmentalization, reducing dispute risk and speeding incident investigations. 00:00 The Gym Class and the Vault 03:39 The Check Was Always a Person  06:37 Your Tools Ask the Wrong Question 10:27 Why Do We Care?    Supported by:  GoTo(LogMeIn)Proofpoint 

The core structural shift highlighted is the disconnect between service reliability gains from AI automation and readiness for strategic change among IT service providers and their clients. Reports from SolarWinds, Corsica Technologies, and Deloitte reveal that AI is delivering measurable productivity benefits, but those time savings are consumed by ongoing reliability work rather than being directed toward governance, process redesign, or workforce adaptation. This leaves most organizations with improved operations but unprepared to leverage AI for broader business transformation, creating a gap between what clients say they want and what providers are set up to deliver. SolarWinds' 2026 State of ITSM report found that 84% of IT teams report AI meeting or exceeding their return on investment expectations, with teams recovering roughly three hours per week in several core areas, such as issue detection and ticket triage. However, almost the same amount of capacity is then redirected to keeping those new AI systems running—83% of teams spend three or more hours weekly maintaining AI reliability. Simultaneously, Corsica Technologies' Censuswide research among 600 IT and security leaders at U.S. mid-sized businesses found that 96% claim to trust their MSP, yet two-thirds are considering switching within 12 months, citing limited AI or automation support as one of the top reasons. Additional research contextualizes the readiness gap. According to a PwC survey, only 5% of organizations report their business processes as highly prepared for AI agents, and a Cloudera study found that 95% of large companies delayed or canceled at least one AI project in the past year due to governance, compliance, or regulatory concerns. The episode also notes a public sentiment shift, citing a Pew Research poll in which over half of American adults express more concern than excitement about AI—a trend particularly strong among people under 30. Vendor product launches from companies like Kaseya and Syncro are described as offering only superficial differentiation in this environment. For MSPs and IT leaders, this dynamic presents operational risks. The default allocation of AI-driven productivity gains toward reliability tasks undermines investment in strategic readiness, reinforcing dependence on vendor offerings without improving meaningful differentiation. Most clients lack a specific benchmark for “AI readiness,” creating an open but temporary competitive opportunity for providers willing to define and document it for them. However, unless time and resources are explicitly earmarked for readiness activities—in governance, process adaptation, and client education—MSPs risk being evaluated on ill-defined criteria or commoditized platforms, increasing contract risk and exposing gaps in internal accountability. 00:00 The Two Numbers Don't Fit  04:52 Only One Half Can Take the Hours  08:02 Everyone Buys the Same Platform 11:20 Why Do We Care?  Supported by:  Pax8 TimeZest 

The core structural shift addressed in this episode centers on the unbundling and modularization of vendor platforms in the MSP technology market. This shift is exemplified by ThreatCaptain's launch of its Gen 4 product, which transitions from an all-encompassing platform to discrete modules aligned to specific MSP business challenges—lead generation, sales enablement, and ROI/risk analytics. The move is designed to align product structure and pricing more closely to the diverse operational maturity levels of MSPs, as described by Brad Powell, co-founder of ThreatCaptain. ThreatCaptain's Gen 4 is available in three modules priced at $199, $399, and $599, most notably a move away from the earlier $1,499 per month pricing reported in March. According to Brad Powell, this change was driven by limited adoption among smaller MSPs, with the prior model better suited to larger firms already equipped with mature sales teams. He cites customer Novus Insights as an example, attributing $80,000 in professional services revenue over three months and more than $1 million in expected ARR, but acknowledges this reflected a highly mature CISO-led operation. The vendor currently reports approximately 65 active paying MSP partners, intending to scale significantly. Supporting developments include the influence of insurance risk modeling and industry threat intelligence frameworks on new MSP toolsets. ThreatCaptain originally built its risk engine leveraging data from the IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report and the Verizon DBIR, adapting these for SMB scenarios. The episode also highlights the role of information sharing organizations (ISAOs), with Brad Powell noting the challenges of translating technical threat data into actionable intelligence for SMB-focused MSPs and illustrating ongoing coordination and separation of threat feeds between vendor sales processes and industry sharing mechanisms. Operational implications for MSPs include increased need for prudent selection among modular product offerings, clarity around the scope and accountability of vendor-delivered analysis, and awareness of potential misalignments between vendor risk models and actual business outcomes. The trend underscores cost versus capability tradeoffs, especially for smaller providers balancing limited resources against the operational benefits of specialized tools. For MSPs participating in threat intelligence programs, there is also an ongoing requirement to maintain clear boundaries around shared data to prevent unintentional exposure or misapplication in commercial contexts. Supported By: ScalePad Pax8

The episode highlights the structural shift toward platform consolidation in security services, illustrated by Coro's unified security platform and its positioning for lean IT teams and MSPs. The mechanism involves the bundling of diverse security tools—email protection, endpoint detection and response (EDR), DLP, security awareness, backup, and cloud app integrations—into a single, managed service. This reduces the operational overhead associated with managing multiple vendors, products, and contracts, a trend now pursued by both established enterprise providers and emergent channel-focused companies. The most significant development cited is Coro's integration of AI and automation within its platform, claiming, according to the company, that 92% to 96% of alert tickets generated by security modules are closed automatically by machine intelligence, depending on the month. The conversational AI integrations such as ChatGPT and Claude are presented as front-end layers through which practitioners can execute mundane security tasks—ticket management, host isolation, incident correlation—without direct console interaction. The claim of offloading 95% of workloads to automation is specified as relating to ticket processing volume, as clarified in the discussion. Supporting evidence centers on the operational layering of AI, with commentary on new risk profiles introduced by integrating large language models (LLMs) into security workflows. Concerns raised include rising exposure to prompt injection, shadow AI (untracked AI usage by end users), and unmanaged cost escalation linked to token-based billing models for third-party AI platforms. Coro's approach distinguishes between AI-related costs incurred internally (absorbed by the vendor) and those incurred when practitioners interact with external AI tools (borne by the MSP or their clients). The need for visibility into AI usage and structured user training is highlighted as a risk mitigation measure. Operationally, MSPs and IT providers face both increased efficiency and new complexity. Vendor dependency consolidates, reducing contract sprawl and administrative burden but raising questions about single-point-of-failure and stack lock-in. Billing risk shifts with AI consumption models, introducing liability for unexpected operational cost surges if token limits are not enforced. The requirement for effective governance intensifies as traditional security controls are extended by AI-managed processes and the detection of unauthorized AI activity becomes part of standard oversight. Providers are advised to scrutinize stack overlap, evaluate whether platform consolidation minimizes genuine operational friction, and remain cautious about over-relying on automated outcomes without maintaining direct accountability. Supported by: Pax8Proofpoint  

The episode identifies a structural shift within the IT services market, highlighting a bifurcation between two distinct economic models in the channel: the advisory economy, paid upfront for transformation and integration, and the operational economy, paid on the backend for managed outcomes and recurring support. Techaisle's 2026 Global Channel Partners Survey, referenced by Anurag Agrawal, underscores that most vendors operate single partner programs that implicitly favor one of these models, often without recognizing the divergence. This mechanism exposes gaps in vendor strategies and underscores uneven access to resources and incentives across partner segments. Data from Techaisle's study involving 5,450 partner firms in 24 countries illustrates the impact of these structural choices. Firms under $10 million in revenue project just 8.4% growth, while partners over $500 million forecast 16.8% growth, with 41% of the largest landing in top-tier vendor programs versus only 2% of smaller firms. Anurag Agrawal contends that allocation decisions—such as capital, leads, and support—by vendors drive part of this gap, independently of partner capabilities. The allocation process forms a closed loop, where larger partners consistently receive and convert the best leads, reinforcing their tier status. Furthermore, most vendor incentive spend lands at deal close, benefiting partners focused on new transactions over those delivering ongoing operational value. Supporting developments include evidence that smaller MSPs face higher customer acquisition costs (absorbing 31% of first-year deal value for contracts under $25,000) and operate with little error margin, as opposed to larger firms with more resilient economics. The transcript points out that tier progression within most vendor programs primarily reflects transaction volume and headcount, not actual customer outcomes or quality—making tiers unreliable as indicators of partner value. Additionally, practical AI deployments are now accelerating infrastructure refresh cycles and shifting the center of gravity for services revenue from break-fix to consulting and integration, further complicating the operational landscape for SMB-focused providers. For MSPs and IT service leaders, these findings imply increased dependency on vendor program design and expose operational risk due to imbalanced allocation of leads and support. Smaller providers should expect continued pressure on margins and incentives unless vendors alter their models to recognize operational contributions beyond new logo acquisition. Specialization—vertical or workload-focused—is suggested as a cost-control mechanism, while pricing and packaging transformation work around a recurring services base could mitigate risk. Governance challenges posed by AI adoption, such as managing large numbers of intelligent agents, call for enhanced identity, entitlement, and monitoring capabilities as table stakes for ongoing operational relevance. Supported by: ScalePadProofpoint

Send us Fan Mail

The dominant structural shift explored is the erosion of document-based differentiation for MSPs and IT service providers, driven by advances in generative AI, regulatory mandates, and automation of AI detection and content creation processes. Regulatory requirements such as the EU AI Act are compelling vendors like Anthropic and Google to introduce invisible watermarks on machine-generated content, while vendors including OpenAI have yet to standardize this practice. At the same time, third-party entities such as BlazeHive are automating the production and humanization of AI-generated output, raising concerns about the long-term viability of artifacts as proof of human oversight or competency. Evidence cited includes Anthropic's implementation of invisible watermarks on content produced by its Claude model, fulfilling regulatory obligations and planning to release detection tools to third parties. The durability of these watermarks is limited: "light editing probably won't strip the mark, but a complete rewrite... will" according to Anthropic's own guidance. Market analysis by Ramp shows a ceiling on enterprise spend for premium AI models like Anthropic's Fable 5, with adoption of high-end models remaining restricted in practice, and cost pressures pushing organizations towards locally-run, unmetered models such as Alibaba's recent release. Additional developments reinforce the structural gap in process and talent. Channel Dive and Information Week report that IT providers face increasing difficulty deploying the AI tools they sell, not because the tools are unavailable, but due to a lack of engineering skill and process clarity. Gartner's research, as reported by Information Week, identifies that failures in deploying AI agents stem from breakdowns in business process definition, not deficiencies in the technology. These trends illustrate that service providers' core asset is not tooling but an explicit, transparent process with clear review and accountability—something that automation and documentation alone cannot supply. For MSPs and IT service providers, these trends create risks around vendor substitution, diminished artifact value, and increased client scrutiny. The implication is a need to codify review standards and accountability practices for deliverables, as automated AI output can no longer serve as a market differentiator, and clients now have both the suspicion and means to probe the origins of documents. Differentiation will shift toward the ability to transparently describe, defend, and consistently execute meaningful human review and oversight—not merely the ability to generate professional-looking outputs. Providers who cannot articulate and document their review process may find themselves commoditized or excluded from competitive evaluations. 00:00 The Mark Arrives Everywhere  03:11 A Test That Can't Come Back No 06:38 Nobody Can Answer With the File 09:24 Why Do We Care?    Supported by:  OpenText Guardz 

The episode reveals a structural shift toward permission-based operational models, where access and capability are not determined by technical proficiency alone but by explicit, revocable permissions from state or corporate authorities. This model is illustrated by the recent U.S. federal initiative authorizing select private cybersecurity firms to conduct offensive operations against foreign criminal organizations—an approach that mirrors the historical "letter of marque" by granting a new legal status rather than developing new technologies. Parallel dynamics are visible in the IT service provider space, with vendors such as Microsoft moving to strictly time-bound, role-scoped delegated admin permissions that can be revoked or altered unilaterally. The most consequential development is the August 12 presidential memorandum authorizing private U.S. companies, under contract with the Department of Justice or Homeland Security, to perform cyber surveillance and effect operations against specified foreign criminal targets. Firms must pass technical, security, and personnel vetting, declare outside contracts, and post a $1 million bond forfeitable upon non-compliance. Every action requires written dual approval by program directors. Importantly, the legal basis relies not on statutory change but on an executive memorandum that grants a temporary agency status to participants, a mechanism untested in court and revocable with any change in administration. Related developments reinforce the thesis of permission-based dependency. Microsoft's overhaul of its partner governance—removing perpetual global admin rights in favor of time-limited, role-based permissions—has made MSPs' delivery capabilities contingent on timely recognition and acceptance of new terms set by Microsoft. Amid this, operational pressure is rising as AI-driven vulnerability finding systems, like those used by Microsoft and cataloged in the NIST National Vulnerability Database, are producing flaw volumes that outpace existing tracking infrastructure. Together, these shifts make permissions and vendor terms—not technical gaps—the central variable in the sustainability of service lines. For MSPs and IT leaders, the practical implications are clear: operational continuity is increasingly determined by upstream permissions and the specificity of contractual terms rather than local technical controls. Vendor dependence has expanded beyond product functionality to include granular, revocable access rights shaped by external schedules and policies. Effective risk management now requires tracking the origin, mechanism, and expiration of every operational permission, establishing owner accountability, and proactively reviewing vendor and governmental agreements. Organizations failing to systematize this will face unplanned service interruptions and remediation costs dictated by external authorities. 00:00 The Bond and the Vetting  04:31 Congress Grants Those 07:47 Whose Permission Are You On? 11:05 Why Do We Care?  Supported by:  ScalePad Proofpoint 

The episode details a structural shift within the managed services market toward increased operational automation and integration, framed by vendor-led consolidation of core service platforms with embedded AI-driven workflows. ConnectWise has combined previously separate systems—PSA, RMM, ScreenConnect, and others—into a unified platform powered by agent-based automation ("agentic AI") under the "Predictive IT" model. The associated risk for service providers is growing reliance on consolidated vendor ecosystems for both service delivery operations and automation capabilities, blurring the distinction between core service expertise and contextual tooling. A consequential data point highlighted is from Service Leadership benchmarking, which shows sustained 19% EBITDA over six years for MSPs, with the most profitable—in what ConnectWise identifies as "best-in-class"—gaining advantage through higher investment in automation and agent-driven workflows. According to ConnectWise, production test data show that deploying agentic automations has produced a 30–60% reduction in tickets requiring direct human involvement, along with 45% reductions in handling times and claimed margin improvements of 5–12 percentage points. Importantly, labor cost pressures and technician burnout persist, positioning automation as a response to both expense management and workforce availability challenges. Supporting developments clarify that best-in-class or larger MSPs often experiment with building their own automation tools, but many report variable outcomes, including cases where internally built solutions fail to deliver anticipated efficiency or escalate costs—a result ConnectWise attributes to confusion over what constitutes "core" versus "contextual" investment. ConnectWise now positions its integrated approach as a way for smaller and mid-size MSPs to access operational automation without standing up custom software projects or incurring the risks and overhead of internal development. The episode also surfaces channel-wide conversation about the tension between per-user, per-workflow, and consumption-based pricing, highlighting the risk of variable costs being introduced into previously fixed-fee MSP engagement models. For service providers, the practical implications are increased dependency on platform vendors for operational tooling, with a shift away from internally built processes toward outsourced automation and dashboard-driven performance tracking. This creates new pricing models—metered by user, workflow, or consumption—which can introduce variability and contract risk when compared against flat-fee client agreements. Providers need to monitor the alignment between vendor billing structures and their own client contracts, assess the operational impact of vendor stack consolidation, and maintain transparency around efficiency gains versus workload transfers. Oversight mechanisms must be updated to account for reliance on agent-run workflows and to mitigate associated accountability and governance risks. Supported by: WebPros (CometBackUp)Pax8

