ScalePad’s introductory free trial of their Software Asset Management ends December 31, but the company announced new measures to replace it at their virtual conference for their MSPs on Monday.

The current economic crisis created by the pandemic has been and will continue to be a gold mine for MSPs with the right offerings and outlook. And ScalePad, as Warranty Master rebranded itself in October to better reflect its current offerings, has the capabilities to help partners effectively monetize both hardware and software management. That was the core messaging at the 20-21 ScalePad All Partners event held virtually on Monday to partners in 76 countries, reinforced by multiple luminaries connected with the managed services business, and supported by several new and reworked promotions for 2021.

“Some partners asked why we changed our name,” ScalePad CEO Dan Wensley stated. “It has been an evolutionary story of value and profitability, from a single application that provides incredible value to a complete asset management lifecycle platform. From warranty lookup, we have added workstation warranties and software asset management. The name Warranty Master didn’t encompass this. We are now a launching pad to help you scale your business.”

The expansion of ScalePad’s capabilities coincides with the expansion of the opportunities available to partners, principally because of changes to the workplace created by COVID. In many ways, it resembled the opportunity for MSPs created by the financial panic in the U.S. in 2008, which caused disaster for many, but was an unexpected windfall for MSPs.

“In 2008, we thought the bottom would fall out,” said Chris Day, co-founder of ScalePad, who in 2008 was an MSP. “It was the reverse. It brought in some massive logos, and brought in agreements we would never have gotten before. The rolling trucks all but went away, but they were a margin killer.”

Day said that in the pandemic, MSPs are in a fortunate situation going forward.

“The market will increase and not decrease,” he stated. “In 2021, SMB clients will be more conservative on big infrastructure spend, leading to a big increase in warranty services. They can’t afford to replace it, so they will protect it. Seeing all this in one place, fully distilled, I think this is a golden goose for our partners.”

Rob Rae, Datto’s VP of Business Development, agreed that the present situation is very similar to 2008.

“The 2008 recession catapulted the urgency around having recurring revenue, and having small bits of revenue rather than large projects,” he said. “So much good came out of that. Managed services also survived the 2011 economic crisis.  COVID is a terrible time, but we will look back at these days and say this was the golden age of managed services.”

Rae said that it was noteworthy that under COVID, MSPs were defined as essential services.

“There is now such a reliance upon IT,” he stated. “Even five years ago, moving to home businesses would have been a disaster. Now it’s the next step. It’s about how we are going to make sure that end users are safe secure and connected and the MSP is critical to that process.”

“When you experience chaos, you really become resilient,” said Joe Alapat, the CEO of Liongard, which started out making automated documentation software that speeds up ingestion of data into documentation platforms for MSPs, but which has also broadened its platform capabilities into the automation of auditing and securing systems. “We are seeing a lot of partners double down. Those in a scarcity mindset are in one group, but others see they can do something unique. We are in the automation space, and there is so much opportunity with Work From Home.”

Alapat said that MSPs need to think about how they will service customers in a much more distributed user base to take advantage of the pent-up demand in 2021.

“How do you differentiate in a crowded market – from IT, other MSPs, and self-service options,” he said. “Before, conference and collaboration tools were kind of being used. Now they are indispensable. That’s what customers are experiencing. How do you enable that big transformation and drive MRR? Organizations can’t do these things by themselves. They need an MSP to make that happen.”

Wensley noted that ScalePad’s MSPs manage north of 500,000 SMB customers , with the average coming in at about 60 customers each. He said it breaks down to 16,958 total assets each, 15,533 software and 1,625 hardware. He also noted that in SMB customer budgets for SMB, 31% is now hardware and 29% software.

“That’s why it’s critical that you have a single source of truth for hardware and software management,” Wensley stressed.

Wensley also pointed out opportunities in data from a 2020 Spiceworks report.

“62% of hardware managed is outdated today – out of extended warranty or end of life,” he told his audience. “These are your opportunities.” He said this amounted to $1.75 million average sales opportunity per partner, of which  almost $1.6 million is hardware and the rest is warranty.

“You can drive profitability with hardware replacement,” he added.

Wensley noted that 28% of customer software is outdated as well, 70% of that being outdated operating systems, and 30% outdated Office suites.

Patrick Murphy, president of Results Technology, an MSP which focuses on community banking MSP, said that ScalePad helps deal with this issue.

“It lets us see which software is loaded on each device in a bank, to make sure it’s the right software, and that it is secure,” he indicated.

Looking ahead, ScalePad will be able to call on support from its inaugural Partner Advisory Council, which was announced last Friday.

“This is our first-ever formalization of the council,” Wensley said. “We selected  80 partners from all over the world – all geos, verticals and sizes.”

The bad news going forward for MSPs is that the free preview period of Software Asset Management ScalePad has been offering ends on December 31.

“While the free preview period ends December 31, we will be offering 25% off as a minimum discount, the deepest discount we can,” Wensley stated. “It is a great value in software asset management, and it would be irresponsible not to use it.

ScalePad will also be offering a $150 Warranty Voucher for partners, up to $1 million in total, which they can keep themselves or pass on to customers. They will also be conducting a ScaleUp MasterClass online session on January 21.