Channel leaders: Complexity is an opportunity

Increasing complexity across AI, security, and cloud is creating opportunities for partners, according to channel leaders at ChannelCon EMEA in London

During a panel session at the event, channel execs argued that technical complexity improves the health of the channel as customers need trusted advisors to interpret and simplify their IT operations.

“The MSPs that are going to stand out in the future are certainly going to be the MSPs that simplify the complex,” said senior vice president of MSP enablement at Kaseya, Greg Jones, in the session, which was moderated by Carolyn April, GTIA’s vice president of research and market intelligence.

There is a caveat, however: to be successful, channel partners must be willing to embrace automation and AI themselves, with data, analytics, and intelligent tools able to turn complexity into actionable insight.

“As an MSP, we’ve got to look in two ways: how do we adopt AI to improve process, delivery, [and] customer retention, and then how do we do that for our customer?” said Guy Hocking, managing director at Utilize.

“To capitalize on the opportunity…you’ve got to make the investment,” added Cynet Security CEO Jason Magee.

That means partners starting inside their own houses. Magee urged MSPs to pilot AI tools internally first, pressure test use cases, learn what works, and bring those lessons to clients.

Automation frees up partners for higher-value work

Elsewhere, senior vice president of marketplace and channel expansion at Pax8, Phylip Morgan, argued that automation frees time for higher-value work. “Anything that’s predictable you should automate,” he said.

Routine, logic-based processes such as patching, reporting, and ticket triage can be handled by AI and RPA tools, giving engineers more bandwidth for consulting, relationship building, and business strategy.

Morgan added that automation “frees that headroom… to invest in relationships and communication and making the world simpler for the stakeholders we service.”

Morgan also noted that 83% of SMBs are already using generative AI tools in their workforce. Therefore, end clients now expect their IT partners to deliver the same agility and intelligence.

“If you don’t invest today in enablement and really put the appropriate things in place, you just never have to capitalize on the opportunity,” said Magee.

The consequence of standing still is clear, according to April. “You are going to see ITSPs and MSPs who will lose customers because there are things they simply do not offer,” she warned.