- EasyDMARC: AI Threats are ‘Only Going to Get More Threatening’
- GreatAmerica Rolls Out M&A Financing for Small MSP Acquisitions
- AppDirect Acquires vCom Solutions to Create a ‘More Valuable Tech Tool’ for MSPs
- ITS’s Unique M&A Strategy: Empathy and Integration in the MSP Landscape
Each week, MSSP Alert brings you channel-focused business news from our affiliate site ChannelE2E.
We know that security service providers care about more than cybersecurity. There are business issues, news about tools, artificial intelligence advancements, and more.
Here’s a look at the top headlines for the week from ChannelE2E.
EasyDMARC: AI Threats are ‘Only Going to Get More Threatening’
A new survey of some 1,000 MSPs, MSSPs, and other cybersecurity partners in the U.S. and UK found that their business customers are continuing to drive higher demand for cybersecurity services in the last 12 months, even as some customers are unsure that existing technologies can solve their security issues.
The study, conducted by email security and management vendor EasyDMARC, found that 62% of the respondents reported customer-driven cybersecurity revenue growth over the past 12 months, which caused 41% of the MSP and MSSP respondents to expand their cybersecurity offerings in response over the same period.
But the survey also shows there are challenges for MSPS and MSSPs in meeting that growth, including that only 54% of customers expressed their confidence in existing security protections and 52% of customers saying they have concerns about the cost of increased security protections.
GreatAmerica Rolls Out M&A Financing for Small MSP Acquisitions
GreatAmerica Financial Services has quietly done a soft launch of a new financing service for MSPs – M&A financing – and rolled the service out at IT Nation Connect.
GreatAmerica has been a fixture in the channel market since the 1990s, offering many types of financing for channel partners especially solution providers. Programs include the traditional inventory and hardware financing and the more recent as-a-service programs and usage-based billing.
M&A financing is a new business for the Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based company, aimed at a specific segment of the MSP market – MSPs that want to buy other MSPs. These deal sizes tend to be smaller than private equity-backed deals and that can make things challenging when it comes to securing financial backing for these deals.
AppDirect Acquires vCom Solutions to Create a ‘More Valuable Tech Tool’ for MSPs
B2B subscription commerce platform vendor AppDirect is expanding its services to MSPs and customers by acquiring vCom Solutions, an IT lifecycle management software and managed services company.
The deal will bring together AppDirect customers and partner advisors with vCom’s AI-powered vManager suite of managed services for IT spending, and with vCom’s QuantumShift Buyers’ Club, according to the announcement.
“Post-acquisition, the vCom platform will be integrated with the AppDirect procurement management platform so that advisors and their end customers will have one single destination to manage all of their cloud, telecommunications, and mobility services,” Andy Ellerhorst, VP of operations and chief of staff at AppDirect, told ChannelE2E. “With benefits such as single sign-on, consolidated spend, and data management across both platforms, AppDirect, augmented with vCom’s TEM (telecom expense management) platform, becomes a more valuable tech tool in managing their daily business operations.”
ITS’s Unique M&A Strategy: Empathy and Integration in the MSP Landscape
ChannelE2E's ongoing series examines how these platform MSPs shape the industry through strategic acquisitions. Companies like The 20 MSP, Ntiva, and Brightworks IT have adopted various integration models, from fully rebranding acquired entities to allowing them to maintain their original identities under a unified brand umbrella.
In a sector where ownership and integration strategies are rapidly evolving, Intelligent Technical Solutions (ITS) offers an approach that emphasizes empathy, cultural alignment, and a thoughtful integration process, according to the company’s head of M&A.
At the heart of ITS's M&A strategy is Adam Kerrigan, who brings a deeply personal perspective to the process. Having founded his own MSP, which he sold to ITS in 2018, Kerrigan experienced firsthand the transformative impact of M&A on both professional and personal levels.