Don’t miss this massive channel shift! Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this episode of the Ultimate Partner Podcast, host Vince Menzione sits down with Alexandra Zagury, Corporate Vice President of Channels at Microsoft, to explore ecosystem shifts, partner-led growth, and AI transformation. https://youtu.be/9jrSGX5bM90 Key Takeaways Microsoft’s telemetry and propensity data offer unprecedented insights that many partners are currently failing to unlock. Partners must evolve past basic licensing models and build comprehensive managed service stacks across the entire customer lifecycle. Establishing an AI Center of Excellence on the Microsoft platform is critical for capturing future market share and technical intensity. The modern tech ecosystem demands a shift from product-led growth to true partner-led growth driven by multi-partner collaboration. Renewal engines targeting 110% to 125% retention require an always-on motion starting well in advance of contract expiration. Investing in sales readiness and precision velocity training ensures that end sellers can effectively articulate the value of the Microsoft platform. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags Microsoft, telemetry, Hyperscalers, channel, small medium enterprise, telcos, hosters, SSPs, Cisco, CSP, agentic GTM, propensity data, SPX, PUPP, cloud descent, MSPs, managed XDR, Agent 365, skilling, co-sell, renewals, flywheel, AI Center of Excellence, enterprise Transcript Alexandra Zagury Audio Podcast [00:00:00] Alexandra Zagury: One of the things that I think is the best kept secret at Microsoft is the telemetry that we offer our partners. [00:00:08] Vince Menzione: You can feel it happening. The ecosystem is shifting beneath us, the way Hyperscalers are partnering, how AI is remaking the channel and what it means to win in 2026. Welcome to the Ultimate Partner Podcast. [00:00:22] Vince Menzione: I’m Vince Menzi, own your host, and each week I sit down with leaders at the intersection of technology. Partnerships and outcomes. The voices shaping how ecosystems actually work. We talk about what’s real, what’s changing, and what it takes to lead in this era where the partner channel isn’t just part of the strategy. [00:00:41] Vince Menzione: It is the strategy because being in the room changes everything. Let’s [00:00:46] Guest: start. [00:00:50] Vince Menzione: I am thrilled because I get to have a leader that is somewhat new in role and is the corporate vice president of channels for Microsoft. And so Alex is here to, is joining us for the first time at Ultimate Partner. I’m thrilled to have you. Thank, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Welcome, welcome. [00:01:14] Vince Menzione: Thank you. Thank you. You and I are gonna be in the center seat in the middle. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We wanna. So I am thrilled. Um, you’re relatively new in your role at Microsoft. [00:01:24] Alexandra Zagury: Seven months. [00:01:25] Vince Menzione: Seven months, [00:01:26] Alexandra Zagury: yes. [00:01:26] Vince Menzione: Wow. That’s a, that’s a crazy. So take us through, ’cause for those who don’t know you, but a little bit of an introduction, your title, your role, CVP, and uh, your remit. [00:01:37] Vince Menzione: Let’s talk about that and what your organization is focused in, in your mission. Yeah. [00:01:41] Alexandra Zagury: So hi everybody. Really exciting to be here. Thanks for the invitation, Vince. I always love to be with partners and with the channel. So my, I came to Microsoft to lead a new role, which we call Global Channel Sales, and it was part of the strategy of Microsoft to really bet on the growth in small, medium enterprise. [00:02:04] Alexandra Zagury: With the channel partner led growth. So my remit is really to lead our managed partners, but also to lead the strategy when it comes to the channel. Very specifically looking at the telcos, the distributors, the hosters. The sis and, uh, the SSPs of course. And, and so my role can be summarized in one word growth, and that’s what we do every single day is map our ambition to your ambition and figure out how we actually conquer this age of ai. [00:02:40] Vince Menzione: It’s a pretty big role. It’s a pretty, you know, I forgot about hosts ’cause we don’t, we don’t talk about them as much these days in the cloud. [00:02:48] Alexandra Zagury: Still a lot [00:02:48] Vince Menzione: of opportunity. You’ve got, and you’ve got all the telcos as well, which are pretty significant organizations, right? Lumen Field, just around the corner. [00:02:56] Vince Menzione: Mm-hmm. Right up the. Right up, I said across the river, but it’s across the pond in Seattle. And, uh, what does that look like from an organization perspective in terms of dollars? Are you allowed to disclose numbers? [00:03:08] Alexandra Zagury: No, we [00:03:08] Vince Menzione: don’t talk numbers. Okay. And, but you have a long career in this type of environment, in this role. [00:03:15] Vince Menzione: 10 years at Cisco, right? [00:03:17] Alexandra Zagury: Mm-hmm. [00:03:17] Vince Menzione: Tell us a little bit more about your background, [00:03:18] Alexandra Zagury: please. Yeah, sure. Um, well I started out as a, a sales leader. Uh, actually I started out in banking, if you wanna go all the way back. Um, but I fell in love with the channel actually, when I was at Yahoo, believe it or not. Wow. [00:03:32] Alexandra Zagury: Because it was the first interact sales model that I had the privilege to operate in, and I really understood. Stood the power of going through a channel. And then I was at Blackberry where I, I, I also, um, well had various sales leadership roles, but our model was all through, was all through the channel. [00:03:51] Alexandra Zagury: Yes. Um, some startups and then help [00:03:54] Vince Menzione: in those days too, right? [00:03:55] Alexandra Zagury: Yeah. It was all sps and I learned from Jim Balze the channel fundamentals. So, um, and then ended up, of course, at Cisco the last. Nearly 11 years, which I think is also one of the greatest channel companies. Yes. And really has thrived in a partner, partner led growth, and in a partner led model. [00:04:12] Alexandra Zagury: And so when, when Microsoft called, I mean, this was just the opportunity of a lifetime. To lead the channel during an era where we’re all getting disrupted, we’re all having to blueprint new systems, new ways of working, where go to market is getting identified, and we’re all having to figure out how to become customer zero ourselves, but then also how to go to market. [00:04:36] Alexandra Zagury: With, with agents. And so this was the, the most exciting time that I could think of to join the Microsoft ecosystem and really take us to the next level. [00:04:44] Vince Menzione: Well, your background is perfect for this. I, I, Rodney Clark is a friend, has been a guest on the podcast and in, in the studio, and I think of Cisco is the quintessential channel company. [00:04:56] Vince Menzione: Like when I think about how channel got created and how it worked well, it was always Cisco that did it. So give us like your perspective now, like seven plus months and like how does this feel like you’ve You’ve got a big remit and, uh, various, uh, routes to market. We’ll call them, uh, channels to market. [00:05:14] Vince Menzione: So take us through a little bit of that, like Yeah, sure. [00:05:16] Alexandra Zagury: Describe [00:05:16] Vince Menzione: the transition, what it’s been like [00:05:18] Alexandra Zagury: for you. So one of the things we’re focused on is supporting the channel through the transformation, and we look at it in a couple of lenses. The first lens is really helping the channel become customer zero. [00:05:29] Alexandra Zagury: We really believe that the partners that invest in. Actually identifying their own processes and their own go go to market are the channels, are are the partners that it can actually win because if you are using it, you’re gonna be able to sell it. The second layer is all about technical intensity, and I’m very passionate about this because I see it from two lenses. [00:05:51] Alexandra Zagury: One is. I would like each and every of our partners to lead in building an AI Center of Excellence based on the Microsoft platform. It is a unique opportunity. I can give you lots of numbers, right? We’ve all heard about the trillions of agents that are gonna be here by 2030. We’ve all heard about the tam. [00:06:12] Alexandra Zagury: I mean, our TAM is going from 777. Million to over a billion, uh, to over a trillion. I, it’s, the numbers are just enormous, insane, right? Over half a billion of customers in our base that are using, that are, that are based already on the Microsoft platform. So all the goodness of our IU IQ platform can be unlocked with all the services that the partners can build. [00:06:36] Alexandra Zagury: So investing in that technical skilling and building those practices are gonna be, is gonna be essential. The third part. The third pillar is all about ag agentic, GTM. So once you’re actually using, uh, the Microsoft platform, you’re gonna have to reimagine all your business’s pro processes, your sales processes, and the more that you are integrated into how we do, how we do things. [00:07:00] Alexandra Zagury: One of the things that I think is the best kept secret at Microsoft is the telemetry that we offer our partners. Yeah. I mean, it’s unbelievable. I’ve never seen the quality of propensity data. And now I’m gonna give you the ABCs, which is please, A SPX, which is where we get all our copilot data, PUPP, which is our proposal upsell, uh, planner, right, cloud descent, where you can actually get your next action directly to your sellers. [00:07:27] Alexandra Zagury: There is just so much goodness that we give, which is part of our, our investment in partners. Which takes me to the fourth pillar, and that is all about value alignment and one of the things that I’m very focused and I bring with me from, from Cisco and the work that I did with MSPs is really thinking through what is that value exchange between us and the partner. [00:07:49] Alexandra Zagury: I believe that I’m in the business of earning your trust. Earning your preference. And, and, and we do that by really mapping that value alignment. So not just, one of the things that the whole industry has copied from Microsoft is really looking at our incentives across the customer lifecycle. Yes. So really mapping the value alignment across the customer lifecycle, not just at the point of the deal. [00:08:13] Alexandra Zagury: ’cause that was the whole purpose of CSP. That’s right. The investments we make in tele telemetry, the investments we make in our go-to-market assets and having those bi-directional feedback loops so that we can be continuously improving. So those are sort of the things that I’m thinking about every day. [00:08:29] Alexandra Zagury: There’s a couple of others as we lead and support you in this transformation. ’cause I think of my job as to supporting and driving growth with you so that we have that joint ambition. But also supporting the transformation that both of us are on this journey. [00:08:44] Vince Menzione: And Microsoft was the first with Jay McBain was with us yesterday, and we talked, we’ve talked about this before, but you were the first company to take and look, get rid of the old metal systems, right? [00:08:55] Vince Menzione: The bronze, silver, gold, mm-hmm. And move to basically a point system for partners so that they can come at it from a kind of a global perspective on how they drive success. What was, um, what did you learn about this partner community, your first months that you didn’t expect? [00:09:12] Alexandra Zagury: Can I say something controversial? [00:09:14] Vince Menzione: Absolutely. Okay. [00:09:14] Alexandra Zagury: I love, [00:09:14] Vince Menzione: we love controversial, [00:09:15] Alexandra Zagury: so I think one of the things that I was surprised was that I didn’t see all the partners really unlocking the value of CSP. Yeah. What do I mean by that? When Microsoft moved to the Point System, and I was on the other side, really, I was so jealous of CSP when I was running managed services. [00:09:34] Alexandra Zagury: Here’s an offer that is for partners, for Partner that gives you that initial. Guarantee in terms of the margin that helps you throughout the customer life cycle with all the incentives and, and programs that we have. And I didn’t see, I mean there are some partners, but I was surprised not seeing more partners really building their value stack and their services across the lifecycle. [00:09:59] Alexandra Zagury: And I think there’s such a great opportunity now to do that. That was one of the most surprising things I thought. Oh my gosh, there must be so many, so many services stack, so many people really unlocking, unlocking that, that value. That was a, that was a little bit surprising. [00:10:14] Vince Menzione: Why? Why do you suppose, why do you suppose that was happening? [00:10:17] Alexandra Zagury: I think some of the things that we were listening here, there’s some, sometimes complexity. There are things that we still have to. Get better on, and I’m one of the first ones to say that like our partner experience, we have, um, you know, a lot of focus right now on partner center and ensuring that we’re identifying it. [00:10:36] Alexandra Zagury: I don’t know if I can say it, but, you know, one of the things that we’re looking at is replicating internally. We have Agent J. That supports our sellers through the sales process. Nice. We’re looking at having something similar for our partners. Very cool. Getting some claps there. So, yeah, so, uh, I think, you know, that I, some, there are some lockers that we, we have to acknowledge a lot of them are operational and comes with being a 50-year-old company. [00:11:02] Vince Menzione: I, I’ll give you my perspective too. I wanna get your thoughts on this. ’cause I got to, I’ve gotten to know this MSP community, which is a, you mentioned managed services and that, um, I think that some of them, well, I think Microsoft is leaning in, in a much bigger way. Um, we had Jose on stage yesterday and just the, the energy around the room, there he is, he’s back here. [00:11:23] Vince Menzione: The energy in the room around the MSP community is palpable and it maybe it wasn’t there a few years ago. Maybe some people got off the bus, so to speak, like they weren’t really paying attention mm-hmm. To all the change and all the investments. That you men, you’re mentioning or being made to support this, would you, what would you say about that? [00:11:42] Alexandra Zagury: Yeah, I’d say that that that is correct, but I’d also say that what I learned, you know, leading MSP at Cisco was that. All the stars have to be aligned, right? And if one thing is not right, if you don’t have product market fit, if you, if you, if you don’t have a good way to, uh, consolidate your offer, if you don’t have that investment in practice development, like there’s a series of things that we need to get right. [00:12:07] Alexandra Zagury: And I think Jose and I spent a lot of time thinking through those things and we’re, we’re ready to, to welcome the community and specifically around security. I mean, that was the second thing that I was really surprised because I lost so many deals on the other side to Microsoft, and I was like, and then I come on this side and I’m like, there’s all this opportunity everywhere. [00:12:28] Alexandra Zagury: I look underneath this chair, this opportunity, and I’m like, why are people not going after it? There is the opportunity to build managed XDR solutions, the opportunity to reinvent the song. There’s, there’s just so much opportunity and I think people get so stuck in the. Just thinking of it from a licensing model and not thinking it from the, the full on end-to-end value that you can then unlock through the best licensing model on the planet. [00:12:55] Alexandra Zagury: And so, look, we’re here, we’re, we’re ready to talk to all of you and, and really figure this out ’cause we are gonna place really bet big bets next year on ensuring that we’re growing with the MSP community. [00:13:08] Vince Menzione: So what are you personally focused on in changing Microsoft to drive this. [00:13:13] Alexandra Zagury: Well, uh, I don’t know. [00:13:14] Alexandra Zagury: Changing is a, is a, is a big word. Well, I like evolution, change, [00:13:17] Vince Menzione: evolution, evolving. [00:13:18] Alexandra Zagury: You know, I [00:13:19] Vince Menzione: transition. [00:13:21] Alexandra Zagury: I think there is, there is a couple of things that I’ll say that one of the things that I, I’m really focused on right now, the first one is skilling. We’re at a time of such transformation. That investing in skilling, and if you look at our skilling model, it has four pillars. [00:13:37] Alexandra Zagury: The first pillar we’re best in class, in which is certification specializations, and making sure that our ecosystem is certified to go to market. The second one, which we call project ready. It’s sort of how we help you, uh, technically skill the folks that sit in your practices. And there’s more work to do there, and there’s more that you can learn about how we can actually help you. [00:13:59] Alexandra Zagury: And then the middle part I’m obsessed with right now, which is sales ready and tech sales ready. So it is ensuring, because AI is new for everybody. Yes. It’s a muscle, it is a proposition that you have to sell it’s value that you’re selling. I, I love what the gentleman from Lenovo was talking about. It’s, it’s that CSB always on motion. [00:14:21] Alexandra Zagury: Yes. And so really getting very crisp to the end seller at the, at the reseller. For example, at the end, seller at the partner about why Microsoft. Why now, how do I sell and how do I win? And giving them the assets, the competitive battle cards, the, the, the ability to end objection handling all these. Great, we have them. [00:14:45] Alexandra Zagury: I mean, the amount of content we have, but it’s about doing it at what I call precision velocity. [00:14:51] Vince Menzione: Precision [00:14:51] Alexandra Zagury: velocity, right? Which is this concept of how do we get very precise at a persona level. So that we get the velocity of impact. And so I’m, I’m very obsessed with that right now. And there’s two other things I’m very obsessed with, right? [00:15:04] Alexandra Zagury: The other one is this practice building, ensuring that we are together building these AI centers of excellence, um, especially for all our managed partners. This is something that I’ve put on, uh, every single PDM in our org is gonna, is gonna be talking about that. And then the third one is one that I find super interesting, which I think all of us. [00:15:25] Alexandra Zagury: Have a lot of work to do, which is partner to partner. [00:15:29] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:15:29] Alexandra Zagury: If we look at a customer outcome, thank you. A customer outcome is built of many partners, right? There’s so many different touch points. I think some folks talk about seven partners in, in a customer outcome, and so how do we actually. Use agents, use agent solutions to suddenly unlock this opportunity because most of the time you’ll see an SSP with an si, maybe an ISV in the middle of a transaction to deliver on that customer outcome. [00:16:04] Alexandra Zagury: Yes. So what can we Microsoft do? And I’d love ideas, right? I haven’t cracked this. I don’t think the industry has completely cracked this. It’s more of a, a science than, than, well, more of an art than it is a science today. So that’s the third thing that I, I, I’d love to really improve and, and get better at. [00:16:20] Vince Menzione: I wish you got to see my slide earlier. ’cause I had the seven seats. I had this, I had the seven partners surrounding the customer. Customer is able to make their decisions now because with their cloud commitments [00:16:31] Alexandra Zagury: mm-hmm. [00:16:32] Vince Menzione: They’re in the, they’re in the seat where it used to be. I would rely on the partner to tell me what to do. [00:16:38] Vince Menzione: I, I’m cobbling together the best solution for my organization. Based on the trusted partners, to your point, those seven seats, and that’s partner to partner action. And Jay McBain was here yesterday and he took us through a great example. It’s AstraZeneca, that Microsoft won AWS, thought they were gonna win the deal, and then there were Microsoft partners in involved. [00:17:00] Vince Menzione: And the, the decision was made in December, but the deal didn’t happen until July. And that whole process was because all these different partners showed up. And influence the decision and the solution areas for that customer. [00:17:12] Alexandra Zagury: Yeah, that’s the best example of PLG partner led growth in action, which I think, again, that is the other thing that I’m super excited about is that actually p proving in the AI era that it’s about PLG as partner led growth, not the other PLGI. [00:17:31] Vince Menzione: I love that. I love that. Instead of product led growth, it’s partner led growth. So I understand there’s three layers that you’re very interested in that you want, you were gonna take us through today. Okay. Do you know about this, [00:17:44] Alexandra Zagury: the layers [00:17:45] Vince Menzione: of we have, uh, copilot chat. Oh, yes. 365 and, and agents. [00:17:49] Alexandra Zagury: Yeah. [00:17:50] Vince Menzione: From a product perspective, I thought maybe, [00:17:51] Alexandra Zagury: yeah, sure. [00:17:52] Alexandra Zagury: This is, I mean. This is the, uh, advantage of choosing the market Microsoft platform. Yeah, so as you look, look at it, there’s, there’s definitely different options, but when you look at Microsoft, what’s really, really interesting is that we have all the, all the layers. There’s no AI without data, and we’ve got that data foundation. [00:18:15] Alexandra Zagury: We also have the intelligence data foundation, right? Then we’ve got the, the layer of actually building those AI agents, and then the last layer that we have is actually the experience or the application layer. So when you look at our platform is a completely integrated platform with the different choices. [00:18:35] Alexandra Zagury: We are not behold, beholden to one LLM or another LLM. You’re actually able to bring your data and, and bring the LLM that you want to deliver on the, on the outcomes that you need. And I think that is very, very unique about our proposition. Yeah, I [00:18:50] Vince Menzione: agree. [00:18:50] Alexandra Zagury: But the other thing that is unique, it’s the most exciting product out there. [00:18:55] Alexandra Zagury: Agent 3, 6 5, our own oh oh seven. It really is a differentiated proposition that every single partner can build services around. Starting with your advisory services, tell me customer, what is it that you are thinking of? Then you actually move on to thinking about security because again, just like there’s no AI without data, you have to start with that data foundation. [00:19:24] Alexandra Zagury: There’s no AI without security and no security without ai. And so really thinking through how, uh, agent 3, 6, 5, I love it. I get these claps once a, I love, love really thinking about how Agent 3, 6 5 really unlocks, not only. A security budget, but an observability budget because you can do both. You are talking to both, uh, folks at the customer, right? [00:19:47] Alexandra Zagury: You can actually start talking about how you’re gonna actually govern all of these agents, manage all of these agents, but also there’s the observability layer, which is gonna tell you what actually can you do? How can you actually deliver on the outcomes that we all want from ai, which is productivity. [00:20:05] Alexandra Zagury: Experience and efficiency and all the other things. So I think this is the biggest opportunity this channel has ever seen, and every single partner is gonna have to make a choice on what platform they’re gonna lead with, and we believe it should be ours because it is completely integrated across these three layers with our very own oh oh seven. [00:20:30] Vince Menzione: I wanna get your perspective, but it feels like many of these partners in the MSP community are stuck at that CSP level. We were having this conversation about getting through that, coaching ’em through it. What would your be your perspective on that? [00:20:44] Alexandra Zagury: Um, I’d say, uh, use this moment to unlock that opportunity. [00:20:50] Alexandra Zagury: First off, invest in your skills. Get your, get your team skilled and, uh, on Microsoft, build your center of excellence. Map out your strategy where actually you’re gonna monetize and use all the different assets that we have. And if you are being really, um, I mean, most of them are serviced through a distributor. [00:21:12] Alexandra Zagury: Make your distributor accountable for supporting you in packaging the offers and giving you the, uh, information that you need in terms of skilling. And then in terms of co-selling, again, distributor has a lot of tools that can help you understand how to unlock the co unlock, the co-selling opportunity with Microsoft. [00:21:35] Alexandra Zagury: I think that’s another really big competitive advantage that Microsoft has. When, uh, Microsoft changed what it started by, by, by changing its strategy. I think clarity is kindness. We were very, very clear that where we want, we wanted partners, of course, to play an enterprise with a services stack, but we were very clear that we were betting on a partner led growth in small, medium enterprise, right? [00:22:03] Alexandra Zagury: And so we’ve built our whole operating system. Around that. And so I think it’s really about finding the information that you know you want, planning your strategy, getting skilled and go to market with us. Our co-sell Advantage is very, very unique. It is one of the only companies that has the sales teams completely aligned because CSP is our hero motion. [00:22:29] Vince Menzione: So being with a customer through the journey on CSP, but also renewals are a big component of growth. Talk to us about that. [00:22:36] Alexandra Zagury: Yeah. Renewals are, uh, a machine and an engine that is just absolutely beautiful. It’s your [00:22:42] Vince Menzione: flywheel. [00:22:43] Alexandra Zagury: It is your flywheel. Um, and it is the gift that keeps on giving. We, of course, have a very focused, um, and in fact, one of the things that I’ve done since. [00:22:52] Alexandra Zagury: Uh, since we’ve started, it started a very focused motion in terms of looking at our renewals. We have very specific targets. We, we like to see a renewal at 110% at the moment of renewal. And then we like to see a motion, t plus three, T plus six. That gets us to that a hundred and and 25%. But what we’ve also found out is that this needs to be an always on motion. [00:23:18] Alexandra Zagury: So one of the things that we’re doing is using this concept of precision velocity becoming very rigorous. ’cause we have all the data. Yeah. In terms of what is that next action, and really looking at starting that renewal process, we see that the partners that are able to reach the targets are the ones that start at T minus. [00:23:36] Alexandra Zagury: Six, maybe T minus three, you’re cutting it, but T minus six. And really building that constant motion, getting out in front Yeah. With the customer is really important. And then of course, we now even have these amazing go back motions, uh, with, with our partners where we actually, after the renewal, we go and. [00:23:56] Alexandra Zagury: The renewal was not at the target. We just constantly keep on going. Uh, going back with the, with the partners and we’ve unlocked a, a bevy of data. We, our operating model, we call it the pods, where the PDM sits at the center and orchestrates it with all the different roles that we have. And so we now have a very systematized moment, uh, motion of how to do the renewals. [00:24:18] Vince Menzione: So for the partners in the room, what’s one investment that they should make and what should every partner in the room do differently? Going into, uh, July 1st. [00:24:27] Alexandra Zagury: Well, I think the first thing, remember, CSP is our hero motion, so really for, uh, real, really focused on that. But the one investment, can I say two? [00:24:38] Vince Menzione: Please, please. [00:24:38] Alexandra Zagury: Your time. The, the first one is skilling, right? This is the time. [00:24:43] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:24:43] Alexandra Zagury: Technical intensity is super, super important, and really making those investments in skilling not only from a practice perspective, your your, your technical practice, uh, teams, but also from a sales readiness perspective. [00:24:59] Alexandra Zagury: This is a new muscle. It’s we’re all learning how to truly sell outcomes, and so getting your sales teams ready. Is is really important. And then the second one very tied to that is building your AI Center of Excellence based on the Microsoft platform. Because as we go into FY 27, you will see that the partners that prefer and grow with us are the ones that will see the investment come to them. [00:25:28] Vince Menzione: So I want to use the term front. I I, I’ve been avoiding the term frontier firm, but I think it is super critical. Everything I’ve heard today, like you need to be customer zero. You need to get in train, advance on it and go build against it. [00:25:41] Alexandra Zagury: Absolutely. Well, if you had, let me a third, I would’ve said customer zero. [00:25:46] Vince Menzione: You have it? Alright. We have less than a minute. Would you be okay if we ask for like maybe one question? Yeah, absolutely. We’ll do like one, maybe two. So good to have you by the way. Thank you, Vince. So nice to have you here. [00:26:04] Vince Menzione: I think we did such a good job. Oh, here we go. Here’s, here’s fun. A mic is coming your way. [00:26:20] Vince Menzione: Thank you. Here we go. Okay. [00:26:22] Guest: So we’ve been very keen on, um, skilling our people, and I still find it very hard to get all of the information out of Partner Center to get a complete global view. Are you and your team thinking about maybe having an MCP server access and having a real portal working with that data? [00:26:41] Alexandra Zagury: You just touched on one of our areas of improvement. Absolutely. In fact, um, thank you for, stay tuned for holding us accountable to that. That is definitely one of the things that we’re working on is how to integrate skilling hub into partner center. Right. As most of you will know, there are it Qs, and so that’s one of the things that we are definitely prioritizing, but thank you for holding me accountable to that one. [00:27:09] Vince Menzione: Awesome. [00:27:13] Vince Menzione: We have one more back here, David. I see. We wanna see how fast they can move that microphone across the room. Relay system here. The relay team. There we go. [00:27:25] Guest: That was excellent, Alexander. Thank you. And welcome. [00:27:28] Alexandra Zagury: Thank you. [00:27:29] Guest: Can you point to a specific example? ’cause I think it’s so critical what you highlighted just the skill piece and the customer outcomes piece. [00:27:35] Guest: Right. Can you point to a specific example of a story that you really love that highlights, uh, customers lighting it up with ROI. [00:27:44] Alexandra Zagury: Yeah, I think, you know, we’re, we’re, we’re a platform, so I just saw a win wire. Like at Microsoft, we get these win wires all the time about how an SSB actually won a, a deal against one of these big AI only companies. [00:28:00] Alexandra Zagury: And it was really about selling the full platform, right? Yeah. Because if, if you, if you put a full platform against an LLM proposition, I mean, the full platform really stacks up because it’s completely integrated. It’s not behemoth to one, you’re not making a bet on one company. And it really highlighted our mantra around trust and intelligence. [00:28:24] Alexandra Zagury: The customer was able to see, they, they were an M 365 customer, so all their iq, all their intelligence was already there. They knew that they, there were guardrails against it. They had a problem with shadow ai and by actually standardizing on copilot and going on that journey from copilot paid to agents, they sue the, they saw the full, uh, value proposition. [00:28:49] Alexandra Zagury: And so we won that deal and it was one of the. First E seven deals that we won, so it was great. [00:28:55] Vince Menzione: Fantastic. Great. Congratulations. [00:28:57] Alexandra Zagury: Thank you [00:28:58] Vince Menzione: Alex. I am so honored and thrilled that you got, you chose us to be your I I would say the first big Yeah, absolutely. Presentation in front of the partner community. [00:29:07] Vince Menzione: I’m so excited to have you. [00:29:08] Alexandra Zagury: Thank you [00:29:09] Vince Menzione: guys, and hopefully many more times ahead with us. [00:29:10] Alexandra Zagury: Absolutely. Invite me at anytime. [00:29:12] Vince Menzione: Okay. Well, thank you [00:29:13] Alexandra Zagury: so much. [00:29:14] Vince Menzione: Thank you. So great [00:29:15] Alexandra Zagury: to have you. Thank [00:29:16] Vince Menzione: you so much. Thanks for listening to The Ultimate Partner Podcast. If today’s conversation resonated, share it with a partner leader in your network. [00:29:26] Vince Menzione: Subscribe where you listen, and head over to the ultimate partner.com. For show notes related content and the resources for this episode. And if you haven’t already, now’s the time to register for the Ultimate Partner Live Event in Reston, Virginia, October 26th through October 28th. Until next time, keep showing up in the rooms that matter because being in the room changes everything.

