The new program is the first IGEL has offered specifically for MSPs, and has features like partners having complete control of SLAs in any form that they want.
Mads Skalbo, Vice President of Global MSP Business, IGEL
Secure software endpoint OS provider IGEL has announced their first Managed Services Provider (MSP) partner program, which is a component of IGEL’s Velocity Partner Program. In addition to the MSP program itself, IGEL is introducing MSP service models for the IGEL platform that provides secure access for VDI, DaaS, SaaS and secure browsing use cases, through either multi-tenant or single tenant deployments.
Somewhat surprisingly, this is IGEL’s first program specifically for MSPS.
“I joined IGEL in November, but it hadn’t been a priority,” said Mads Skalbo, Vice President of Global MSP Business, IGEL, whose career includes a long recent stint at Citrix. “It’s like so many other things that we wanted to do, but it continuously went across the back burner. Managed services are a different business than reselling and requires a change in focus and approach.”
Skalbo said that while they have lots of MSP partners, until now, there was no opportunity to do managed services with IGEL.
“We have not had an MSP opportunity before at all,” he indicated. “True managed services we have not had before.”
Demand for managed services has been growing to the point where IGEL finally changed their policies.
“Partners have been requesting this for quite a while, because they want to transform from reselling services to managed services,” Skalbo noted. “It’s more sustainable. Their customers are struggling to find the right competencies to manage IT infrastructure. The cybersecurity landscape is more complex for SMEs, so they need to take care of their infrastructure. For most companies, uncertainty and changes are picking up. Uncertainty is growing. So they are more willing to look at a consumption-based model that speaks to MSPs’ offerings, so that they can be confident that their business will have survived when they get back to work on Monday. That’s why has become important for us to deliver our piece as a managed services offering.”
IGEL ran a pilot on the program in the second half of 2023.
“We learned from the pilot that it had to be easier to work with IGEL,” Skalbo stressed. “It had to be easier to work with, more cost effective, more profitable and easier to join.”
The new MSP program has several core principles.
“Financial support, engagement and technical support level and ease of operation – how can we automate these things in the MSP’s environment,” Skalbo indicated.
“We allow the delivery of managed services where the partner has the SLA – so that we are not directly engaged in the relationship,” Skalbo said. “They like that because it makes it easy for the customer to see the services that the MSP provides.”
This is enabled by the ability of the partner to offer any level of SLA that they want,” he added. “This facilitates the ability to deliver those services with a flexible pay-as-you-grow license model, where pricing can go up and down on a monthly business. We take part in the risk because we have very high level of support.”
Skalbo also said that IGEL had figured out how they can use automating to make the reporting so seamless that partners don’t spend hours figuring out what they need to pay for.
The IGEL MSP Partner Program is available now to qualifying partners
