Forward Together: Why Open Ecosystems Drive MSP Growth

This week, we’re doing something a little different. We're excited to share an episode from another podcast sponsored by N-able: Beyond the Horizon: Future Focused MSP Insights.

In this episode, Forward Together: Why Open Ecosystems Drive MSP Growth, David Weeks discusses how open platforms and ecosystems are shaping the future for MSPs, and why collaboration is key to driving growth in this space. 

It’s a must-listen for anyone looking to stay ahead in the evolving world of managed services.

After you finish listening, be sure to subscribe to Beyond the Horizon so you don’t miss any of their upcoming episodes.

 We’ll be back in two weeks with our conversation with Stephen Riddick.

In this episode of Beyond the Horizons, Pete Roythorne is joined by David Weeks, VP of Community at N-able, to delve into the transformative concept of open ecosystems for Managed Service Providers (MSPs). They discuss the evolving role of RMM tools as data aggregators, the importance of integrating diverse software, and the power of AI in enhancing business efficiency. Tune in to explore how MSPs can leverage open ecosystems to drive opportunity, mitigate risks, and ensure scalability.

 Topics Discussed:

 

1. Introduction to Open Ecosystems:

The significance of open ecosystems for MSPs, and the changing role of RMM as a data aggregator.

2. Data Aggregation and Business Insights:

Utilizing data from your RMM to build pipelines and identify sales opportunities, and how data aggregation helps MSPs understand customer needs and trends.

3. Integration and Interoperability:

The necessity of MSPs to use a range of software tools beyond a single vendor's offerings. Challenges and benefits of bi-directional integrations and communication between tools.

4. AI and Automation in MSP Operations:

The role of AI and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in managing data and making decisions, plus how AI enhances the scalability and efficiency of MSPs.

5. Vendor Relationships and Best-of-Breed Tools:

The risk of single-vendor tool stacks and the importance of best-of-breed solutions. Why we should be encouraging partnerships and open ecosystems to provide versatility and choice.

6. Ecoverse Concept:

Introduction to the Ecoverse concept and its benefits for MSPs. How this opens doors for collaboration with various vendors and partners.

7. Market Trends and Future Outlook:

Predictions for the next 3-5 years in the MSP

'Now that's it: Stories of MSP Success,' dives into the journeys of some of the trailblazers in our industry to find out how they used their passion for technology to help turn Managed Services into the thriving sector it is today.

Every episode is packed with the valuable insights, practical strategies, and inspiring anecdotes that lead our guests to the transformative moment when they knew….. Now, that's it.

This podcast provides educational information about issues that may be relevant to information technology service providers.

Nothing in the podcast should be construed as any recommendation or endorsement by N-able, or as legal or any other advice.

The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the podcast does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent.

Views and opinions expressed by N-able employees are those of the employees and do not necessarily reflect the view of N-able or its officers and directors.

The podcast may also contain forward-looking statements regarding future product plans, functionality, or development efforts that should not be interpreted as a commitment from N-able related to any deliverables or timeframe.

All content is based on information available at the time of recording, and N-able has no obligation to update any forward-looking st

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
One, two, three, four , hey everyone Chris Massey here
with Now that's it.
Stories of MSP Success.
This week we're doing somethinga little different.
We're excited to share anepisode from another podcast
sponsored by Enable, calledBeyond the Horizon
Future-Focused MSP Insights.
In this episode, forwardTogether why Open Ecosystems

(00:24):
Drive MSP Growth.
David Weeks discusses how openplatforms and ecosystems are
shaping the future for MSPs andwhy collaboration is key to
driving growth in this space.
It's a must listen for anyonelooking to stay ahead in the
evolved world of managedservices.
After you finish listening, besure to subscribe to Beyond the

(00:44):
Horizon so you don't miss any oftheir upcoming episodes.
We'll be back in two weeks withour conversation with Stephen
Riddick.
You won't want to miss it.
Until then, enjoy the episode.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Welcome to the Beyond the Horizons podcast, where we
take a deeper dive into some ofthe key topics raised in the MSP
Horizons report, produced inconjunction with Canalys.
In this episode, enable VP ofCommunity David Weeks, discusses
the changing role of the RMMand how it is increasingly being
used as a control center fordata aggregation across your
tech stack.

