Partners See Big OpenAI Codex Opportunity With Hiring Of Colleen Kapase

“I expect we’ll see a partner program that aligns with how MSPs actually operate: recurring revenue, packaged services and long term customer ownership,” says Kevin Damghani, founder and CEO of Grand Rapids, Mich.-based ITPartners+.

Kevin Damghani, founder and CEO of Grand Rapids, Mich.-based MSP ITPartners+, could not be more excited about the potential Codex opportunity that is on the horizon with OpenAI hiring channel superstar Colleen Kapase.

What’s been missing in the channel is a partner model that allows MSPs to monetize the Codex coding platform in a meaningful, recurring way, said Damghani (pictured above).

“Bringing in proven channel leadership signals that OpenAI understands this gap,” said Damghani. “I expect we’ll see a partner program that aligns with how MSPs actually operate: recurring revenue, packaged services and long term customer ownership. With offerings like Codex, MSPs can move beyond traditional support and become true managed intelligence providers, driving automation and real business outcomes for their clients. If the monetization model follows, this becomes a win for partners, customers and the pace of AI adoption in the SMB market.”

Damghani’s comments came after OpenAI hired channel chief veteran Kapase, who has overseen aggressive channel charges at Google Cloud and Snowflake, as vice president of strategic global partners and ecosystems.

Kapase is charged with helping to drive enterprise adoption of the OpenAI Codex platform, which recently hit four million weekly active users, up from three million active users just two weeks ago.

CRN reached out to OpenAI and Kapase but had not heard back at press time.

Michael Hadley, CEO of iCorps Technologies, a Woburn, Mass.-based MSP with a sizable AI business, said he is “definitely interested” in exploring the possibility of a Codex partnership with Kapase leading the OpenAI channel charge. “This is something we are going to look at to make our clients more efficient and effective,” he said.

Hadley said he sees the Codex platform as a means for customers to do custom software development without hiring high-priced talent. He said that even with the iCorps’ AI assessments doubling in the last year, the company is still just scratching the surface of the AI opportunity.

“We are spending a good amount of time training and educating customers on the value of AI and how they can leverage it inside their organizations,” he said.

To help drive the Codex platform, OpenAI has launched Codex Labs, a program that brings OpenAI experts to help teams quickly adopt Codex. That Codex sales offensive includes partnerships with some of the biggest global partners in the world including Accenture, Capgemini, CGI, Cognizant, Infosys, PwC and Tata Consultancy Services.

But MSPs said they see the need for OpenAI to go broad and deep with partners to drive Codex into the enterprise market.

Bill Blum views the OpenAI Codex push as part of a broader competitive scramble rather than a standalone breakthrough.

“If you look at the landscape of all of the frontier models… Claude won the game so far in coding, and everybody’s catching up,” Blum, founder and CEO of New Jersey-based Alpine Business Systems, told CRN. “The good thing is we all benefit from it.”

“These models are getting incredibly powerful, that lowers the cost and increases the functionality exponentially,” he added. “It provides us a lot more choices and opens us up to what tools our clients prefer.”

Corey Kirkendoll agreed that Codex can be beneficial to the MSP as they can leverage more IT in house and start building apps.

“We don’t use everything in our PSA. We don’t use everything in our billing systems. We use very specific pieces,” Kirkendoll, president and CEO of Dallas-based 5K Technical Services, told CRN. “So why pay all that money when we can build in house and customize it for ourselves, and then take that same knowledge and start to offer it to our customers as well? That’s where see where you see the value. It’s helping create your own in-house, custom development to actually save on your costs and hit your direct bottom line.”

Joe Ussia sees Codex enabling MSPs to have “a higher level of coding” without the same level of internal expertise.

“Like all LLM and AI platforms, they all level internal skill sets up which helps companies do more with less, and shrinks go to market timelines,” said Ussia, president and CEO of Toronto-based Infinite IT Solutions.

Michael Goldstein, market president of Southeast Florida for Entech, a Florida MSP powerhouse, said he is thrilled that OpenAI is bringing Codex to the channel.

“It’s about time,” said Goldstein, speaking of Kapase’s appointment. “We need a good MSP offering from OpenAI. There are a lot of products out there and a lot of AI companies competing for the attention of MSPs. Having a program from OpenAI to compete with the Microsoft and Google programs would be a big benefit to the MSP community and a win for the channel.”

Goldstein said he is looking forward to taking advantage of the OpenAI Codex channel program. “OpenAI needs to look beyond the global system integrators and broadly embrace MSP partners,” he said. “As MSPs, our hands are in every business across every industry. We are all looking for a better way to monetize AI coding. OpenAI bringing an innovative program to market is a channel game changer!”

Steven Burke contributed to this report.