Kaseya CEO Yogesh Gupta

Kaseya International Ltd. opened its checkbook again, this time purchasing 365 Command, a leader in the emerging class of Microsoft Office 365 migration and management specialists. The technology will complement Kaseya’s growing capabilities in cloud and mobility management.

“Office 365 is exploding in popularity. With this growth, midmarket organizations and MSPs are scrambling for a better and more efficient way to manage these applications,” said Kaseya CEO Yogesh Gupta. “This acquisition gives Kaseya yet another powerful tool in its arsenal to help our customers dramatically simplify management of their IT environments, and to make managing today’s modern infrastructure and applications seamless for organizations.”

365 Command is a spinoff of Florida-based integrator Champion Solutions Group. The platform was developed to simplify and expedite the migration of mailboxes and accounts from on-premises, conventional Office licenses to the cloud-based platform.

Beyond its utility as a migration tool, 365 Command and other tools like it have solved part of the riddle for how solution providers can make money with Office 365. Solution providers repeatedly complained they cannot make money with Office 365 as Microsoft only affords them single-digit margins. Through 365 Command, solution providers can provide professional and managed services around Office 365 that carry margins between 20 and 40 percent.

“The only way you’re going to make money is if you have add value, especially because Microsoft is just going to keep dropping prices,” said Chris Pyle, a partner in MessageOps, the company that developed 365 Command, in an interview with Channelnomics last spring.

Kaseya and 365 Command are not alone in plying the Office 365 support segment. SkyKick and MetaVis provide similar tools and services to 365 Command in helping businesses make easy work of moving to the cloud. And hosted managed service provider Continuum’s Tech Advantage program includes services and support for MSPs helping businesses adopt the Microsoft platform.

365 Command is the third acquisition made by Kaseya since being acquired by Insight Venture Partners in June. The new management team under Gupta has moved quickly to bolster the company’s capabilities by picking up data center management technologies from Zyrion and mobile security management tools from Rover Apps.

Kaseya’s new management team is building the company and correcting many weaknesses and mistakes. Earlier this month, Kaseya reorganized and consolidated its development centers, resulting in the loss of 50 jobs. Gupta told Channelnomics the changes were necessary to expedite product development. He said new jobs would be added.

Part of Kaseya’s challenge is correcting mistakes of the past. Solution providers tell Channelnomics they’re disappointed Kaseya hasn’t delivered on promised product improvements and that they haven’t gotten their full return on investment through their maintenance fees. Others are concerned Kaseya may force them to cloud-based service delivery models, negating legacy RMM and software investments.

“The company has a history of over-promising and under-delivering,” Gupta told Channelnomics earlier this month. “We’re working hard on delivering on those promises.”

Acquiring 365 Command may prove to fill more than a hole in the Kaseya portfolio. It may be a stepping stone for moving Kaseya beyond its traditional remote monitoring services and give MSPs greater capabilities in the rapidly expanding cloud management opportunity.