ScalePad’s expansion of their services for MSPs to provide the same kinds of services for software that they have for hardware continues to extend their business beyond warranties.
Dan Wensley, ScalePad’s CEO
Today, Vancouver-based Warranty Master is making a pair of related announcements. They are rebranding themselves as ScalePad, a broader name which reflects their broadening out from their original business around providing information about warranty status for MSPs. They are also launching their foray into software services management, with their Software Asset Management service.
The company originally launched in April 2015, and is one of several SaaS startups under the roof of Top Down Ventures and its CEO, former IT Glue founder and leader Chris Day.
“On day one, we were a warranty lookup tool, but we have matured into a true asset lifecycle management provider,” said Dan Wensley, ScalePad’s CEO. “The new name reflects that we are a launch pad to further scale MSPs’ business, increase operational maturity and strengthen their relationship with customers. We are now driving more budget planning and automating internal processes for them Our focus is on the success of the MSP, and every application betters the business for our partners.”
Along with the new name, ScalePad is announcing a new service, Software Asset Management. It lets MSPs manage all their clients’ IT assets through one automated, easy-to-use application.
“We are adding software asset management directly into the application, doing all the things we do for hardware assets, and instituting our well-valued reporting capability for software,” Wensley said. “Internally the data has always been there, but it does need to be mined.”
Wensley termed the move into software as an extension of what the company has done in hardware.
“The core value proposition of productivity, strengthening relationship with clients and driving profitability, remains the same,” he said. “What we have done in hardware we can now do in software for many more assets. So while we are expanding by volume into a larger market, we haven’t changed the basic value play.”
Software asset management has been provided by other players, particularly by distributors, but Wensley said that ScalePad goes beyond what anyone else provides.
“We looked at the spectrum of that competitive space very organically,” he stated. “Distributors do procurement there – but there’s also provisioning, maintenance, and upgrades till retirnd ement. For example, in antivirus, we identify what’s out of date, awhat needs to be upgraded. Partners now have a side by side view of not just the age of the software but what software is running on the device, whether it is it protected, and whether it has the latest version of the anti-virus. We do all this with one click of a button, and automate the entire process.”
At the launch, all of ScalePad’s MSP partners are able to get a free preview of Software Asset Management.
“All 8000 of our partners will get a free preview, and they get it across every single client that they have, not just a limited number as a test,” Wensley said. “It will automatically load autonomically for all partners, through our iterations with the RMMs. That’s how we are pulling the data. We have had a good response from our Advisory Council members and we are excited to get this out the door.”
Wensley also emphasized that while the company is expanding what they do, the original focus on warranties remains as strong as ever.
“We aren’t getting away from the warranty business,” he said. “That business is up 75% over last year and up 50% just over Q1 this year. With the downturn, the opportunity and the need to add extended warranties onto aging equipment has become critically high for MSPs, and many of them have pivoted to offering this service.”
Wensley noted that ScalePad has recently added other new services as well.
“In the summer, we added extended warranties for servers, network devices and workstations,” he said. “The workstation revenue opportunity alone increased from $50 million to $500 million for partners.”
Wensley indicated that the economic dislocation caused by the coronavirus has been having a dual impact on the MSP industry.
“We saw dramatic increases in the number of devices being managed by Q2, although that drive for new equipment is slowing down a little now,” he said. “But customers are delaying hardware refreshes, so the existing equipment that is there remains a risk factor, which makes the extended warranties more important than ever.”