The reality is that most MSP cold outreach falls completely flat. It is rare for me to speak with someone experiencing success with cold outreach. Why is that the case? It's not because the timing is wrong or the market is too competitive. Today, we're getting into exactly what MSPs are doing wrong with their outreach, why most MSP offers fail to connect with prospects, and the one critical element that's almost certainly missing from yours right now. >>> Whenever you are ready, here are 4 ways we can help you reach your revenue goals faster...#1 Unlock the full potential of your marketing engine. We'll provide you and your team with the direction, insights, and tools necessary to excel in the complex landscape of modern marketing. - Marketing Advisor On Call#2 Discover the marketing strategies & tactics that will guide your next quarter and unlock explosive growth in 90 minutes. - Quick-Start Marketing Strategy Game Plan#3 Discover a tailor-made strategy for unprecedented growth to transform your marketing in 30 days. - Unlock Your Growth Opportunities#4 If you need guidance on the most effective direction for your marketing, then schedule a call with us today! - Get Your Free Discovery Call Now

“The best value you will get out of it is if you get as many conversations and as many conversation types as possible,” says Mattias Ohde of Meetric. In this special podcast for the Cloud Communications Alliance and TR Publications, Doug Green speaks with Mattias Ohde of Meetric about conversational intelligence, AI and the new opportunity emerging for service providers, UCaaS providers, mobile carriers, MSPs and channel partners. Ohde says Meetric focuses on conversational intelligence for service providers, helping them collect and structure conversations from telephony, video, live meetings, email and other sources. Once those conversations are organized, AI can help extract insights, create workflows, support automation and make everyday work more structured. The conversation centers on a shift in how business communications are understood. For years, companies have recorded calls and saved voicemails, but much of that information was difficult to search, organize or use. Ohde says AI changes that by allowing conversations to become data points. “Now with the introduction of AI, you can all of a sudden consider these conversations as data points,” Ohde says. That creates what Ohde describes as a kind of “gold mine” for businesses. By bringing together conversations from across departments and communications channels, companies can gain a broader view of customers, operations and markets. They can also run more advanced analysis across the accumulated body of communications, creating insights that were not previously practical. For service providers, the opportunity is both operational and commercial. Ohde says conversational intelligence gives providers something new to bring to customers beyond traditional voice, UCaaS and collaboration tools. It can help providers deliver a more direct impact on the customer's daily work while creating a higher-value service layer. “This is in a way quite revolutionary for the industry itself,” Ohde says. Meetric delivers its services as a white-label offering, allowing mobile carriers, UCaaS platform providers and local service providers to bring conversational intelligence to market under their own brand, through their own invoicing and bundled with other services. Ohde says that creates a fast route to market for providers looking to add AI-enabled services without building the full capability themselves. He also discusses MCP and open AI workflows, noting that Meetric's functionality can be used inside other tools and platforms. That allows conversational data and AI-generated insights to become part of broader workflows across the customer's business. Ohde says the revenue opportunity is significant because conversational intelligence services may command much higher market pricing than traditional subscription services for UCaaS or mobile connectivity. For CCA members, MSPs and channel partners, the message is direct: the conversations customers are already having may contain untapped value. AI now gives providers a practical way to capture, organize and act on that information — while building a new service and revenue opportunity on top of the communications infrastructure they already provide. Learn more at https://meetric.com

By Doug Green “They're no longer just the corner store with X amount of potential customers. Now they've added X plus Y. So it's really a game changer.” National Retail Solutions (NRS) is giving independent convenience stores, bodegas and neighborhood retailers a direct path to the delivery economy through its new integration with Uber Eats. In this Technology Reseller News podcast, I speak with Elie Y. Katz, President and CEO of NRS, about what the integration means for independent merchants — and why it also creates an opportunity for MSPs, resellers and other channel partners already serving small businesses. The integration lets merchants connect Uber Eats ordering with the NRS point-of-sale platform they already use. Katz says that gives local retailers a way to reach customers beyond the people who normally walk into the store, while making products from neighborhood bodegas, tiendas, convenience stores and corner groceries available through delivery. Katz says the opportunity is especially significant because independent retailers often carry products that large chains cannot easily duplicate. Many also prepare fresh sandwiches, salads, hot foods and culturally specific items that reflect the communities they serve. Uber Eats can help those merchants turn those local advantages into a much larger potential customer base. The podcast also looks at the operational side of delivery. Katz describes visiting a business with a literal “wall of iPads” — separate devices for Uber, DoorDash, Grubhub and other platforms. The goal of NRS integrations is to bring ordering into a more unified workflow instead of forcing small merchants to manage multiple disconnected systems. There is also a clear channel opportunity. Katz says companies that already have relationships with small businesses can visit sellnrs.com and look at ways to add NRS products to their existing sales structure. “Why should they leave money on the table?” he asks, noting that NRS offers multiple products that can fit customers those partners are already serving. The conversation offers a practical look at how delivery platforms are changing independent retail — while giving MSPs and channel partners another way to deepen their relationships with small-business customers. Related story: NRS Connects Independent Retailers Directly to Uber Eats Visit https://nrspros.com/

By Doug Green “It certainly eliminates the speed bump.” That is how James Walters, VP Strategic Vendors and Alliances at Exclusive Networks, describes the impact of the company's appointment as a Fortinet Global Distributor. In this TR Podcast, Walters explains that the new designation builds on a relationship with Fortinet spanning more than 25 years, while giving Exclusive Networks a framework to better support partners and customers pursuing cross-border and multinational opportunities. At the center of the new model is a global deal desk designed to centralize multinational transactions. Walters says Exclusive Networks can help coordinate requirements that previously had to be handled market by market, including payments, tax alignment, support documentation and support-of-record issues. The result, he says, should be fewer administrative requirements, faster sales cycles and improved revenue recognition for partners and their customers. Under previous arrangements, multinational deals often required partners to work through local teams and local processes, creating inconsistencies in technical support, deal structure and transaction velocity. The new framework is intended to remove those friction points while preserving Fortinet's partner protections. It is aimed at global systems integrators and large international partners, but Walters says regional resellers with customers expanding internationally should also engage Exclusive Networks. The opportunity also extends to enterprise customers and MSPs. Enterprises operating across multiple countries can use the model to accelerate Fortinet deployments and strengthen security posture across locations. MSPs, meanwhile, can use Exclusive Networks' global go-to-market support to expand Fortinet technology across multinational customer environments, with support spanning pre-sales, point of sale, implementation and lifecycle management. Walters describes the designation as a natural next step in an already strong Fortinet relationship. His message to partners is straightforward: whether they are global integrators, MSPs or regional resellers beginning to follow customers into new markets, Exclusive Networks now has a broader global structure to help them take Fortinet solutions across borders with less friction and more consistent support. Visit www.exclusive-networks.com Watch the TR Podcast to learn more.

The episode highlights the shift toward AI-driven knowledge management within the MSP sector, revealing increased operational dependency on structured data and sophisticated integrations. Lexful, an AI-native documentation platform designed specifically for MSPs, represents this trend by positioning itself not as a simple add-on but as a replacement for legacy documentation tools—controlling critical record-keeping functions and interfacing with principal PSA and RMM systems. This development signals greater infrastructure dependence on AI-based documentation and the implications of technical integration across diverse operational tools. According to Lexful's CEO and statements made during the episode, the platform has completed integrations with major PSA and RMM tools and now handles data by employing a “context-engineered” large language model tailored specifically to the MSP context. Lexful claims its engine minimizes LLM hallucinations, supports record-level access control, and functions as a system of record rather than a direct action platform. Socializing its compliance trajectory, Lexful has achieved SOC 2 Type 2 and shipped its MCP server, but its listing in marketplaces like Pax8 and SureWeb has been delayed, with current status characterized as “coming soon” and full integration targeted before the end of 2026. Supporting developments underscore the complexity and risk of deploying AI-native platforms into MSP environments. The absence of public customer or partner counts persists, with the company attributing constrained accessibility to pending integrations rather than lack of market uptake. Pricing structures diverge from incumbents, moving from per-user to per-client models and establishing minimum contract terms—raising questions about justification of cost versus legacy alternatives. A key operational risk centers on access control and human-in-the-loop governance, with sensitive systems such as password vaults only accessible through layered permissions, and Lexful emphasizing the necessity of robust accountability frameworks to minimize harm from potential automation failures. Practical implications for MSPs include heightened need for rigorous governance of AI systems, especially around data access, role management, and auditability. Vendor dependency deepens as platforms like Lexful supplant multiple existing tools and drive uptake via deeper integration with distribution marketplaces and SaaS ecosystems. Pricing and contract structures require MSPs to reconsider value calculations, as cost is no longer purely user-driven but tied to client volume and operational breadth. The tradeoff is between purported efficiency gains from automation and the risk profile associated with delegating documentation and knowledge management to AI-based infrastructure, particularly as human oversight remains essential to mitigate errors and ensure regulatory compliance. Supported by: ScalePad

The episode's primary focus centers on the introduction of China-based Alibaba's new artificial intelligence (AI) model, which is positioned to rival existing US-developed models. This development has triggered concerns within the US federal government regarding the potential superiority of these foreign AI models and resulting security and data governance risks. The discussion further noted that recent import bans in the US have included consumer and business products containing AI elements, such as robotic vacuum cleaners, reflecting heightened regulatory scrutiny and caution toward foreign AI integration in both enterprise and consumer environments. Supporting details outlined that Chinese technology companies have released an increasing number of AI models, including both large-scale and smaller, task-specific models. According to the discussion, the trend toward “distilled” or smaller models, which are trained based on larger systems, introduces efficiency benefits but also creates concern about loss of fidelity or intelligence in iterative retraining. Reference was made to a lengthy public statement by Meta's CEO on the risks and advantages of model distillation and to US regulatory actions responding to these broad technology shifts. A key secondary topic was the launch of the Managed Intelligence Alliance (MIA), formed at ChannelCon 2026 to address AI standards, accreditation, and governance for MSPs. However, analysis pointed out that the Alliance's executive leadership is comprised primarily of large aggregators and vendors, with a notable absence of direct representation from operational MSPs. The structure involves engagement with Texas A&M University for association-building, but concerns were raised regarding industry self-regulation, stakeholder representation, and the practical function of such alliances for the broader MSP segment.TITLE: Probing Client AI Opportunities and Managing Leadership Meetings for MSPsQuestion of the Week: What are some good pre-sales probing questions to get the conversation going with a prospect around AI opportunities? AI: Chinese AI models, smaller/distilled models, and AI trainingMeetings: How to run better weekly leadership meetingsChannelCon: Managed Intelligence Alliance and MSP industry standardsTales from the Field: The value of a small MSP business The discussion concluded with practical implications for MSPs and IT service providers, emphasizing risk management, the importance of understanding both external technological developments and internal AI adoption, and the need for clear standards and governance amid evolving vendor and regulatory landscapes. The conversation highlighted the necessity for MSPs to critically assess tool adoption, process discipline in meetings, and asset valuation, while maintaining vigilance over the security, accountability, and ownership structures within emerging technology initiatives and industry alliances. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Send us Fan Mail

Send us Fan Mail

Send us Fan MailWhat does it take to evolve from a hands-on technologist into the CEO of a global cybersecurity company?In this episode of Joey Pinz Conversations, Joey sits down with Joe Levy, CEO of Sophos, to discuss leadership, technology, entrepreneurship, cybersecurity, and personal growth. Joe shares his fascinating journey from writing software and running bulletin board systems as a teenager in Queens, New York, to becoming CTO and eventually CEO of one of the world's leading cybersecurity companies.The conversation explores the lessons learned from building technology businesses, transitioning into executive leadership, working with MSPs, and why the best products do not always win in the marketplace. Joe also shares insights on cybersecurity's leadership gap, the impact of AI, parenting in the digital age, and the importance of self-regulation in both business and life.From walking 12 miles a day on a treadmill desk to leading thousands of cybersecurity professionals worldwide, Joe offers practical wisdom on curiosity, learning, resilience, and long-term success.

Send us Fan Mail

The episode details a structural shift for MSPs and IT service providers: the separation of security license resale from the value of human-led security services, and the resulting pricing and margin risks. Companies like N-able, SentinelOne, and SonicWall exemplify how technology offerings and delivery mechanisms are forcing providers to re-examine what differentiates their services beyond the products they resell. N-able's financial results illustrate the risk of relying on product-based security revenue. The company reported a drop in annual recurring revenue, driven by lower renewal rates in Unified Endpoint Management and Endpoint Detection and Response lines—both of which relied on reselling portable licenses, notably SentinelOne's product. In contrast, revenue from services tied to human expertise—through the acquired Adlumen's managed detection and response (MDR)—grew, according to both N-able management and analysts. The episode states that when customers can move licenses without losing service continuity, price becomes the only differentiator, undermining provider margins. Related developments reinforce this dynamic. SonicWall launched a combined antivirus and EDR solution available as both a product and a managed service—explicitly marketed for MSP resale—where SonicWall's analysts handle detection and response. Additionally, Proofpoint expanded its managed services platform, providing security, backup, and compliance through an MSP-oriented, multi-tenant console. These offerings blur the line between manufacturer-managed services and traditional MSP-delivered security work, increasing vendor competition at the service layer. For MSPs and IT leaders, these shifts expose the risk in revenue models that bundle security services with third-party product resale, particularly when those products are easily substitutable. The transcript urges providers to re-evaluate their pricing strategies: separating human service from license cost, justifying it independently, and moving away from device- or seat-based billing. The clear risk is that failing to articulate and defend the value of human-led activities will leave providers vulnerable to vendor undercutting and margin erosion, as seen in recent N-able outcomes. 00:00 Recurring Revenue Went Backwards  03:24 They Stopped Saying RMM 06:04 You Already Own It 09:18 Why Do We Care?  Supported by:  Guardz 

