D&H Distributing is moving full-force into the MSP solutions market offering, for the first time, the entire suite of ConnectWise products, and it will even handle the billing.
“The value that D&H brings when they buy through us is we aggregate the invoicing for all of their cloud and services products,” Jason Bystrak, the vice president of the cloud business unit for D&H Distributing told CRN. “So for example, they’ll get a monthly ConnectWise invoice, along with their Microsoft invoice. We can bundle the whole thing together to help with cashflow management, and invoice timing with the partners.”
The Harrisburg, Pa.- based distributor has never before offered an IT service management toolset for sale to its customers. Bystrak said until recently, the company had focused on those shops who run a legacy resale business. However, as customers mature and transition to a service model, D&H is there to capture that business as well.
“D&H is kind of adjusting its go-to-market strategy to be more focused on managed service providers,” Bystrak said. “Before I think we were focused more on VARs as a business model. We still do a lot of business with VARs. But in order to help our VARs become MSPs and start getting into cloud services … some of those steps involve investing in the right operational tools to run a managed service business. That’s where ConnectWise fits right in.”
The full suite of ConnectWise products are for sale now through D&H’s Cloud Marketplace, where the MSP can also provision the product by checking off a roster of services to be assigned to each end-client to help MSPs deliver the offerings to multiple customers. MSPs can also add their own skus and professional services inside the platform, and invoice for these services from the same interface.
“They have a whole suite,” Bystrak said. “There’s remote monitoring software with Automate, with Control, there’s endpoint management. There’s the manage PSA software, there’s Sell, which is the proposal generation solution. ConnectWise has a whole suite of products and we sell the whole line card.”
With the rise in ransomware attacks on MSPs this year, Bystrak said the company is also paying close attention to helping those transitioning VARs get up to speed with the best security practices. Bystrak said while historically, end users were seen as carrying the responsibility for their own security, that has changed.
“That responsibility is being turned over to the MSP,” he said. “It’s attractive for hackers and those who want to do harm to the environment because they can access many different users through one set of tools that an MSP might be using. We provide training and guidance around the technical side of the MSP practice and make sure that people are aware that this is a responsibility and they have to become a consumer of those tools to make sure the end user is secure.”
Bystrak said D&H also works with vendor partners to make sure the best security practices for their products are followed. He said with the ConnectWise partnership, D&H partners also have access to Perch, an as-a-service cybersecurity company.
The two companies also fit well in terms of the customers they serve, with D&H focused on the SMB market, where ConnectWise has been a dominant player for years.
“ConnectWise does a fantastic job in that space,” he said. “A lot of partners they support have perfect D&H alignment.”
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