Tigerpaw Software Dials Telecom Partners
Call it a teaser or a cliff hanger: Tigerpaw Software, the PSA (professional services automation) specialist, is striving to reach out to more than 1,000 telecommunications vendors across North America. Publicly disclosed details about the effort remain vague at best — though it sounds like Tigerpaw will share more partner news in Q2 2011.
First, a little background: Tigerpaw President James Foxall had discussed the convergence of telecom and the IT channel during the Tigerpaw User Conference in October 2010. On the one hand, it sounds like Tigerpaw has a rich history in the telecom reseller market. On the other hand, PSA rivals Autotask and ConnectWise also have growing VoIP expertise:
- Autotask’s VARStreet acquisition in 2010 allows VARs to source a range of IT products — including VoIP equipment — from multiple distributors and channel suppliers.
- Meanwhile, CharTec — a 2010 ConnectWise Capital investment — has VoIP expertise, though CharTec’s primary efforts involve Hardware as a Service and BDR (backup and disaster recovery).
- Plus, there are signs that Cisco is developing a unified communications dashboard — code-named Thunderbolt — that may plug into third-party MSP software platforms. Both Autotask and ConnectWise have spent considerable time with Cisco-centric channel partners over the past year or two.
All that said, Tigerpaw is looking to double-down on its telecommunications relationships. According to a prepared statement from Foxall: “We are engaging our telecom customers to show them how we can help them quickly, easily and profitably make the move to IT. We’ve already met with several telecom leaders with the intent to strengthen our partnerships, the vastness of our integrations, and to explore new opportunities as our large telecom customer base adds data to their offering.”
Like I said: Foxall’s statement is pretty generic. But the bottom of the Tigerpaw press release also mentioned the following cliff-hanger: “The company also plans to announce aggressive joint value propositions with multiple partner vendors that hit the market space in Q2 of 2011.”
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Joe, the convergence referred to in your blog is nothing really new. However, the full convergence that is occuring involves traditional IT, voice/VoIP and print/copier. With all three technologies on the same network, it makes more sense for a customer to have one throat to choke, and it, equally, makes more sense for an MSP to take full control of the customer, not providing a niche solution provider a foothold into an account and the opportunity to become a competitor residing within that same client.
Hi Joe,
We are in fact looking to reach an even broader market than the 1,100 or so mentioned in the article. That number is just the number of telecom providers using Tigerpaw to run their businesses. We have a higher number on the IT side, and of course a chunk of them are converged.
Our goal is to help each side move to the middle (voice and data), and that involves far more than adding new products to an existing mix.
There are a lot of moving parts to this, including a focus on convergence at our conference in October. I know you’re looking for details and we’ll keep you in the loop.
James Foxall
President, Tigerpaw Software
Ryck: Agreed — convergence of IP and voice isn’t new. But MSP-centric software vendors seem to be assisting the convergence these days.
James: Looking for more clues about your biz direction. Thanks.
-jp
One of the “The Challenges” as James very well knows I’m sure is getting the voice resellers (eg interconnects) to bite the bullet and make that transition to data and recurring revenue. As we all know it’s not a light switch change but must be a dimmer switch change. The process looks like this:
1. create a formal strategic plan (everyone is involved)
2. create a profitable business model
3. create an effective marketing machine
4. create an effective and low COS sales process
5. manage the business with continuous success measurement
Necessary? Absolutely!! Do-able? Absolutely!!
Todd Hussey
http://www.mspexcellence.com
Todd: Here’s top hoping 70,000 or so North American resellers begin to open their minds to managed services…
-jp
Joe,
I am soooooo with you on that. And each have 100’s of customers. Just do the math $$$$.
best,
Todd Hussey
Thanks for sharing huge information……..