Unified Service Intelligence is a less complex version of the core OpsRamp solution, will play in the midmarket as well as the enterprise, and is intended mainly to expose new prospects to the platform.

Enterprise operations management provider OpsRamp has announced the availability of a new Unified Service Intelligence solution. A smaller and less complex solution that focuses specifically on operations and management, Unified Service Intelligence is designed as an entrée to the OpsRamp platform, and its objective is primarily to bring new prospects onto the platform.

OpsRamp was known as Vistara until they rebranded last fall, and got a $20 million venture capital cash injection at the same time. Vistara itself actually originated as an MSP product.

“It was born from within the need of an MSP, that wanted a solution to manage client operations,” said Jordan Sher, OpsRamp’s Director of Corporate Marketing. “It was then set up as a standalone product, which in 2014 became a standalone company, Vistara.”

OpsRamp makes an operations management platform which simplifies and automates the management of complex computing environments. It’s a crowded market, which includes several venerable enterprise legacy players: HPE; CA; BMC and IBM.

“The original vision of the platform was service-centric IT operations – IT operations-as-a-service,” Shor said. “Every challenge in an operations environment is service-based. We offer a truly consolidated view on one platform, and few players offer this consolidated view in a hybrid environment as we do. With us, a workload is a workload is a workload.”

Vistara began with a hybrid go-to-market model, selling both direct and through MSP partners, and were successful out of the gate.

“We achieved solvency with regular occurring revenue,” Sher said. The channel side was the more successful of the two, and about 75 per cent of their business today is conducted through partners.

“Our original channel partnerships had great customer relationships and leveraged them into our business,” he said. “A lot of MSPs were building their own custom solutions, and we could go to them and say that we have a ready-built option, so you don’t have to do that. It was an easy conversation, because large MSPs deal with a lot of complexity.”

Sher said that the sweet spot for the platform is 2000 devices and up.

“It’s more of an enterprise play because these customers have more complex, hybrid environments,” he indicated. “The more complex the environment, the more value that we can provide. SMBs tend to be all on one single platform so we can’t provide the same value to them.”

The desire to increase sales traction on the direct side prompted the shift to OpsRamp, with $20 million in venture funding from Sapphire Ventures. That was a reversal of the more common formula, where a company that establishes itself with a direct presence takes venture funding to broaden its go-to-market strategy and develop an effective channel.

“We wanted to develop our direct business, and so we got a cash infusion to scale up our direct business to grow in the enterprise segment,” Shor said. “We had been contacted by several different VCs, but a  partnership with Sapphire felt right because they have experience in this segment – and the right relationships that will help us grow in the enterprise.”

Sher indicated that the VC addition, and the change in branding and direct strategy, hasn’t impacted the overall company strategy.

“The VCs liked us because we already had several million in annual recurring revenue,” he said. “They didn’t want to rock the boat. We are using the funding to developing that direct side of the business. Sapphire is also making additional introductions and removing obstacles for us there. We will also continue to support, and eventually expand, our channel. Today, it is more of a value channel, limited in size, because we customize our platform for partners. However, our vision is to provide our service across a large volume of MSPs, and we will eventually drive towards more volume.”

Shor said that the new Unified Service Intelligence offering will be a strong play on both the channel and direct side.

“OpsRamp overall provides three main buckets of value – monitoring, management and automation,” he stated. “This new service is a smaller value-driven solution, which focuses on the  monitoring and management. It is an easier solution for customers who want a little more visibility and control over the IT services they provide.”

The idea, Shor said, is to provide for information that customers can act on, not bring about a ‘big bang’ change to the operation of their environment.

“It gives them dashboard information that they can act on, and things like more control over alert management,” he said. “It doesn’t require huge budget oversight. It’s a smaller solution that offers a taste of the platform. Once they taste, the churn is very low.”

That makes this an excellent solution for the recruitment of new prospects, and while Shor indicated their enterprise direct force will be selling it as well, the channel will like it because it can also play to a midmarket audience.

“This can help customers with as little as 500 devices, which brings it into the midmarket,” he said.

Unified Service Intelligence will be available tomorrow, February 28th.