(01:24):
Being used as a control centrefor data aggregation across your
tech stack.
Plus, we explore how developingan open ecosystem that allows a
broad range of tools to easilytalk to each other and share
data is critical to developingefficiencies as well as helping
MSPs move further upstream insearch of new revenue streams.
We're going to talk about openecosystems today, dave, so the

(01:45):
MSP Horizons report that we did,one of the things that came
back the role of the RMM isstarting to change a little bit,
and I think this is where westart to talk about the concept
of the RMM as a data aggregator.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
It's starting to come around.
It's actually interesting.
It's actually interesting I'vebeen saying this now for over a
year actually about this factthat MSPs and service providers
have this tooling that sitsthere, that holds this massive
amount of data, and we've allgot to find a way to harness
that data.
And there's a few things thatit does.
You're right, it's a dataaggregator, but it's also the
ability to build pipeline andsales opportunity, to look at

(02:20):
trending across your customerbase, because a lot of what you
see out there and a lot ofservice providers see and they
might see.
Oh, across my 50 customers, I'mseeing that the majority of them
utilize X, y and Z.
Well, that means yourprospective customers probably
have the exact same need as welltoo.
So utilizing and harnessingthat is critical.
Then figuring out how do wealso utilize, as it does, that

(02:43):
aggregation of data to push thatout, to decide, hey, what else
can it do within my systems tohelp me be better, more
efficient, drive moreopportunity, more profitability,
whatever it might be?
So, yes, there is a shiftcoming.
The RMM will always be there.
It's going to be like, reallylike the control panel as we
write, and it's going to be theone who kind of looks at all of
this data and says, well, whatdo we do with it?

Speaker 2 (03:04):
But then you've got to help direct it the way that
you want to maximize the benefitof all of that data, this
concept of also having theability to play nicely with a
whole stack of other stuffwithin the industry, because we
can't expect MSPs to not want tohave other bits of software

(03:25):
that don't necessarily sit underthe umbrella of the same vendor
as the RMM.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, look, no vendor can beone vendor to everybody, right?
It just doesn't work that way.
Msps, as they move into morecomplex environments, more
complex management, require adifferent level of tooling today
.
But the idea is that how dothey all talk to each other,
right?
And that's really the key.
And it's not just integrations,right, that we hear about.

(03:51):
It's about bi-directionaldiscussions utilizing things
like AI and RPA and so forth toallow these tools to really
understand what each do.
And the way I kind of explain isyou think about it almost like
the RMM, and that dataaggregation becomes an
orchestrator, right?
And with that data, it says, ok, who's going to take the action
?
Is it going to be the RMM andwe report into the ticketing,

(04:11):
the PSA, the ITSM, whatever itmight be?
Or are we going to take that?
Tell something out in theecosystem?
You go, take the action andreport back to me that the issue
is resolved, and if not, I'lltry another avenue.
And so this is becoming complexfor us as vendors, for us who
provide these types of platformsand unified management, but
it's also becoming complex forthe service provider, because as

(04:33):
they see that their toolinggrows, they have to find a way
to allow that to work welltogether and have that synergy.
If you don't, you're managingdisparate tools, your tech
utilization goes down, you'renot managing to the level of
your customers' expectations.
So all of these areas have to beconsidered as we think about
this 360 view or, as I say, thecircle of life.
When you think about your toolstack, it always has to come

(04:59):
back around to zero and be ableto continue that circle and
continue that discussion.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
And this is a kind of slightly contentious point, I
suppose how damaging really isit for MSPs to just be siphoned,
if you like, into just using aspecific set of tool sets, a
specific tool stack that an RMMvendor wants you to use?
You always?

Speaker 3 (05:20):
have to ask the question are you getting best of
breed?
Do you have the versatilitythat you need?
If you get into a single stacklike that and suddenly you
realize maybe one or two piecesof the tool and don't work for
you, now you've lost buyingpower out with other vendors,
right, and now you're having tobreak that up and figure out a
way to make it all work together.
And, like I said at the start,there's no one vendor who can
provide everything.

(05:40):
It just doesn't work.
And the way that security andcloud management and all of
these areas of professionalservices, right and augmentation
and co-managed are starting tomodel out with service providers
, it's becoming more and more ofa need to be able to have that
versatility, to say, okay, whatis it that I require?
You know, as I said, theco-manage.
When we look at that, orco-partnering with internal IT,

(06:01):
there's going to be scenarioswhere they say use our tooling
and have it, talk to yours.
So if you're in a single stackand a closed ecosystem, that's
extremely difficult to allowthat to happen.
And now you're jeopardizingyour opportunity or your
relationships and are youmanaging to the edges, Like if
you're stuck in a set of tooling.
What are you missing?
Because you're probably missingsomething out there that you're

(06:22):
not seeing that other toolingwould be able to provide you.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
And I think it's interesting because you start
talking about co-managing, co-partnering.
Is this, I suppose, endemic ofa challenge that MSPs will get
as they move further upstream?

