Pax8 is emphasizing that not only will Liongard improve the efficiency of IT documentation software, but their recent expansion of their platform capability complements other adjacent technologies, including providing integrated alerting.
Ryan Walsh, Chief Channel Officer at Pax8
Today, in conjunction with the start of the CompTIA ChannelCon event, cloud distributor Pax8 is announcing a new partnership with Liongard. Liongard emerged in the managed services place several years ago with automated documentation software that speeds up ingestion of data into documentation platforms. However, in the last year, they have expanded its functionality, with new messaging and reporting capabilities that give MSPs a broader ability to audit, document and secure systems.
“When Liongard first came out, they were interesting because of their automated documentation capability, but while that’s important, it is relatively narrow,” said Ryan Walsh, Chief Channel Officer at Pax8. “So it doesn’t surprise me that they have been expanding their value proposition to be more platform oriented. Their broadened platform has become more relevant than ever because of the pandemic. Their product category is one where they can expect increased usage. And the value increases by being broader than documentation, by adding actionable alerts and reports. That’s what customers and MSPs want. They want more automation of workflows.”
Liongard’s broader platform capabilities also provides MSPs with greater visibility into how their systems are managed.
“This is a great product for an MSP these days because it benefits both them and their customers by providing visibility that gives customers into how their systems are being managed,” Walsh said. “It’s not so easy for MSPs to keep track of all their customers unused licenses, if they have to let someone go, and are still paying for the license. These days MSPs have to do more with less. Our proactive partners want to be more efficient. Some of these partners have EBITDA of 25%. I think a lot of MSPs are paying attention to that, and a tool like Liongard can help them achieve that. MSPs who have embraced Liongard see it as a way to improve their ability to complete.”
Liongard’s automated documentation capability is complementary to documentation systems like IT Glue rather than competitive with them.
“They have a lot more tracking in their capability,” Walsh said. “Liongard also embraces the value of ecosystems. They are integrated into many PSAs and many MSP oriented vendors like Bitdefender, Veeam, Webroot and Microsoft 365 Webroot.” Liongard has over 30 such vendor integrations.
Walsh emphasized that this approach makes Liongard highly synergistic with Pax8.
“We are like-minded in that sense, which is why I love working with these guys,” he said. “Pax8, with our ecosystem of products and appreciation for automation through APIs, complements Liongard like nobody else. They fit within our value proposition of helping partners grow their stack. When you take that stack tech mindset, and add a very complementary product like Liongard, their alerts allow you to take advantage of that whole stack. On the back side, they complement all these other products, and they are connected to all the PSA tools. So it’s a very strong ecosystem value proposition, that optimizes all the complementary products that we sell.”
Walsh also pointed out that while Liongard is not technically a security product, there is also a security benefit to what they do.
“There is a security dimension around the notion of automated documentation,” he said. “MSPs need to weave security into their story. Recently at Microsoft Inspire, people were talking more about multi-factor authentication [MFA] and single sign on, and how it’s easier and more complementary than ever to have those integrations through Microsoft. Identity has become much more important to MSPs because of the increased concern around MSPs being targeted by cybercrminals.”
