Ask The Board
Q | Kaseya and RapidFire have been deeply entrenched with one another for some time now. How does (or will) Kaseya’s official acquisition of the company impact your use of its platform and/or client offerings?
A | WE DON’T THINK IT WILL IMPACT US MUCH, AT LEAST INITIALLY. We already use Network Detective, as I would guess 80 percent or more MSPs do. However, if Kaseya successfully integrates RapidFire’s technology in ways that we could imagine them doing, it might lead us to utilize more of their tools than we do today.
Q | Much of the M&A activity among channel-oriented software companies has been security-oriented. Do you see a measurable positive outcome from the activity (i.e., are the platforms you use and extend to clients becoming more secure out-of-the-box)?
A | SECURITY HAS GROWN IN IMPORTANCE for every high-quality MSP, and over the past few years, we have also seen it become more central to all vendors we work with. That being said, I don’t know that we would agree that M&A activity has created this outcome; instead, I would argue that the M&A activity has reflected the desire for every vendor to have more security-based products in its lineup.
Q | As an MSP leader, what challenges and opportunities do vendor partner acquisitions like this tend to create?
A | THE OPPORTUNITY IS FOR SIMPLIFICATION THROUGH INTEGRATION. When two partners come together through acquisition and then proceed to integrate their offerings in a deliberate and thoughtful way, they can really improve the user experience. For example, if Kaseya can “bake in” RapidFire’s products so that you can use a “single pane of glass” approach, we might gain efficiencies that we don’t have today. And successfully scaling any MSP depends on always seeking to identify new, more efficient ways to deliver your services as you grow. The challenge comes with the execution. Often, partners we see doing these types of acquisitions don’t follow through on executing the initial vision of the acquisition and, even worse, they lose their focus on their core products. When this happens, the quality of the products that drew you to them in the first place can suffer, and there isn’t a lot of upside to show for it. Kaseya has done several acquisitions, so we are optimistic that they will successfully execute with the RapidFire integration.
PETER KUJAWA is an attorney and president of the EO Johnson Locknet Managed IT Services Division, a leading MSP serving the Midwest.