N-able nets ten Aussie resellers

In an exclusive interview with CRN, N-Able’s regional sales director Australian New Zealand, Derek Poitras, said the vendor actively started searching for Australian resellers in March and has been looking for channel partners with clients interested in products with a low-entry point.

“N-able made the decision to lower the entry points to its products because businesses are being forced to do more with less - staff, budget and time. The Australian market is very much like Canada’s and that is where we started off with a lower entry point and the business has grown from there,” he said.

According to Poitras, the channel partners signed on by N-able vary in size and service offerings. “We have a small company like Clockwork IT, based in Port Macquarie. Then we have OPC IT out in Canberra, Re-IT in Victoria and in Sydney – IT Easy; and in Queensland Scope Logic. That basically hits all of the states,” he said.

Poitras claimed the vendor was proactively looking for more resellers and May should prove to be a good month for working with new partners. “In the past we have mentioned 40 partners in the New Year, we may add more than that,” he said.

He told CRN resellers can expect margins of 75 percent from N-able’s partner-based fixed fee model. “Typical business valuations require servicing two to three times and that generates a recurring revenue stream. It makes it a nice business model and a lot of partners generate operating income of 20-plus percent, in some case some resellers are generating 40 percent,” said Poitras.

Richard Steele, managing director of Clockwork IT Systems, told CRN one of the main opportunities the service provider identified is the ability to “lock in” its clients by offering them value-based services rather than its existing time and materials billing model.

“The value to us apart from what other MSP software provider’s offer is the partnership. The close working arrangement & support we find invaluable and we were impressed with the tech tools and marketing material N-able offer,” he said.

According to Steele, the service provider has approached vertical markets like accountants, medical firms and Para-professionals. “We’ve also negotiated a deal with an ISP that has offices abroad as well as here in Australia,” he said.