Lisa Liu, Corporate Marketing and Communications Manager at Stellar Cyber, says the AI noise has been running since RSAC Conference, and that what separates vendors now is whether they can back their claims with data their customers gave them. She came to Black Hat USA 2026 with figures on Agentic Auto Triage. The numbers she cites: up to 19 minutes saved per hour per analyst, up to 1.5 full-time analysts per year, and 99.7 percent agreement with the human analyst. Liu treats the accuracy figure as the one carrying the weight. Reacting at machine speed matters only if the verdicts hold, and she describes security as a low trust industry where the burden of proof sits with the vendor. Stellar Cyber is a security operations platform purpose built for MSPs and lean enterprise teams, offering full cycle, full visibility, unified security operations. Liu says the company builds its business logic around the customer pain point, maximizing the efficiency of the resources a team already has. With alerts climbing as attackers pick up the same AI tools as everyone else, she argues that hiring through the volume is out of reach for most teams. So where does reclaimed time go? Liu says that call belongs to the customer. Reported answers include customer relations, other facets of the job, and expanded roles that analysts never had time for. There is a learning effect too. Analysts can see every step of the decision making behind an AI conclusion and draw lessons from it. For managed service providers, Liu says partner analysts deliver more customized services and take in feedback more productively once their schedules loosen up. Where partners serve very different market segments, platform flexibility carries the load, along with full visibility and automation at machine speed. She also hears a shift on the floor: running many separate vendors creates expensive overlap and leaves gaps, and a single platform approach is becoming industry standard. What comes next? Liu places the industry in a proof stage. More validation is necessary, claims about the Agentic SOC keep arriving, and backing those up with more numbers is a large part of moving forward. AI has been part of the Stellar Cyber logic since the company was founded over 10 years ago, and she says that has not changed. This is a Brand Briefing. A Brand Briefing is an on-location conversation recorded on site at Black Hat USA 2026, putting a spotlight on the guest and their company and pairing it with the editorial reach of ITSPmagazine. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/performance/#briefing GUEST Lisa Liu, Corporate Marketing and Communications Manager at Stellar Cyber LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisaaliu/ RESOURCES Black Hat USA 2026 event coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/black-hat-usa-2026-cybersecurity-event-coverage-in-las-vegas Stellar Cyber: https://stellarcyber.ai/ Stellar Cyber and M-Theory at Black Hat USA 2026: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260728715036/en/Stellar-Cyber-and-M-Theory-to-Demo-Proof-Based-AI-SOC-at-Black-Hat-USA-2026 Stellar Cyber on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stellarcyber Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight ▶︎ Get your own Brand Briefing at an upcoming event: https://www.studioc60.com/buy-brand-briefings KEYWORDS lisa liu, stellar cyber, sean martin, brand briefing, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, black hat usa 2026, agentic auto triage, agentic soc, alert fatigue, security operations platform, mssp, managed security service provider, soc analyst productivity, ai in security operations, autonomous soc, siem replacement, analyst burnout, human in the loop ai Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What if the future of IT isn't about responding faster—but about knowing what's going to happen before it happens? David Raissipour, Chief Product & Technology Officer at ConnectWise joins us for a forward-looking conversation about how AI, agentic automation, and predictive intelligence are reshaping the managed services industry. David shares his perspective on the MSP inflection point, why traditional models of simply adding people, tools, and processes are reaching their limits, and how AI agents can help smaller MSPs compete on a more level playing field with larger organizations.    The conversation explores the evolution from reactive IT to predictive IT, where intelligent systems can identify issues, reason through problems, and execute tasks before they become customer-impacting events. David also emphasizes that this transformation is not an “anti-people” approach—it's a pro-success approach, giving technology professionals the opportunity to move beyond repetitive tasks and contribute at a higher, more strategic level. From the accelerating adoption of AI and dramatically changing response times to the importance of deciding when to buy versus build, David offers practical leadership insights for navigating this next chapter of technology. Plus, we look ahead to ConnectWise's exciting second half of the year and invite MSP and IT leaders to join the ConnectWise AI Agentic Roadshow and Executive Forum Series for conversations around AI, operational scale, and organizational performance. Follow David on LinkedIn and visit connectwise.com/executive-forum-series to participate in a city near you.  Timestamps: Inflection Point 9:20    AI Strategy 18:43 Launched Platform 27:19 Roadshow Series 37:44

The episode identifies an acute shift in liability and accountability across the software and AI supply chain, where risk increasingly moves from vendors to service providers and operators. This dynamic is illustrated through incomplete vendor patches, AI tool output, and changing regulatory structures. Companies like N-able experienced authentication bypass flaws in widely used remote monitoring platforms, while industry-standard software licenses continue to disclaim warranties and cap or exclude liability, leaving providers responsible for the consequences. A key development is N-able's N-central authentication flaw, wherein a patch issued for an earlier vulnerability proved incomplete according to the Federal Vulnerability Database, enabling attackers to exploit the same vector. The finalized fix arrived days after exploitation began, but all previous builds — including those labeled patched — remained exposed. Simultaneously, research from Anthropic and disclosures by OpenAI revealed AI models acting outside intended boundaries, with incident response often lagging behind real-world impact. Notably, neither affected vendor assumed material liability, and disclosure of the incidents was voluntary, not compelled by contract or regulation. Meanwhile, IBM's annual cost of data breach report found AI-driven attacks up 56% with average breach costs nearing $6M, further emphasizing financial exposure. These incidents exemplify a structural trend: vendors disclaim output, while client agreements with IT providers warrant monitoring, maintenance, and remediation, resulting in providers accepting risk not assumed upstream. Regulatory responses differ by geography — in the U.S., CISA's only binding obligation was for operators to remediate vulnerabilities by a set deadline, not for vendors to prevent or report them. The EU's forthcoming Cyber Resilience Act will require reporting of exploited vulnerabilities within 24 hours and is expanding product liability to software, but these rules benefit consumers and regulators rather than business buyers and still stop short of assigning financial obligations to vendors. The operational effect for MSPs and IT service providers is increased contract risk, as provider promises to clients typically outpace the limited, warranty-free commitments of vendors. The rate and scope of vulnerabilities, amplified by AI-driven development and remediation, add volume and complexity without increasing the rate of effective outcomes. Providers are advised to reconcile their own service agreements with the actual commitments of software suppliers, clarify for clients where their true responsibilities lie, and prepare for a procurement environment where scrutiny of vendor warranties becomes the norm rather than the exception. 00:00 The Ones Who Patched Got Hit 04:16 Sold As Is, All The Way Down 08:02 The Only Enforceable Promise 11:47 Why Do We Care?  Supported by:  Pax8 LogMeIn

In this episode, Chris sits down with MJ Patton to explore the foundational principles that help Managed Service Providers grow, mature, and thrive in today's increasingly complex IT and cybersecurity landscape. Drawing from her extensive experience working with service providers of all sizes, MJ explains why many MSPs struggle to scale evenly across their business and why success starts with understanding exactly who you serve, the problems you solve, and the value you create. Together, they discuss the dangers of chasing every new technology trend, the importance of specialization, and how strategic partnerships can help MSPs deliver more without overextending their teams. The conversation also examines the growing role of fractional leadership services, including vCIOs, vCISOs, and fractional CMOs, and how MSPs can evolve from technology providers into trusted business advisors. Chris and MJ share practical insights on navigating cybersecurity complexity, managing risk, demonstrating ROI, and shifting customer conversations from service-level agreements to measurable business outcomes. Whether you're looking to refine your service strategy, strengthen customer relationships, or build a more scalable MSP, this episode offers actionable guidance for creating sustainable growth through focus, trust, and strategic leadership. Key Takeaways:Why MSP growth depends on balancing operational maturity across the businessHow specialization creates stronger customer relationships and better outcomesThe evolving role of vCIO, vCISO, and fractional leadership servicesWhy trust, risk management, and business outcomes matter more than SLAsHow strategic marketing leadership can accelerate MSP growthPractical advice for demonstrating value and earning long-term client loyaltyRecommended Reading: Brave Thinking by Mary Morrissey.Perfect for: MSP owners, IT service leaders, cybersecurity professionals, channel partners, and anyone looking to build a stronger, more strategic technology services business.

In this engaging episode of MSP Business School, host Brian Doyle reunites with Josh Kotler, a veteran in the MSP industry, to explore the evolving dynamics of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and the role of private equity. Josh, who has been instrumental in scaling MSP businesses, shares his journey from building and selling a successful MSP to his current endeavor with Axial Reed Capital. This episode is a rich resource for MSP owners interested in understanding market trends and making informed decisions on potential exits. The conversation delves into the challenges and opportunities present in the MSP landscape, underlining the influence of private equity and emphasizing the strategic value of organic sales growth. Josh shares his insights on why many MSP owners should contemplate selling, given the industry's rapid changes and the influx of private equity. He highlights the importance of aligning with reliable partners and discusses the benefits of being part of a larger scaling platform, all while providing practical advice for those considering stepping into the world of M&A. Key Takeaways: Private equity has significantly boosted valuations in the MSP industry, offering lucrative opportunities for business owners. MSP owners in their 50s and 60s should evaluate their ability to adapt to industry changes and consider selling as a strategic move. Growing an MSP through mergers and acquisitions can be a faster approach to scaling than organic growth, with essential roles emerging in larger scaling platforms. Despite competition weighing heavily on smaller MSPs, aligning with private equity-backed brands can reduce risks and increase enterprise value. The evolving landscape, marked by technological advancements like AI, will separate proactive and innovative MSPs from those unable to adapt. Guest Name: Josh Kotler LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshkotler/ Company: Canyon Point Technologies Company Website: https://canyonpoint.com/ Show Website: https://mspbusinessschool.com/ Host Brian Doyle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briandoylevciotoolbox/ Sponsor vCIOToolbox: https://vciotoolbox.com

The dominant mechanism addressed is the development of a self-regulatory framework for IT service providers, specifically as Texas A&M University's Global Cyber Research Institute (GTIA) launches the Consortium for Responsible IT Services (CRITS). This signals a move toward organized self-governance and standard-setting within the MSP sector, in contrast to direct government-imposed regulation. The initiative is designed to shift the industry from fragmented standard adoption toward collective risk and professional accountability, using academic infrastructure and industry funding as its operational backbone. According to statements from Cole Knuth, GTIA's facilitation of CRITS involves university-hosted development and company funding, with the intention to produce a publication outlining operational and cybersecurity standards for IT service providers. The university has committed both its name and financial resources, making CRITS a formal legal construct enabled by Texas A&M's research arm. The initial executive sponsors are large industry players—New Charter, Pax8, and The 20—but there is not yet independent MSP participation under 25 employees. The first member meeting is scheduled to occur alongside the GCRI Summit in October. The episode contrasts CRITS with prior efforts to establish industry standards, noting previous initiatives by the MSP Alliance, NSITSP, and GTIA's own Cybersecurity Trustmark, none of which achieved broad acceptance or regulatory recognition. Cole Knuth attributes this lack of traction to fragmented grassroots approaches or top-down lobbying, asserting that CRITS aims for a “middle out” model by aggregating MSP voices to build legitimacy and influence before external regulation is enacted. The consortium's design includes the possibility of recognizing existing certifications rather than displacing them, and emphasizes eventual inclusion of smaller and independent MSPs in governance. For MSPs and IT leaders, the practical implications include increased pressure to participate in the development and adoption of industry standards to mitigate liability risk and avoid externally imposed rules. Operational challenges are likely to include the need for resource allocation to compliance initiatives, cost uncertainties regarding participation and auditing, and navigating evolving governance requirements as standards are defined. Smaller MSPs face the risk of exclusion unless explicit mechanisms are created for their input and representation, and the structure of CRITS may lead to new layers of compliance complexity and scrutiny, particularly as the consortium transitions from initial large-member funding to broader industry engagement. Supported by:  ScalePad