Speaker 3 (06:37):
Well, absolutely, and you're also going to be
subjected to their buying powerand their requirements, right?
So I mean they may have goneout and negotiated with another
vendor because of their size,because they're 2,000, 3,000,
4,000 users, right, and theyhave a preferred solution that
they utilize internally, comingin and saying, well, break that
contract, get out, you have touse mine, it's not going to work

(06:58):
, right, and so you've got it.
If you don't have thatflexibility and the ability to
say, that's okay, bring your owntooling, bring your own devices
, bring your own needs.
All inserted into my Econverseand my ecosystem, we'll allow
them to talk to each other.
We share the data and theresults and happy days.
Everybody moves on from thereand they get what they need.
That's being a partner.

(07:18):
That's not being somebody whocomes in and says it's my way or
no way, because that's nevergoing to win you a lot of
business.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
You touch on the, the the ecoverse concept, which is
obviously the way that we'repositioning that as a business.

Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yeah, you know, you know what it is.
We're opening the doors andwe're saying no-transcript,

(08:04):
right, so it's single point offailure.
Even though it might be what weknow we always call single pane
of glass or spog, can also meana single point of failure.
That versatility allows you tosegregate a bit, have everything
, talk to each other, but alsoput your own protection and risk
mitigation around each of thoseareas as well too.
So there's a whole bunch ofbenefits to vote.
Yes, I can go to one vendor andsay give me everything.

(08:25):
And yeah, I'm going to havebuying power, right, and that's
great, I will.
But again, I'm probably notgetting the best of breed tools
in that whole package that Iwant.
And that's what MSPs have tothink about today.
Look, if they came to us andthere was a certain tooling and
a service provider said to meand I've done this on numerous
occasions and meetings andthey've said, well, you have
this solution and I want to takea look at it.
And I said, well, it's not fitfor you, it's not fit for your

(08:56):
type of business, right, andthat's really as we all work
collectively together in theindustry as vendors and as IT
service providers and MSPs right.
We can collectively win bybuilding out ecosystems that
allow us all to have thatability to mitigate our risk,
drive optimum opportunity rightand at the same time, drive
efficiency but utilize best ofbreeds, so we're all taking care

(09:17):
of ourselves.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
It's about empowering choice, isn't it as well?
That's really what it boilsdown to, and you touched on this
earlier.
It's kind of like let's moveaway from the concept of
integration, because it's notjust an integration.
It's way more than anintegration, isn't it?

Speaker 3 (09:31):
Yeah, it absolutely is.
Look at, I mean, integration isthe initial component of it,
right, to allow something totalk to each other.
After that, integration withthe APIs, it's that.
What can we extract, what canwe do?
How can we talk?
I mean, look at some of the onesthat we've done out there with
PSAs and so forth, where youknow, we've got AI and we're
talking back and forth and theAI is helping to make decisions.

(09:51):
Like that's the infinitepossibilities that we see, how
we can harness this newtechnology that's out there to
allow us to say, ok, you knowwhat?
I don't need to put a human infront of everything, because
that's not scalable either.
Right, the systems have a lotof power that can be harnessed,
and most service providers don'tnecessarily harness all the
power of their tooling.
I think we all know that.
But as we start to bring inthings like AI and so forth,

(10:14):
that will naturally pull thepower out for you and give you
the results that you need.
That's a win for everybody.
Right, humans make mistakes.
Right, that's okay, weunderstand that and that's not
an issue.
But we have to think about howwe can utilize some of that
other technology that's outthere to allow us to drive
forward at a faster pace and,more importantly, bring a
scalability peak right.

