technologyreseller.co.uk 31 returns on. How ready is your data? How ready are your security permissions and your sharing options? Can you set them up properly?’. Most people say ‘No’, and what we can do to help an MSP guide an end user to a good outcome so that they adopt more Copilot is where most of our conversations go. It’s opened up a huge wave of new partners for us to work with.” More than backup This is clearly more of a data management conversation and one of AvePoint’s priorities is to make sure more people know of all it can do for Microsoft, Google, AWS and Salesforce users. “A lot of conversations will probably start with backup, because that’s what we are known for. It’s still half of all our business, and a really valuable business, but it’s not all of what we do. There’s back up, governance tools, security tools, licence management tools, data lifecycle management. When you create a bit of data, how do you look after it, how do you back it up, how do you govern it, how do you move it? This year, there’s going to be a really big focus on security technology as well, as AvePoint evolves into a genuine backup, governance, security vendor for MSPs and resellers, with everything available from one platform.” our technologies taken by customers. Our average at the moment is something like 2.7 technologies per customer.” Backup still accounts for about half of AvePoint’s revenue and around 70% of its customers will take backup in some shape or form. Growth areas Shaw says that one of the big growth areas for AvePoint is storage optimisation, particularly amongst backup customers that are now looking to cut costs and reduce the amount of data they retain. This is leading to conversations around its Opus technology (see below) and driving a lot of organic growth. Another critical area is AI, where AvePoint’s focus is on making customers AI-ready. “A lot of people don’t know where to start with Copilot. They don’t know how to use it well and they don’t know how to structure their estates and their data to get the most from it. What we tend to say in regard to AI-readiness and Copilot especially is ‘Make sure the right users can get hold of the right data and then raise the bumpers so they can’t get out of their lane. What are they allowed to look at? What can their Copilot find? How structured is your data and how relevant is the data that Copilot bases its made that distribution-managed which allows us to go and find partners that are going to make a difference to us and to our distributors.” Partner programme In Q1 or Q2 AvePoint is introducing a new partner programme designed to reward partners, especially managed service providers, for the value they bring, rather than just the volume of sales they do. “A really, really important point for us this year is that our new partner program for 2025 will be more Microsoftesque, where you get points for investment in us. It won’t just be a revenue conversation, it’ll be about rebates, it’ll be about MDF, it will be about time and exposure for us if we’re co-selling – all those sorts of things that make it easier for an MSP to go to market.” Shaw adds that partners can also look forward to high levels of support and customisation when it comes to developing opportunities, creating price structures and formulating plans to help them to sell more as well. Microsoft toolkit That aside, what else does AvePoint have to offer resellers? “The ability with the technology we offer, because it is effectively a Microsoft toolkit, to fix multiple scenarios with one vendor. That’s where we see a lot of gain,” says Shaw. “The best and worst thing about backup is that it can be a race to the bottom, a commodity sale. If all you’re talking about is backup, it sometimes comes down to price. We can have that conversation and there are times when it’s really, really relevant. However, MSPs and resellers increasingly want to take their customer on a journey and want to sell multiple technologies to the same seat within that customer. That is how we separate ourselves from the rest of the pack, and that’s why people come to AvePoint. We let you get your data in the right place through our migration technologies, back it up properly once it’s in the right place, apply the right security profile to it so that you don’t have unintentional breaches, leaks, internal sharing problems and that sort of thing. Then you’re looking at change management, ROI and analytics and, as an extension of that, Copilot-readiness – how you can use our tools to get ready for Copilot. Those sorts of conversation are driving, first, net new partner recruitment and, second, growth in the number of PARTNER PROGRAMMES continued...
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