Ingram Micro signs first SaaS partner

Ingram Micro Australia has become the first distribution partner in the world for managed serviced provider Kaseya, the pair announced today.

Under the agreement, Ingram Micro's 6000 reseller partners in Australia and New Zealand will have access to Kaseya's SaaS-based IT tools without acquiring and managing the infrastructure required for delivery of managed services.

Gerald Blackie, CEO of Kaseya, told CRN that Australia was chosen as the test bed for its move into distribution because it is a very "sophisticated market".

"Australia has embraced managed services ahead of the rest of the world and it's an ideal environment to launch these types of virtual software distribution arrangements.

"It also speaks to the issue that the folk in Ingram Micro in Australia are very forward thinking," he said.

Blackie said depending on the success of this first agreement he expected the partnership to grow into a global deal with Ingram Micro.

"It's a first for us and it's built off the back of our Kaseya 2 platform. I'd expect if we do well and the partners like the service - where they become more profitable - that we would expect to see the relationship to grow further."

The partnership was also a first for Ingram Micro, with Kaseya becoming the distie's first SaaS vendor. Kaseya's managed services offering falls under Ingram's enterprise technology division, which split from Ingram's traditional volume business last December.

Darren Elsby, group product manager for enterprise technology at Ingram Micro, told CRN that Kaseya is a world leader in the deployment of managed services tools and working with managed services partners out there.

"Definitely Kaseya is our flagship vendor. It's our first vendor in the managed services space and it really is a pure SaaS play as well."

Opportunities

Elsby said the deal gives resellers "new revenue streams" and helps them move away from a break fix environment.

"The investment on the reseller's part is you sign up and start using it, they don't need to buy infrastructure and there's a lot of support from both Ingram and Kaseya in helping them move towards that SaaS," he said.

Elsby said resellers can sign up and initially sample the solution for a 30 day trial. "It's very straight forward to use," he said.

"By signing on and using this web based tool they can really get going straight away. It's a very clean, very easy product to use."

Billing

The Kaseya 2 service through Ingram Micro is charged on a monthly basis at a $1.50 per agent and $9.95 per account which includes administration and set up.

Kaseya would bill resellers for the service and end users receive a bill from the end user customer.