(10:35):
I mean, like I said, we all knowthere's still a labor shortage.
It's getting better, but wecan't just throw a human at
everything.
That's not a way to run abusiness.
And so if we can get thisworking right through the
ecoverse and the ecosystem, nowyou start to collectively take
the power of that ecosystem andallow it to do a lot of the
management for you.
And look at your end customerAll they care is they stay up

(10:56):
and running management for you.
And look at your end customerAll they care is they stay up
and running, they're efficient,they're productive right.
They don't care how you do it.
So utilize those best tools,get it into the right ecosystem
and I guarantee that, as serviceproviders, they'll absolutely
see a huge benefit to theirbusiness and their end customers
.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Once you start opening that up and you're able
to pull in data from differentareas, then the AI itself
becomes much more powerful andmuch more kind of informative
for your business as well,doesn't it?
Well, it is.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
And when you look collectively at something like
an ecosystem versus a singlestack from a single vendor, that
vendor will probably aggregatedata in a certain way, so you
don't get the variety ofaggregation of data either,
right?
When you open an ecosystem,everybody records and collects
data differently.
And you're right, as we startto layer on those things like
RPA and AI, that can now look atall of that and say let me give

(11:46):
it back to you in a cohesivemessage, or your customer in a
cohesive message.
So I mean, we're justscratching the surface of this
today, right, and it's onlygoing to continue to roll
forward.
And that's really where youknow when we made the decision
as an organization to say openthe doors, right, take down the
walls, come on in and let's worktogether.
Listen, there's enough businessto go around for all of us as

(12:07):
vendors and as service providers, right?
The more that we work together,the more that we all win, and
that's really what we're alltrying to do in the end is drive
our businesses forward.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
How are our?

Speaker 3 (12:14):
partners kind of reacting to this.
They're excited, and it's notjust our customers, it's vendors
as well.
Right, I mean, I'm out meetingwith a lot of other vendors who
have heard what we're doing andthey're coming to us proactively
and saying well, how do I be apart of this?
Right, we all have our ownchannels that we work with it.
Right, we all have our owntarget markets and ecosystem
allows to share some of that aswell, too, which is a really
neat initiative, and it's almostlike crowdsourcing opportunity

(12:38):
is the way that I say it and themore that we open that up and
the more that we're all willingto work together, it's a win.
I mean, look, we haveintegrations and we have API
calls that are open, and we havepeople in our ecosystem who are
direct competitors of ours, whyOur customers want choice.
They prefer that tool, use thattool.
Right, and I think that's wherewe're a little bit different.
But no, ultimately, out on theroad and you're right, I'm out

(13:00):
every day it's it's excitement.
Right, it is absoluteexcitement.
When they hear what we're doingand they understand the vision,
they say you know what?
This is actually what we'vebeen looking for.
We were going to build itourselves, but if you have the
ability to build it and allow usto bring what we need into it,
that's a win-win.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
How do you see the market in this perspective in
terms of you know differentvendors and products working
together to the benefit of MSP?
How do you see that kind ofpanning out over the next three
to five years?

Speaker 3 (13:28):
Right now, we're kind of at a tipping point, or even
almost say a quagmire, of what'smy better option.
Do I single source or do I goopen ecosystem?
Right, and the channel is goingto decide that right.
The channel is in.
Service providers are going todecide it, and I think the
tide's going to turn veryquickly and they're going to ask
all of their vendors to be apart of these ecosystems.

(13:49):
Right, and those ecosystemsdon't end with one vendor.
It's cross ecosystem in the end, whenever you think about it.
Right, and what we'll start tosee is this collective, global
ecosystem that now serviceproviders can decide where do I
fit in, how deep and how wide doI want to go, and that's just
giving them choice.
And when you discuss it thatway with them in the market,
that's where the excitementcomes in is give me more choice,

(14:11):
don't limit my choice.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, let me build the tools that I need to do the
job that I want to do.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
Well and what their customers need, right?
I mean, look, there's a lotmore regulation and compliance
out there now.
When we look at things likecompliance as a service, it
drives particular tool sets ortooling or types of tooling that
are required.
Listen, you're not going to geta lot of that from a single
vendor.
There's a lot we don't do, norwill probably ever do right.
Single vendor there's a lot wedon't do, nor will probably ever

(14:38):
do right.
But if we can allow you tobring that in so that's part of
your management and riskmitigation strategy, that we
should be doing that for you.
Ecosystem, in that term, hasbeen around for a very long time
, but we have new capabilitiesnow to make it even better and
to do it much faster, and that'swhat I think we're trying to do
, and I think that's thedifference people are going to
see going forward is just howmuch power this is going to

(14:58):
bring them, and power obviouslywill bring that opportunity and
the ability for them to drivetheir businesses forward in the
way that they want.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
As ever, mr Weeks, it's been a fascinating
conversation and again I feel itcould have sort of like if I
wasn't just focused on thisparticular topic.
We could have drifted on for atleast another half an hour, but
no, that's great.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
Thank you very much for your time.
Look forward to speaking to youagain about another topic.
I love it.
Thanks, pete, I'll chat soon.