Don’t miss the AI partnership revolution Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this episode, Vince Menzione sits down with Amit Sinha from WorkSpan and Marc Monday from ServiceNow to dissect the rapid evolution of AI-native partnerships and the shifting dynamics of the channel ecosystem. They explore how the hyperscaler co-sell model has transformed into a complex strategy of asymmetrical collaboration that demands unprecedented speed, simplicity, and scale from publishers. By integrating AI agents to orchestrate workflows, manage high-risk renewals, and automate low-dollar deals, companies can activate their sellers and drive explosive, exponential growth in their partner programs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP4cFBcCI9Q Key Takeaways The partner channel is no longer just a piece of the strategy; it is the entire strategy for winning in 2026. Modern co-selling is an asymmetrical collaboration where publishers must often do more than fifty percent of the heavy lifting. Implementing AI agents within partnerships can lead to massive revenue impacts, such as a 24% higher lift on renewals for companies like Boomi. True scaling requires moving beyond traditional time-and-materials consulting toward outcome-based frameworks for customers. Activating sellers through continuous AI-driven account orchestration is the ultimate key to unlocking exponential ecosystem growth. The market is moving faster than ever, necessitating that partner enablement and roadmaps shift to agile, sprint-based cycles rather than long-term rigid plans. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags AI native, ecosystem shifting, hyperscalers, Work Span, ServiceNow, lifecycle incentives, cloud native, consumption led, DocuSign, Gong, Boomi, workflow orchestration, asymmetrical collaboration, CRM integration, marketplace private offers, high propensity, seller activation, agentic solution, outcome based consulting, LLM control tower. Transcript Amit Sinha and Marc Monday Audio Episode [00:00:00] Marc Monday: We have to be soup drop dead simple and we’re gonna talk about that nice. In this world. It has to be simple. Even though under the covers it’s very complicated, [00:00:10] Vince Menzione: you can feel it happening. The ecosystem is shifting beneath us. The way Hyperscalers are partnering, how AI is remaking the channel and what it means to win in 2026. [00:00:21] Vince Menzione: Welcome to the Ultimate Partner Podcast. I’m Vince Menzi, own your host. And each week I sit down with leaders at the intersection of technology, partnerships and outcomes. The voices shaping how ecosystems actually work. We talk about what’s real, what’s changing, and what it takes to lead in this era where the partner channel isn’t just part of the strategy. [00:00:43] Vince Menzione: It is the strategy because being in the room [00:00:46] Marc Monday: changes everything. Let’s start. [00:00:52] Vince Menzione: And, uh, two incredible friends up on, uh, up on stage. But I think I’m just gonna have my, one of my first friends come up. Amit Sinha from Work Span, a great, great friend and supporter. We’ve been together since the beginning, since the very first ultimate partner in Dallas when we commandeered Microsoft facility. [00:01:12] Amit Sinha: Yeah, [00:01:12] Vince Menzione: you have a little bit that you’re gonna share first and then we’re all gonna come join you. [00:01:16] Amit Sinha: Absolutely. And [00:01:17] Vince Menzione: then we’re gonna have my other great friend, mark Monday on us on stage with us as well. So yeah, [00:01:21] Amit Sinha: what a privilege. Uh, what a privilege. Vince, you do an amazing job as a community and, uh, incredible. [00:01:27] Amit Sinha: Shout out to Alexandra. Uh, we work together at Cisco talking about lifecycle incentives across the whole lifecycle. So amazing work done there as well. So. Very quickly, I’m gonna talk to you about AI native partnerships. A quick motivation. That’s me. Of course, we are using Nano banana to cover that. [00:01:45] Amit Sinha: That’s me looking up a Yellow Pages. I will date myself. That’s, uh, McDonald’s coming to India and me looking up, uh, the nearest McDonald’s, right? And this is me now booking Uber Eats Ma and I had this real experience yesterday night. I flew in from Sapphire in Orlando and I was hungry. Ma said, let’s, let’s get Uber Eats. [00:02:06] Amit Sinha: And we had a great. De this is digital native, right? We had no idea the world would transform this way, but completely new ways of working. Okay. Um, and, uh, another great experience that Mike, my co-founder and CEO seated the back half, I spent a decade at SAP, uh, doing hana, which was a database product, but it was on premise. [00:02:28] Amit Sinha: We had these racks and our whole gig was actually take an amazing HANA database with this server mounted, deployed. Wow. The CIO and the CFO, that this is the most amazing thing. And they would not say, Hey, you can’t take that box away, because it’s such a good insight that I get for my, uh, analytics product, right. [00:02:47] Amit Sinha: So that’s the old way. And look at us. We are all cloud native, right? Cloud has gotten to a place where it’s not just about infrastructure, running things and meters and stuff like that in a scalable way. It is a also source of innovation. New capability, new business model, consumption led business model. [00:03:07] Amit Sinha: Whole new way of working, right? So this comes to the new world now, what does AI need to look like? We heard all the amazing speakers talk about, uh, you know, the promise of ai, right? But you have a choice. Uh, you have a choice to do it yourself or, uh, especially as partnership professionals, right? When you do it yourself, you have this chat bots and stuff that you get from all the major. [00:03:33] Amit Sinha: You can always get more productive, but that’s about half an hour saved. The bar is too low there. So this is an amazing piece of, uh, research put together by all the experts. Vince, thank you for doing that. Uh, we had Jay McBain lend his voice as well. We had Rob Moyer with all his, uh, decades of, you know, insight and wisdom as to what would the future with AI look like, uh, encapsulate in that. [00:03:57] Amit Sinha: So go ahead, take a picture. Uh, this is not gated. Um, beautiful piece of content has also new insights from leading firms. AI native, I would dare say frontier firms who are like DocuSign or Gong who are really pioneering AI native partnerships, Boomi, and how they’re powering their renewal business case across AWS Google and Microsoft Marketplaces. [00:04:21] Amit Sinha: Uh, this really talks about that. And here, uh, this is the thought leadership that we bring to the table. And again, this is not a vendor pitch. This is, you know, as you elevate from the low bar about making yourself productive where you’re cut and paste, uh, into a chatbot, your context so that you can get a better co-sell email out there. [00:04:40] Amit Sinha: You DIY, this thing. But if you think of working with works span, these are three things that you should think about. First is imagine instead of cut and paste, you have your entire partnership context right there. And because the context is there, the right better together story, the right case study, the right partnership documents, the right opportunity and accounts that intelligence not only informs you, but also your team in a, in an extended way, and even your partnership in an extended way that’s fully automated. [00:05:13] Amit Sinha: Second is it’s not just informing you or sensing you, it is also acting. And I think this is where there are, you know, death by a thousand cuts if happening in the world where all this time gets taken up, right? But if you have an agent that scales in ly, whether you are big mature partnership, you got lots and lots of accounts and opportunities to cover, the agent can do that. [00:05:36] Amit Sinha: Or if you’re a new partnership, how do you get to market quickly? With the right assets, the right get to market content. This can work both ways. And lastly, how do you secure this partnership is done in trust. So you should have an agent for every partnership, uniquely your partnership with Microsoft, your partnership with ServiceNow, your partnership with uh, AWS and Google. [00:05:59] Amit Sinha: They all get a different agent. And the point here is these agents can work in a circle of trust and the boundary that gets established. So via work span, come talk to us outside. And with that, Vince, let’s uh, bring Mark along. Come on, mark. [00:06:17] Vince Menzione: Alright. I am gonna have you and then Mark, uh, yeah. Want mark in the middle? [00:06:22] Marc Monday: Oh, uh oh. [00:06:24] Vince Menzione: So, uh, let me move over so I get back to the picture slide. Look at those two handsome gentlemen up there. Uh, thrilled to have you Mark as well. Uh, for those of you who don’t, because you’ve been, you were just in Boca with us this Yeah. This winter. [00:06:39] Marc Monday: That’s right. [00:06:40] Vince Menzione: And, uh, tell us about your new role at ServiceNow. [00:06:43] Marc Monday: Well, I have the absolute privilege of leading the partner channel at ServiceNow. Yeah. Um, it’s comprised of our partner programs, our program gives and gets, and importantly our five routes to market, our consulting and implementation partners, our resell partners, our service provider partners, our hyperscaler partners, and importantly our build partners. [00:07:03] Vince Menzione: I love it. I love it. So let’s talk about the partner programs and why they’re so critical to ServiceNow right now. [00:07:08] Marc Monday: I think in this world scale is everything, and so this profession has always been a bit mercurial and a little bit of a black box for organizations. What does the partner team do? What does that look like? [00:07:21] Marc Monday: But what we have to continue to do is explain, this is your force multiplier. Working together in collaboration helps you scale beyond your individual numbers. And that’s really the thing that we’re focused on is how do we drive that? And I have three big things that we have to focus on is we have to be sup, drop dead simple, and we’re gonna talk about that [00:07:40] Vince Menzione: nice. [00:07:41] Marc Monday: In this world, it has to be simple. Even though under the covers it’s very complicated. We have to be incredibly fast. Agility is the key in this very moment. And then as I said, with that becomes the scaling element and the force multiplier. [00:07:56] Vince Menzione: And you have spent many, you, well, we both worked at Microsoft together. [00:07:59] Vince Menzione: It’s [00:07:59] Marc Monday: true. [00:07:59] Amit Sinha: Way back way. [00:08:00] Marc Monday: I feel like you’re punking me having me right before lunch. Like I remember back at Microsoft, you did something to me, so I’m gonna have you right before lunch. [00:08:07] Vince Menzione: It’s, no, it’s really terrific to have you. But, uh, so yeah, you, you mentioned about like the change and the specificity and the clarity around it. [00:08:16] Vince Menzione: Amme you have, uh, broken the model, so to speak, working with ServiceNow, right? Yeah. You went from being a traditional. I’ll call it co-sell Engine Marketplace Company. Uh, tell us, tell us, tell us about the innovation that’s going on in the room. We’re working with ServiceNow. [00:08:31] Amit Sinha: Absolutely. Uh, when you think of co-sell, the first mine goes to just co-sell with the hyperscalers, right? [00:08:36] Amit Sinha: Because they kind of pioneered and started this in a unique way. We, of course, got started with Microsoft eight years ago, doing not just co-sell and P two P, but since then AW S and Google right. You would be surprised to know that we do about 10% of AWS sales through work, expand co-sale. Right. Just [00:08:53] Vince Menzione: wow. [00:08:53] Amit Sinha: But that’s where we started. Where we ended up is really looking at all partner types and all motion types and. Mark and I disagreed and he, he really pushed me hard on this. Yeah, and the point here is if you look at your build partner motion, it’s also a co-sell. You build, then you co-sell and go to market, [00:09:11] Vince Menzione: right? [00:09:12] Amit Sinha: If you think about your services partners, right? You have a product. They have amazing last mile services and digital transformation. Uh, capabilities, and again, there’s a coastal motion there. So where we world works span eventually was not just coastal with hyperscalers, but across all partner types. And Mark, thank you for pushing us on that. [00:09:31] Amit Sinha: Yeah. And being a pioneering partner on works span with us. I really appreciate [00:09:34] Marc Monday: this. It was a fun rumble we got there. [00:09:37] Vince Menzione: So why does it matter now for ServiceNow specific? [00:09:40] Marc Monday: Yeah. I mean the reality is, um, I’m gonna say something provocative. We’re, we’re all friends. Yeah. Um, Cosell iss probably a misnomer. It’s not a 50 50 coequal relationship. [00:09:53] Vince Menzione: Yeah. You don’t walk in together holding it back. [00:09:55] Marc Monday: It’s asymmetrical collaboration. I love that. And I want to put the stake in the ground. The co-sell motions that have been created by the hyperscalers are wonderful. The pipe has been opened, but the reality is the publisher. Has to do a lot of the work and the systems are there, but the key is not just connecting into partner center as an example. [00:10:16] Marc Monday: Yeah. But building your own infrastructure and processes. That’s where the magic comes together, and that’s where we really drive scale. And so if we approach co-selling is asymmetrical collaboration and recognizing that you probably need to do more than 50%. When a, when a a team collaborates on co-authoring a book, it’s not like someone’s writing every other word, and it’s exactly 50%. [00:10:40] Marc Monday: Or if a pilot, a co-pilot is with a pilot on a plane, they’re not doing exactly 50% of the work’s, [00:10:46] Vince Menzione: right? No. [00:10:47] Marc Monday: This asymmetric approach requires that we do a lot of the work on our side. Yeah. And that’s where AM and team have really helped us a ton. [00:10:55] Vince Menzione: And ServiceNow was known as a ticketing solution back in the day. [00:10:58] Vince Menzione: Right. And you’ve kind of, I mean, it it, it started that way. [00:11:01] Marc Monday: We have a wonderful heritage 20 plus years Yeah. Of workflow orchestration. Yeah. And in a diggen world, what are we really doing? We’re orchestrating workflows, and importantly, we need to govern those workflows and we need to sequence them in a meaningful way. [00:11:17] Marc Monday: And so our vision of a control tower across any hyperscaler, any LLM, any workflow, any system of record, any time, that’s the key to everything. [00:11:27] Vince Menzione: And so now you’ve taken the work span approach and driven it across what I see, like taking, taking this. This stack, we’ll call it. Yeah, the tower. Yeah. And then applying all of the methodologies and best practices on what we’ve called co-selling and ecosystem orchestration, essentially is what it really is. [00:11:46] Amit Sinha: Absolutely. [00:11:46] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:11:47] Amit Sinha: Yeah. And we are thrilled to partner with ServiceNow on this. So ServiceNow, as you guys know, uh, release their CRM product. So we got in at the ground floor on that opportunity and with the now assist agents as well. What we’ve really built is an integration between work span as a platform. [00:12:03] Amit Sinha: And ServiceNow, CRM as well. So if anybody is using that all the way from ServiceNow opportunities to Marketplace private offers, you can a genetically do that. Of course you can do it on Salesforce Hub, spot and Dynamics, but now ServiceNow is an additional option on that. I wanna really double click though, mark, on your point around asymmetry around this, when we say six to seven partners are gonna surround the end customer, right? [00:12:27] Amit Sinha: Yes. They will come at different points in time. Yes. Right? And they will also have different roles to play. So just as you think of a team, right? A soccer team for that matter, or a football team, pick your analogy right. Not everybody’s equal. Right? There’s always a qb. There’s always somebody who holds the prime on the deal. [00:12:45] Amit Sinha: There’s always a role to play. [00:12:46] Marc Monday: Yeah, [00:12:47] Amit Sinha: and I think what’s beautiful about our partnership here is when you look at it applied to services partners, it’s about building billion dollar businesses around ServiceNow, using their competency, but knowing the kind of joint accounts you need to go pursue in order to. [00:13:03] Amit Sinha: You know, burn down their inventory or, or co-sell alongside. If it’s the build partner, it’s about attacking an industry vertical or a joint account there. Right? So knowing very intelligently who to partner with and when to bring them on is the AI orchestration that is key in this partnership [00:13:19] Vince Menzione: here. Yeah. [00:13:19] Vince Menzione: So important. ’cause you, it isn’t single threaded this, this asymmetrical approach. [00:13:24] Amit Sinha: Right. So [00:13:25] Vince Menzione: incredible. You just ha you just finished your big event. I was hoping I did spare Share with us a little bit of your perspective on what’s been changing and how your ecosystem is evolving. Uh, I had Jen Odes in the studio. [00:13:38] Vince Menzione: That’s right. As you know, back in the fall. Fall, go back and watch it again. Yeah, it’s available. Great. Great podcast interview. Yeah. And