Perceptions are reality, and many solution providers view NetEnrich as an outsourced network operations centre provider to the channel. But the company insists it has a whole lot more to offer, and it’s going after expanding opportunities throughout the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) space with a “closet to cloud” message.

“A lot of VARs have thought of us like an RMM tool, a software package or even simple IaaS, but that’s not what we are,” said Jennifer Anaya, the company’s new vice president of corporate marketing. “We are an addition to their team that gives them visibility into the infrastructure they manage.”

Those offerings include a variety of packages of services for various-sized solution providers and their various-sized customers. The company offers packages of services designed for SMB, midmarket and enterprise markets, and how those segments tend to consume and use technology. Justin Crotty, general manager of NetEnrich, urged solution providers to look for fits across that whole portfolio.

As it sees an expanding role, the company is looking to roughly double the number of solution providers with which it works this year. The company currently works with about 350 partners across North America, and Anaya said it’s looking to get to between 600 and 800 “really qualified partners” this year. Qualified to NetEnrich means partners who are really focused on the services side of the house and growing those services.

“We’ve got the right partnerships in place, we’ve got the right offerings and we’ve got good momentum,” Crotty said. “It’s not a lack of opportunity, our challenge is just to get it… can we get in front of the opportunity?”

Signs are leading to yes – Crotty reports the company is getting more inbound calls from VARs in recent months, as opposed to largely recruiting partners itself through cold-calling, referrals or its connection to the VentureTech Network community.

The change in focus is part of an ongoing evolution of NetEnrich from a technology-focused company to a business-focused company. That evolution has been ongoing for almost a year, and has recently been heightened with the introduction of Anaya.

For example, rather than talking about outsourced NOC, the company is now focused on how VARs can free up their own time and expand their own services offerings by working with NetEnrich’s offerings.

It’s also expanding the base it’s addressing – not letting up on its core base of managed service providers and helping them find ways to drive their managed services further, but also addressing VARs and other solution providers who have yet to break into the managed services field in earnest.

“We can offer them an accelerated entry, and both those communities are really important for us,” Crotty said. “It’s a very one-on-one executive sell, going customer by customer and putting those customers under management.”