Logically Takes Next Steps To Become An MSSP: ‘It’s The Right Path’

‘There’s just better value there in the market for us to continue to grow and evolve Logically and take it to where we wanted to go,’ CEO Joshua Skeens told CRN.

Logically announced additional steps Tuesday that will further its journey to becoming a true MSSP (managed security service provider) that will include a cybersecurity employee training program and new webinar series, as well as plans to host an industry security summit later this year.

“Security is so prevalent today that it’s a great move for us from a business standpoint to just continue to differentiate ourselves in the market,” Joshua Skeens (pictured), CEO of Portland, Maine-based Logically, told CRN. “If you really look at the MSP space, there’s over 70,000 MSPs. So it’s no longer a dirty little secret that the MSP space has become very commodity driven. In the MSSP space, there’s a lot more highly-specialized talent, skills, software, product and services that need to be delivered.”

He added: “There’s just better value there in the market for us to continue to grow and evolve Logically and take it to where we want to go.”

[Related: Logically’s New CEO: The Goal Is To ‘Transform Into A True MSSP’]

It was “the next best step” for the company, which is No. 229 on CRN’s 2022 Solutions Provider 500.

Skeens took over as CEO in January and has a two-year plan to become a “true” MSSP. He told CRN that the company is “more than on track” to hit that plan.

In addition to infusing cybersecurity into all aspects of its customer offerings, Logically has launched a number of initiatives to further its goal. Those include Logically University — an internal cybersecurity training program — along with a new security-focused video series and a security summit in October.

Logically University was launched in March and is based upon Cerdant University, which Logically acquired in March 2021 as part of its acquisition of Cerdant, an MSSP based in Dublin, Ohio.

Skeens was CTO and COO at Cerdant, and came to Logically along with the acquisition. Cerdant University was initially created as a training platform to upskill all of the MSSP’s employees.

“Logically itself, having done 12 acquisitions previous to the Cerdant acquisition, was mainly MSP-focused,” Skeens said. “We had a little bit of security, but it’s not the same as doing true, pure-play cybersecurity. We’re trying to really level up all of our support employees to have a security-first mindset.”

Logically Speaking, the new video series, will be hosted by the company’s recently appointed CRO Steve Rivera and will include industry experts to discuss a range of security topics.

“I’m a really big believer that for us to be successful, it’s not just about selling things to people,” he said. “It’s about educating people. We really wanted to put a platform together where we could go out there and educate not only our current customers, but future customers hopefully as well.”

He added that he wants Logically to be a relationship-driven company and a thought leader in the space, “not just making [customers] come buy something from us.”

The third initiative is the cybersecurity summit, to be held in Dublin, Ohio.

“A lot of times you go to a summit or a conference and it’s heavy [on] vendor product, kind of in your face,” he said. “This will be a lot of, ‘This is what you’re facing on a day-to-day basis. This is what’s going on in the industry.’ It’s just a lot of education around, ‘Here are the steps that you can be taking as a business or director of IT,’ whatever that might be to help protect your business and grow your business.”

To be a true MSSP, Skeens believes a solution provider’s revenue has to be a 50/50 split — 50 percent from the MSP business and 50 percent from the MSSP side.

“That’ll be the gold standard that we run after,” he said. “We have an 80-person cybersecurity business unit. There’s not too many other MSPs in the space that have that.”

The old Logically is not disappearing, he said, but it’s going to grow, improve and expand upon what it already has to offer.

“What we’re focusing on for the second half of the year is building off of that foundation and tightening things up,” he said. “There’s still a lot left to be done, it’ll never be finished. But we’ve made a lot of great progress and there’s a lot of exciting things to come.”