you’ve been on stage at our events before and we’ve had that as a podcast, but take us how things are changing from the partner type perspective. We have MSPs in the room. [00:13:53] Vince Menzione: I know MSPs are, I know again, hands on the steering wheel. So important, right? Yeah. This technology is so complex. How are you thinking about ecosystem in your role? [00:14:03] Marc Monday: Yeah, I said earlier it’s about simplicity, speed, and scale. Yeah. Last week we had our big customer event knowledge, and on the first day we had our partner event. [00:14:13] Marc Monday: I think the biggest thing that’s happening right now is the pace of change is a bit overwhelming at times. And keeping pace with that is super critical. So what we’ve tried to do and what we announced last week was a lot of investment in giving our channel partners the exact same tools that we use in our business, right? [00:14:32] Marc Monday: So we were really focused on. Um, delivering business value. And so we took our, the solution that we use or the tools that we use for, um, delivering, uh, business value through our partners. It’s an assessment tool. Um, we’ve syndicated that to our partners. We’ve made that available. We also put a little bit of a stake in the ground around what do customers expect right now? [00:14:56] Marc Monday: Um, the time and materials business is gonna be under a tremendous amount of pressure. Some studies are predicting that it could be. Compressed by as much as 30% customers are looking for outcome based. Yeah. Um, they may stop on that journey and, and have something that’s fixed fee. But the reality is everyone is expecting value from the, the technology that they buy, and particularly from an agent perspective. [00:15:21] Marc Monday: We really leaned in on that and published what I think is a pretty good framework mm-hmm. For, um, outcome-based consulting. And we had a couple partners co-author that with us, which was really wonderful. Nice. Um, and it was a nice piece of co-creation and I think I’m seeing more and more of that where we’re co-creating with our partners in ways that we’ve never done before. [00:15:41] Marc Monday: And then I think importantly, security and reliability, um, and managing risk increasingly will be important. In an agentic world, we call it a control tower. We made two fairly big acquisitions in the last several months in terms of both the front door and the back door in terms of securing with the calls that are going into that agent or from that agent. [00:16:04] Marc Monday: To your various data sources. And so for us trying to bring that all together with our strong history of workload flow, orchestration, and then importantly, governance, security, and risk, uh, in the environment today, when you have the potential for hundreds of thousands or even millions of agents touching your core systems of record, [00:16:24] Vince Menzione: how are you thinking about both tiering your partners and also enabling your partners? [00:16:30] Marc Monday: Yeah, I think this is also an, an an area where I’d love to benchmark with y’all, um, because, you know, historically most of us built a fairly robust learning plan for our partners. You’d have a certification and then you would have a competency, and then you, maybe you’d have a wrapper around that competency. [00:16:48] Marc Monday: And it would take a long time, maybe 12 or 18 months to get to that highest level of certification. And it was incredibly robust and that’s wonderful. But when the roadmap is moving so fast that we’re releasing weekly, monthly, and every 90 days, does that type of training still hold water? So I’m proposing that we have both a volume view of how many trained individuals can we get as quickly as possible, and then value. [00:17:16] Marc Monday: And so we don’t want to lose this rich history, what I would describe as the rear view mirror, how we got here, but we also need to approach the windscreen, the windshield, where are we going and what is that opportunity? Yeah, so we have to go a little bit faster when it comes to enablement, [00:17:32] Vince Menzione: so. You, you were in a partnership, you, you call it a built on partnership. [00:17:37] Vince Menzione: Is that, is that the approach that [00:17:38] Amit Sinha: Yeah. ServiceNow has an ISV program called The Built On Partnership. Built On [00:17:41] Vince Menzione: Partnership, yeah. [00:17:42] Amit Sinha: Uh, so we sign onto that program, great accelerators to build lot of coaching and help to build on the ServiceNow platform. It’s not just the CRM integration, where it’s the opportunities and orders. [00:17:54] Amit Sinha: And by the way, this is the best platform or order management out there. So if you think of, uh, of your, if you are a MSP or consulting partner, building orders for your customers, now you want them to land on the marketplace, right? You wanna build that highway. Think of work span, right? So that’s where we came in and we said that if we look at the large number of channel partners, MSPs, who need to do that and are using ServiceNow as a platform to do it, can they genetically do it right from the now CRM? [00:18:24] Amit Sinha: Yeah, so that’s why we came in. The three big use cases we saw, number one was renewals. You talked about Alexandra doing it. Renewals is so [00:18:31] Vince Menzione: important. Yeah. [00:18:32] Amit Sinha: Oh my goodness. If you think about the renewals playbook [00:18:34] Vince Menzione: was so huge, [00:18:35] Amit Sinha: six months, nine, you know, uh, 90 days out, you wanna build that playbook. Mm-hmm. In an agent way when you reach out. [00:18:43] Amit Sinha: And by the way, you heard, uh, die Talk about 462 billion of uncontested Cloud commits out there. Yep. You want your high risk renewals to go against the high propensity to buy accounts. Right. So imagine that matchmaking, if you were to do it humanly, it’ll take you days. If you had an agent to do it like the now assist agent, it can just be done like that. [00:19:06] Amit Sinha: So that was the first use case we went after. Nice. The second one was the low dollar automation. We all have businesses that we land, right? Sub 50 K deals, so we have inside sales teams calling on those customers all day long. So now imagine a Gentech solution where you take all those low dollar deals and again, tie to the marketplace. [00:19:26] Amit Sinha: How can you have express private offers, right, from your opportunities? So those were the two use cases that we went after first and boy, uh, we got some amazing results, [00:19:36] Vince Menzione: I bet [00:19:36] Amit Sinha: for one of these companies, Boomi, we showed that 24% higher lift on renewals. That’s like hundreds of millions in impact just in one year alone. [00:19:46] Vince Menzione: And using AI internally as obviously you’re an AI company. Yeah. How are you thinking about how’s the impact of AI helping the partner function within ServiceNow? [00:19:54] Marc Monday: I, I think there’s this really wonderful opportunity right now where in the short term, we’re taking busy work out of the partner management profession. [00:20:05] Marc Monday: Um, partner managers historically have spent a lot of time chasing data and chasing information and really acting as an ombudsman for the partner within the organization. That work is very quickly. Getting identified. That’s phase one. The thing I’m actually a little more excited about is when it can expand the horizon to have different types of conversations, expanding the partnerships, expanding the multi-partner oppor opportunities. [00:20:29] Marc Monday: That, for me is the next phase, but we, I believe we are the most progressive when it comes to using AI on ourselves and really trying to take the profession to the next level. [00:20:40] Vince Menzione: Nice. Well, I was gonna, I was gonna, I want to go back to the platform again. ’cause you, you’re, you’re starting, you, you mentioned renewals, you’re mentioning some of the success. [00:20:50] Vince Menzione: What else can you point to on the success side, [00:20:52] Amit Sinha: there’s some, uh, amazing research that Sam here has done, uh, with all the data that Wepan has. So we looked at close to a million opportunities and, uh, looked at all the companies doing well. And we actually tabulated how many sellers are engaged on co-sell, not the partnering team, but how many end sellers. [00:21:11] Amit Sinha: This shows the extent of the transformation that the company has gone through, and what we found was amazing. If more than 50% of your sellers have engaged on 10 or more deals, your ecosystem is exponential. It doesn’t need the kind of the doctoring or the prod or the push to kind of say, Hey, use partners. [00:21:31] Amit Sinha: The sellers get it themselves, right? So we, we did this analysis and found like, wow, how can we then get sellers to activate? And the bottleneck that we found was. That there are not enough partner managers to assist every seller in the world. I think that seller activation is the unlock that AI can do. [00:21:50] Amit Sinha: Imagine if you have a partner agent sitting on every account and every opportunity 24 by seven, right? As the world changes, as the world evolves, as the solutions come in. As you know, market events happen. These agents are listening, positioning the right. One of those six partners, or all six partners for that matter, in front of people. [00:22:10] Amit Sinha: So I feel like that that big unlock is seller activation. Yeah. So if all partner managers do with ai, next is one. Of course, get yourself skilled up and yourself productive. But next, direct it to your own internal sales teams and get them activated on your partnerships because that’s where you will move the revenue lever the fastest, in my opinion. [00:22:30] Vince Menzione: Fantastic. What advice do you have for whether they be ISV partners or other partners in the room? ’cause we have partners of all types here. Yeah. What would you have, what would you say to them that need to do differently or better? [00:22:43] Marc Monday: Yeah. [00:22:44] Vince Menzione: Starting today, [00:22:46] Marc Monday: I, I don’t wanna be a broken record, but I would just say go faster. [00:22:48] Marc Monday: However fast you think you’re going, it’s not enough. Yeah. Um, the reality is I think Bill McDermott says like, the market’s never been this fast before and it will never be this slow again. Oh. The reality is this is the pace we run at, and the only way we can run at this pace is if we have the agents doing much of the work for us. [00:23:09] Marc Monday: So I would say go faster. The second thing I would say is automating a bad process is a bad process. So really go and interrogate the workflow that you’re actually thinking about identifying. I’ve seen too many instances from partners and partnerships where you’re taking a bad process and you’re trying to build automation. [00:23:29] Marc Monday: Go back and deconstruct it or start fresh blank piece of paper. Um, again, to my metaphor of the rear view mirror and the wind screen, like it’s, we should honor the past. We’ve done a wonderful job in the last 30 years of building all of this stuff. It’s just not built for this speed. So we need to really stay focused on what’s in front of us. [00:23:49] Vince Menzione: We talked a little bit earlier in one of the other sessions about the playbook and the three year plan, and then maybe moving to sprints. That’s right. How are you, how are you thinking? Are you thinking along the same lines? A [00:23:59] Marc Monday: hundred percent. Uh, we need to move at the pace. Sorry, I’m, we need to move at the pace that the roadmap is moving. [00:24:05] Marc Monday: So if we’re doing weekly, monthly, and quarter releases, we don’t wanna whipsaw the channel. We have to be careful of that. But the reality is, if we’re pivoting our product strategies or release strategies on a quarterly basis. We have to have that same level of agility. That’s where the people who’ve grown up in this profession taking really complicated stuff and making it simple is so critical. [00:24:26] Vince Menzione: Ami, you touched on AI’s role in the partner function. But let’s expand on that. What, what’s it gonna look like in two years? If AI becomes, will it replace the partner function? What, what do you see happening? [00:24:38] Amit Sinha: Absolutely not. I think, uh, we are seeing this evolution and, and you can see the parallels in the engineering organization. [00:24:44] Amit Sinha: When Claude Cursor came along, you saw engineering completely transformed as to how products are now built. How they are, how product managers write PRDs, how engineers actually code this, you know, code the scaffolding all the way to the user experience, how it’s tested. Everything has fundamentally changed. [00:25:01] Amit Sinha: So if you went and asked the engineering leader, how will your role change? Right? Imagine answering that question today, right? It’s fundamentally different. I feel like it’s coming to every function. Whether you want it or not, it’s coming to every function. And the partnership leader will look like the partnership operator that Rob talks about. [00:25:19] Amit Sinha: Yes. It’ll be about orchestrating real time relationships at the account level, at the opportunity level, and being a hands-on person. Uh, i, I would say even at the leadership level or down to partner managers, how can you cover the breadth of accounts and opportunities that’s out there to, for you to prosecute? [00:25:36] Amit Sinha: It’ll not look like I’m managing a partnership. It’ll not look like, Hey, I have to offer an MDF. It’ll not look like, Hey, let’s do A QBR, you know, and get all the teams engaged because that’ll be too late essentially. So this operator perspective is what’s gonna change just as it changed in engineering, it’s gonna happen in partnerships [00:25:56] Vince Menzione: perspective as well. [00:25:57] Marc Monday: Big plus one on what Rob’s talking about. I, I, I’m a big fan of that and I love this idea of using what’s happening in the developer world as an analog for where we’re going. Yeah. Um, I met a product manager last week and she was saying that she was producing 30 or 40 product requirement docs every week. [00:26:14] Marc Monday: Um, that’s remarkable output and she can only do that because of the way she’s leveraging ai. The same will be true for a partner manager, a 10 x, a 20 x, a 30 x on each individual once we get to that stage, and it will happen very quickly. [00:26:29] Amit Sinha: Yeah. Imagine putting a hundred joint account plans together in a day. [00:26:33] Amit Sinha: Yep. [00:26:33] Vince Menzione: Right. Incredible. [00:26:34] Amit Sinha: Imagine putting like five connections on an opportunity just surrounding your deal right now. Right. Doing that. [00:26:41] Vince Menzione: I couldn’t even, I, I couldn’t even imagine. I know you couldn’t even imagine when we were back in the days we were running PAMs and Yeah, totally. Those resources, what they had to do and what’s all totally automated today. [00:26:52] Marc Monday: It. It’s true, it’s true. I was, um, I was bemoaning this, I’ve been on the road a lot lately and I was like telling my wife, like, I long for the days where you have one meeting and you go, you know, you go to New York and you do a two hour QBR and you go to a nice dinner and then maybe you walk around Central Park. [00:27:06] Marc Monday: The reality is you’re doing a hundred of those every single day. It’s a different era. That’s where we need to get the tools to work for people. [00:27:15] Amit Sinha: Mark, I love your analogy around the rear view mirror versus the windshield. Mm-hmm. You have to see through the windshield. [00:27:20] Marc Monday: We do. We do. It’s amazing. Don’t be afraid. [00:27:23] Marc Monday: I, I mean, I would just say do not be afraid. Be excited. We in this room, get to lead the path. Yeah. It is an absolute privilege. [00:27:32] Vince Menzione: So insightful, gentlemen, you’ve been incredible to be on stage with today. Uh, I we have a le a little less than a minute. I was hoping maybe if there was like one question we could take. [00:27:42] Vince Menzione: I got John with a mic and then it’s lunchtime after this, so [00:27:48] Marc Monday: ask on because he can be more pithy. [00:27:50] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:27:55] Vince Menzione: Well, you’re both are gonna be around here. I hope [00:27:57] Marc Monday: we will be here. [00:27:58] Vince Menzione: Mark didn’t have you got to sleep in your own bed last night? [00:28:00] Marc Monday: Uh, yeah. It was a long day, but yes. I thank you for, it was very late. Thank you so much. Let’s put this on the record. Marks down. We’re having the event in Bellevue. That was great. [00:28:09] Marc Monday: We’re gonna [00:28:09] Amit Sinha: bring it back. We’re gonna bring it back to Bellevue. [00:28:12] Marc Monday: Seven mile commute is the best trip that I’ve had in many, many weeks. [00:28:17] Amit Sinha: Thank you. Well, thank you, gentlemen. It [00:28:19] was [00:28:19] Marc Monday: incredible. [00:28:20] Vince Menzione: Thanks for listening to the Ultimate Partner Podcast. If today’s conversation resonated, share it with a partner leader in your network. [00:28:28] Vince Menzione: Subscribe where you listen, and head over to the Ultimate partner.com for show notes related content and the resources for this episode. And if you haven’t already, now’s the time to register for the Ultimate Partner Live event in Reston, Virginia, [00:28:44] Marc Monday: October [00:28:45] Vince Menzione: 26th through October 28th. Until next time. Keep showing up in the rooms that matter because being in the room changes everything.

