ConnectWise unveils expanded partner program, new products at IT Nation

ConnectWise has announced a new access management product and the expansion of its partner program at its IT Nation Connect event last week in Orlando, Florida.

New tools for technology service providers (TSPs) were announced during the conference, including features that assist with automation and streamline business management.

The company introduced ConnectWise Access Management, a product of the recently announced ConnectWise Labs, which is a privileged access management solution providing credential-less, temporary administrative logon accounts and credential-less approval and denial of end user elevation requests.

Existing ConnectWise Control, Automate, Command and RMM partners will receive access to a free trial of ConnectWise Access Management from 16 December. The vendor is promising reduced ticket volumes, enhanced security, improved customer experience and the chance to redeploy resources to generate additional revenue.

ConnectWise also added a free business continuity and disaster recovery program to its partner program, aiming to help TSPs build, launch, and grow a successful cyber practice. The company said the program has 2000 enrolled members, saying they are growing their cyber businesses four times faster than other ConnectWise partners.

ConnectWise also introduced two new teams to serve partners with a combination of deep strategy and rapid innovation. Its Product Security Response Team will bring a security mindset to all phases of product and engineering development, ensuring cybersecurity is considered in all ConnectWise products from planning to design to execution. ConnectWise have also created a new special operations unit, ConnectWise Labs, which was designed to analyse data, and predict and build solutions for TSPs with ConnectWise Access Management. This team will focus on incubating and testing new ideas alongside existing innovation roadmaps.

ConnectWise also announced a new alliance with global distie partner Arrow Electronics to simplify the digital supply chain, drive innovation and improve profitability for TSPs.

Under the first initiative of this alliance, ConnectWise partners will gain access to an integrated experience within the platform to simplify searching and quoting, procurement, subscription management and client billing through Arrow. ConnectWise said the partnership would eliminate several manual and time-consuming tasks, while also giving TSPs access to a greater range of products and vendors.

In partnership with CompTIA, ConnectWise shared the launch of career training initiative Ticket to Tech. This program will link ConnectWise partners tech learners seeking employment.

“In order to future-proof the TSP channel as they navigate the infinite edge of computing, ConnectWise is moving towards more rapid innovation with the Asio platform as our centralised data layer that can scale with predictive and consultative AI,” ConnectWise chief executive Jason Magee said.

“The partnerships and improvements we’ve announced today are examples of the breadth of services we can bring together in a way that is meaningful for partners, powerful in its extensibility, and rooted in secure development principles.”

ConnectWise have also expanded its cybersecurity portfolio, and in some cases have teamed up with other providers to offer increased capabilities.

This includes ConnectWise Vulnerability Management which automates routine scanning of an environment for vulnerabilities, reducing potential cyber risk by increasing protection in these areas. The cybersecurity portfolio also includes SASE by ConnectWise and Exium which offers endpoint protection from malware and data leaks with several technologies that partners would usually have to purchase individually. IAM by ConnectWise and Evo extends protection for MSP-centric multi-factor authentication, single sign-on and increased defence against internal employees.