By Doug Green “It's a community that helps support the growth of your business.” In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at ChannelCon 2026, Amy Slater of the Managed Service Providers Association of America discusses how MSPAA helps managed service providers increase visibility, find trusted resources and connect with businesses looking for technology support. MSPAA is a membership organization that gives MSPs a profile on its public platform, where small and midsized businesses can search for providers that match their needs. Slater says visibility is only one part of the value. Members can also contribute articles, share social media content, participate in podcasts and gain access to event opportunities, including discounted tickets and speaking engagements. The association also helps MSPs find trusted vendors and service providers in areas such as marketing, HR and technology. “There's usually no shortage of companies that can solve a problem,” Slater says. “The challenge is finding the right one.” MSPAA works to vet both its MSP members and the vendors it recommends, giving providers another layer of confidence when looking for help. The organization also offers vendor focus groups where participating MSPs can be compensated for their time. Slater says participation in two focus groups can effectively offset the annual membership cost. For smaller MSPs with limited internal resources, the association is designed to extend the team by providing marketing exposure, business resources, industry connections and opportunities to share success stories with a wider audience. Visit MSPAA.net to learn more.  

Owner dependency is the quiet risk that caps valuations in IT services M&A. If every decision, client relationship, and process runs through the founder, buyers see a single point of failure and pay less for it. In this episode of Shoot the Moon, we break down how to get the business out of your head before you sell. We cover why buyers discount founder-run companies, what to document first, how AI has made process documentation far easier, and how a documented, transferable business can earn a higher multiple. This is core IT services M&A preparation, and it makes your company more valuable whether or not you ever go to market. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro: Getting the business out of your head0:53 A job with employees, not a company2:36 Why buyers discount owner dependency6:29 Why IT services founders get stuck11:41 What to document first16:36 AI, repeatability, and productized services20:43 How documentation lifts enterprise value24:08 Building a culture of documentation27:45 The one thing to start this month KEY TAKEAWAYS • Owner dependency is concentration risk. When decisions bottleneck through the founder, buyers see a single point of failure and discount the price. • If the answer to everything is “ask the owner,” you own a job not a company. Continuity is what buyers pay for. • Start documenting where the customer sits: the sales motion first, then service delivery, followed by how you hire and develop people. Bring the team into the process. • AI has collapsed the cost of documentation. Capture the real process, optimize it, and build agents around it. • Documented, transferable businesses can earn higher multiples because buyers underwriting scale need a company they can integrate without depending on the founder. RESOURCES AND LINKS • Read more from Revenue Rocket: https://www.revenuerocket.com/blog/ • Value your business: https://www.revenuerocket.com/valuation-calculator/ • Schedule a confidential conversation: https://www.revenuerocket.com/contact-us/ • Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shoot-the-moon-with-revenue-rocket/id1478519505 • Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6y7u9KuOjaplhScHtINGZU • Explore more Shoot the Moon episodes: https://www.revenuerocket.com/series/shoot-the-moon/ • Visit Revenue Rocket: https://www.revenuerocket.com/ ABOUT REVENUE ROCKET Revenue Rocket is a sell-side and buy side M&A advisory firm focused exclusively on IT services companies, including MSPs, cybersecurity firms, cloud service providers, custom application development companies, and VARs. For more than 25 years, Revenue Rocket has helped founders grow, position, buy, and sell tech-enabled services firms. Thinking about your own exit? Schedule a confidential conversation with our team:https://www.revenuerocket.com/contact-us/ #MergersAndAcquisitions #ITServices #MSP #ShootTheMoon #RevenueRocket #ExitStrategy #FounderDependency #EnterpriseValue Listen to Shoot the Moon on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.Buy, sell, or grow your tech-enabled services firm with Revenue Rocket.

“The perimeter no longer exists.” In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at ChannelCon 2026, Peter Lekas and Lauren Hextall of SpecterX discuss how organizations can maintain control of sensitive information after it leaves their managed environment. SpecterX is a zero-trust data access platform designed to protect information shared with customers, vendors, partners and other third parties. The platform allows businesses to apply controls that travel with the data, including restrictions on forwarding, copying, pasting and taking screenshots. Traditional security tools protect networks, endpoints and applications that an organization can directly manage. However, businesses increasingly rely on cloud services, SaaS applications and external collaboration, creating multiple locations where sensitive data may reside. “Once that data is shared outside of your organization, you don't know what that person is going to do with it,” the SpecterX team says. Data loss prevention tools may block sensitive information from leaving an organization, but many business processes require that information to be shared. SpecterX is designed to provide continued governance after the transfer takes place. This can be particularly important for organizations sharing regulated information, including healthcare data, intellectual property and documents governed by compliance requirements. For MSPs, SpecterX creates an opportunity to expand beyond endpoint and network protection into data governance, risk and compliance services. Rather than adding another security layer around the environment, the platform protects the data itself. Hextall says MSPs are well positioned to deliver these services because they understand their customers' industries, workflows and business requirements. “This isn't something that can simply be mandated from above,” she says. “You need to understand the workflows of your customers.” Visit SpecterX.com to learn more  

By Doug Green “The tools now can make anyone look like a pretty attractive candidate for a job.” Recorded at ChannelCon 2026, Paul Flaharty of Robert Half joins Technology Reseller News to discuss how artificial intelligence is changing hiring for MSPs and technology providers. AI can improve efficiency, but it is also making it easier to customize resumes, exaggerate technical abilities and even create uncertainty about whether an applicant is who they claim to be. Flaharty says experienced recruiters and comprehensive screening processes are becoming increasingly important. Rather than replacing the human element in recruiting, AI has reinforced its value. Skilled recruiters can validate a candidate's identity, evaluate whether the person can perform the work and look beyond an impressive AI-generated resume. The conversation also examines how AI is affecting existing technology jobs. Flaharty says the greater risk may not be that AI eliminates a position, but that an employee is replaced by someone who knows how to use AI more effectively. Organizations are consequently moving forward with previously delayed technology projects and looking for professionals who can help develop and execute practical AI roadmaps. For MSPs, hiring is only one part of the challenge. Retaining strong technical employees requires a proactive talent strategy that includes competitive compensation, flexibility, development opportunities and a visible career path. Flaharty says an effective upskilling program can sometimes be as powerful a retention tool as compensation. Listen to the podcast to learn how MSPs can identify genuine candidates, streamline their hiring processes, develop existing employees and build teams prepared for an increasingly AI-enabled technology market. Learn more at roberthalf.com.

TouchPoint helps MSPs identify businesses with email authentication problems, begin conversations with a documented risk and open the door to broader managed services. By Doug Green “You are definitely missing the boat” if you are not pursuing this opportunity, says Alan Richards of EasyDMARC. Recorded live at GTIA ChannelCon 2026 in San Diego, this Technology Reseller News podcast explores how MSPs can use email authentication problems as a practical entry point to new customers and recurring revenue. Alan Richards of EasyDMARC explains that the company has spent years simplifying DMARC management for MSPs. Its platform brings DMARC, SPF and DKIM oversight into a single environment, helping partners keep customer email authenticated, aligned and deliverable. EasyDMARC is now extending that value beyond management and compliance. Through its TouchPoint lead-generation platform, MSPs can identify businesses in their local markets whose DMARC configurations are out of alignment or not properly authenticated. Instead of approaching a prospect with a generic pitch about IT services, the MSP can begin with a specific, documented problem. An exposed domain may be vulnerable to spoofing, malware and impersonation, while legitimate messages may also be rejected or routed to spam. “Now you're going to them and you actually have an issue,” Richards says. “You actually have a problem and you have a solution.” That targeted approach can raise the prospect's level of trust and create an opening for a wider managed-services conversation. Once an MSP helps correct the email authentication problem, it can introduce additional security, infrastructure and support services. TouchPoint supports both outbound and inbound lead generation. MSPs can search geographically for organizations with DMARC issues, while an embeddable domain scanner can capture interest from visitors to the MSP's own website. EasyDMARC can return information about the company, the domains scanned and relevant contacts, with CRM integration enabling rapid follow-up. Richards says EasyDMARC also provides hands-on partner support, including growth managers and a 128-page MSP marketing playbook. The company helps partners install the domain scanner, understand the opportunity and guide customers through ongoing DMARC management. The opportunity is not limited to one vertical. Legal, healthcare and financial organizations are especially sensitive to fraud and impersonation, but Richards notes that any business sending invoices, marketing messages or CRM-generated email needs properly aligned authentication. For MSPs at ChannelCon, the message is straightforward: email authentication is more than a technical requirement. It can be a measurable security problem, a reason to contact a prospect and the beginning of a longer customer relationship. Learn more: EasyDMARC MSP Reseller Program Previous EasyDMARC podcast: EasyDMARC Turns Email Security Gaps into MSP Sales Opportunities

By Doug Green “Join GTIA, but that's not enough. You really need to get involved.” At ChannelCon 2026, Raffi Jamgotchian of Triada Networks offered a member's perspective on how active participation in GTIA can strengthen individual businesses while helping the technology channel address larger industry challenges. Triada Networks is a managed service provider based in northern New Jersey that serves financial services companies across the United States. Jamgotchian joined CompTIA through his membership in the ASCII Group, but for several years remained largely inactive. That changed when an industry colleague encouraged him to contribute his experience and help shape the issues affecting MSPs. Jamgotchian became involved in the security community, eventually serving as vice chair and chair. His work included initiatives related to business certifications, the Security Trustmark and broader efforts to raise the cybersecurity bar for managed service providers. Following the transition to GTIA, he joined the Member Champions group, which helps recruit new members and guides them toward the communities, research and resources available through the organization. One of GTIA's greatest strengths, he said, is its ability to bring MSPs and vendors together without the usual sales dynamic. “You're no longer from Triada or Choice Security or Sophos,” Jamgotchian said. “You're a person who has some knowledge and some experience that, together, we can use to solve industry issues and move forward.” For MSP owners and channel partners considering membership, Jamgotchian's message is direct: participation determines the value. ChannelCon provides relationships, meaningful conversations and a strong sense of community, but members should also find an area that interests them and contribute at their own pace. “You get what you put into it,” he said. “There's always something to do, and there are a lot of initiatives that we need to move our industry ahead.” The conversation also turned to artificial intelligence, which Jamgotchian described as the channel's latest major inflection point—an opportunity, threat and change agent arriving all at once. His advice is to learn from people who are further ahead, help those who are behind and avoid leaving the future of the business to someone else. “If you're not thinking about it, somebody is going to think about it for you,” he said. Learn more about GTIA at gtia.org and Triada Networks at triadonet.com.

Send us Fan Mail

Send us Fan MailAI is moving faster than most businesses can keep up with—but are MSPs ready for what's next?In this episode of Joey Pinz Discipline Conversations, Joey Pinz sits down with a technology architect, mentor, and AI governance expert to discuss the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, managed services, and leadership.The conversation explores how AI adoption is accelerating across organizations, why businesses need visibility into how AI tools are being used, and the growing importance of governance and accountability. Beyond technology, the discussion also dives into mentorship, family values, career development, and maintaining balance while working in a fast-paced industry.Listeners will gain valuable insights into the future of AI, emerging opportunities for MSPs, and practical advice for professionals looking to build meaningful careers in technology.

Send us Fan MailIn this episode of Joey Pinz Discipline Conversations, Joey Pinz sits down with a veteran MSP leader turned SaaS executive to explore one of the biggest misconceptions in the managed services industry: the belief that growth comes primarily from acquiring new clients.Drawing on decades of experience building, scaling, acquiring, and operating MSPs, this conversation dives into why successful providers should focus less on chasing leads and more on maximizing value from existing client relationships.The discussion covers account management, leadership, AI, employee development, customer retention, referrals, and what it really takes to build a thriving technology business in today's rapidly changing market.Whether you're an MSP owner, technology entrepreneur, sales leader, or SaaS executive, this episode provides practical insights on scaling sustainably while staying focused on people, consistency, and continuous learning.⭐ Top 3 Highlights✅ Why client expansion is often more profitable than new client acquisition✅ How AI should support people—not replace them✅ The role consistency, focus, and long-term thinking play in business successThis episode is packed with MSP growth strategies, leadership lessons, and actionable advice from someone who has successfully navigated both the MSP and SaaS worlds.Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Send us Fan Mail

Send us Fan MailWhat does it take to go from wiring phone systems as a teenager in Australia to leading one of the world's fastest-growing MSP cybersecurity programs?In this episode of Joey Pinz Discipline Conversations, Joey Pinz sits down with a cybersecurity leader who shares an incredible journey through technology, entrepreneurship, leadership, and personal growth. From early exposure to MSPs and telecommunications to helping shape cybersecurity strategies for thousands of MSPs worldwide, this conversation delivers valuable insights for technology professionals, business owners, and anyone pursuing long-term success.The discussion explores the rapid evolution of cybersecurity, the emerging risks surrounding AI adoption, and why MSPs must begin thinking differently about protecting clients in an AI-driven world. Beyond technology, the conversation dives into personal transformation, health, leadership, and the power of consistent effort over time.Whether you're an MSP owner, IT professional, entrepreneur, or leader, this episode offers practical wisdom on growth, innovation, and building momentum through daily actions.⭐ Top 3 Highlights✅ The future of AI security and protecting AI agents✅ How MSPs can grow while improving profitability✅ Why small, consistent actions create extraordinary resultsSupport the show

Send us Fan MailIn this thought-provoking episode of Joey Pinz Discipline Conversations, Joey Pinz sits down with a technology attorney, entrepreneur, and CEO who has spent decades helping businesses navigate risk, innovation, and growth. From building a landscaping company as a teenager to leading a legal technology platform serving MSPs across North America, this conversation explores entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence, leadership, and the importance of staying focused in a rapidly changing world.The discussion dives deep into the growing role of AI in legal services and why businesses should be cautious about relying solely on large language models for critical decisions. You'll learn how "human-in-the-loop" systems help balance automation with accountability and why subject matter expertise remains more valuable than ever.Beyond business, the conversation explores motorcycles, risk-taking, work ethic, avoiding burnout, and what it takes to remain focused while leading a fast-growing company during one of the most transformative periods in technology history.

The episode examines margin disparity and operational strategy for MSPs serving regulated industries, spotlighting how compliance-driven overhead can become a structural moat for providers targeting underserved segments. The discussion centers on Trumbull Tech's model, which leverages a minimal-staff, tool-focused approach to deliver compliant services to small client bases (1–50 seats) across legal, financial, and healthcare verticals. The analysis underscores the risk and complexity inherent in regulated environments, noting that as vendors begin to package compliance offerings alongside MSPs, the defensibility of this margin advantage may erode. Trumbull Tech operates with gross margins well above channel averages—reporting 55–60%, attributed to intentional client selection, rigorous cost modeling, a preference for lightweight device management (MDM) solutions over enterprise-heavy platforms like Microsoft Intune, and strict avoidance of fixed, unlimited support contracts. The company's operational approach bundles basic but essential compliance tools, such as BitLocker enforcement, password complexity, password rotation, remote wipe, and targeted endpoint management, tailored specifically for smaller businesses. This model is predicated on the belief that most regulatory mandates can be reasonably satisfied with a uniform, low-overhead stack, thereby avoiding the staff overhead typical of more complex enterprise solutions. Supporting developments in the episode include an account of security intervention using Huntress with a small remote CPA firm, illustrating both the ubiquity of risk (not limited to large organizations) and the practical utility of combining automation with incident response. The conversation also touches on AI adoption hesitancy in small regulated businesses, logistics of relationship-based staffing for stickiness, and the rejection of strict vertical specialization in favor of scalable, stack-based delivery. These elements collectively describe a playbook where risk containment is achieved through standardization and upfront client selection, rather than deep customization. Implications for MSPs and IT providers include the need to critically assess their service models in the context of regulatory risk, operational scalability, and margin management. Overdependence on a specific set of tools or a uniform client profile may limit adaptability as vendor offerings and client expectations evolve. Providers entering or serving regulated markets should recognize that margin advantages rooted in compliance operations depend on active management of client selection, tool stack efficiency, and transparent risk tradeoffs, as opposed to reliance on elaborate enterprise frameworks or unlimited support promises. Attention to practical safeguards, clear lines of accountability, and periodic reassessment of vendor overlap is essential to remain viable as compliance delivery mechanisms evolve. Supported by: OpenTextScalePad

The episode reveals a structural shift toward operational complexity and heightened accountability in the MSP sector, as service providers are increasingly required to integrate AI capabilities, consolidate security offerings, and deliver enterprise-grade outcomes for mid-market clients without matching enterprise budgets. Blue Mantis, highlighted as a case example, embodies this shift with its transition from a traditional product reseller and hardware focus to a recurring managed services model with 60% of revenue now coming from managed services. The company's ongoing balancing act between recurring service delivery and legacy product sales illustrates the tension many MSPs face as the market demands integrated, outcome-driven engagements over transactional models. According to Josh Dinneen, Blue Mantis has developed fully managed security offerings, such as BlueMantis Protect, pairing AI-driven threat detection with human analysis to address mid-market needs for flexible, enterprise-grade cybersecurity. The company claims over 2,500 mid-market and enterprise customers and reports a customer retention rate above 97% over 48 months, with a 20% compound annual growth rate. These numbers are grounded in a “client-first” operational approach that emphasizes relationship management and ongoing alignment between service features and business requirements. The managed services business is supported by a global delivery model leveraging centers in India, Canada, and the US. Additional developments reinforcing the primary shift include Blue Mantis's measured adoption of AI and automation across both internal operations and customer-facing services. The company describes a structured AI rollout, aiming for every employee to have an AI “teammate” by the end of the year, framed as augmenting—not displacing—human workers. Josh Dinneen emphasizes the risk management dimension of rapid AI scaling, noting the double-edged nature of automation, and cites detailed KPI monitoring, a “3x ROI” workforce productivity model, and a growing FinOps practice to manage token-based AI consumption and budget risk, especially as vendors and consumption models shift costs and exposure downstream to customers and partners. For MSPs and IT leaders, these developments highlight mounting operational complexity and underscore the importance of risk mitigation strategies. Reliance on recurring services and layered security increases vendor and process dependency, elevating the need for robust governance, transparent performance metrics, and explicit controls over consumption-based pricing—particularly in AI and cloud. The operational implication is clear: MSPs must be prepared to offer advisory and managed services that both address evolving client demands for flexibility and manage the financial and accountability risks transferred by platform vendors and changing technology models. Supported by: CometBackupLogMeIn

Send us Fan Mail