Managed Service Providers and Internal IT Teams – Raghu Bongula, ConnectWise

This is Textron TV. Hey guys. Thanks for the throw.

We're here with Raghu Bongula. Who's the newly appointed CTO for connect wise and we're going to be talking about the relationship between internal it organizations and managed service providers connect wise kind of serves them both and kind of almost acts as a diplomatic intermediary in many ways. Very good.

Welcome to the show. Thank you, Mike. Thank you for having me.

For a long time there was a lot of tension between internal it teams and external IT services writers and managed service providers and as the world gets more complex and we see more security challenges. Is that relationship finally starting to change maybe for the better? After that, I would say I think it's never one size fits.

All Mike. I think there are always organizations which are more technically Savvy who can do it all themself it as their organizations which need some external well be as a connectwise instead of dictating one way or other we provide tools for everyone and so that they can pick the tools and solution which help them as a company. Okay, and as a minister this provider so they can succeed.

To help their customers and their clients which in terms helps crank device. Okay, so we have not been we have always tried to maintain our open ecosystem where you know, there are tools provided by us in some cases. There are tools provided by some of our partners, you know, so we provide open ecosystem so that everyone can play a fair game and provide the most value for the for the small businesses.

Are you seeing more organizations rely entirely on external IT services providers or is it still a mix of both? I mean historically I think maybe 20% of it was consumed through an external service. Is that starting to change as well?

So my observations will Potter has been it is it is increasing it is increasing. But again, it also depends upon the economic Trends depends upon what kind of firms they are. What kind of small business they are.

But all in all we do believe that it kind of cries that it's Gonna Keep increasing over the next many years and that's gonna help connect wise a lot for us to kind of bring in solutions to solve the problems for the small businesses. Do you think that as it goes along things are getting a little more complex and every reached a point where it's just not possible for a smaller organization to kind of keep Pace with what's required and the level of security the rate of change is that all conspiring, you know, is that all conspiring to you know, push people to rely more on a third party provider? I think they're already there.

To be honest with you at this point. There's not a one small business who can do it all by themselves, even though how technology is Savage they are so there are definitely tools which they need to rely on, you know on third party providers like especially like as you mentioned security for example, security gets complex and complex, you know over the you know over the years and they're always new security threats. There are always new ways of security risk to keep up with that.

I think they always have to rely on third-party service providers now, even when they're 11 third party service providers, it's all like the way I look at it is like Lego pieces like you can really your own Lego pieces all the way from scratch or you can you can buy a pre-built, you know a toy which is which you can directly deploy it and use it. So it all depends upon the majority of organization, but all in all I don't think there's a single small business now, which can do all by their self anymore. I think we're already there.

Get further complex now, but the approach the solution in definitely there are many ways to kind of how you solution the problem. I think that's where we come in. We provide open ecosystem for everyone to participate and provide the small business.

What makes sense for them as a as a company. It also seems that the skill shortage out. There is a perennial issue.

I don't think we're ever going to get to the point where we have enough people with the right set of skills. So is this also something of a labor Arbitrage game now where we need to figure out a way to what is the most efficient use of it skills? And how do we kind of distribute that across a large base of organizations?

Absolutely see an employment rate in it always has been bottle in some cases. It also called negative because when you hardly cannot find enough enough software or it folks through the jobs. So automation always has been the key.

I think it's gonna further increase over the years because you want things fast and faster and better. So for the reason I think always they'll be demand for Solutions which provide automation that's when I think we come in so skills shortage always has been a challenge. It has further increase after the covid slow downs and covid lockdowns, but it was always been a problem.

It has just we have seen that challenge increase much more in 2021 and 22 and I believe and we as a company believe that that's gonna keep occurring as as more and more solutions become mature and make sure To what degrees is security also further exacerbating that equation because it seems like you know, we have a huge shortage in the cybersecurity space and yeah bad guys are adding more capabilities. So is this equation also pushing us towards a different way of thinking about how we consume it. Automatic activities money.

Yeah where this has been a constant Innovation and at the same time conscient threats there's evolving every day. So you need to focused effort for cyber security. So you need teams who are just day in Day Out Figuring out what's coming out there and how to kind of solve them.

So I don't think any company of any size today can do it all by themselves a cyber security. They have to land third party providers. They have to rely on ecosystem providers who can solve that and security is also a layered problem.

There's multiple multiple layers of threats every from Network to storage to application to the user machines. So they're different layers of security challenges to and it's there's no one's security solution provided results all so it's always has been combination of there are experts in each of this layers. So I think it's all about like figuring out what those are and assembling them security.

I don't think all it we are already there. I don't think can be, you know can be first things all completely internally or can we solve with one poor? Right?

Okay. So you definitely have to we can ecosystem which multiple providers can play into solve differently. Yes.

I think if you if you have had an opportunity to come to it Nation connect or watch the videos. I think you will see that our GM Rafi has gone through gone through kind of different here. It's almost did a matrix.

What are the different layers of security? Where are the challenges and how we can help to solve each of those layers. So I would say I think we are already there and security is much more complicated than it was like couple of years ago and it's gonna get further complicated just because of the various ways.

How users are using the devices how the systems are access providing more threat vectors and we need a productive stance for any company. And and I think one of the big things have seen is VR Security First company, we have a general manager completely focused on security. We also have Cecil, you know, who's 100% job is just focus on security trying to kind of put both our internal systems and also the systems each other which we are providing to our customers and partners.

So pretty much all engineering teams are Security First mindsets or not. Definitely that is needed to kind of build the Productions build the security shifting left as much as possible. The shift left strategy is very important so that you try to protect as much as possible proactively but even things to ask they slip for any reason you also have a reactive strategy where you can come back quickly and identify that and address it.

Right. So definitely both are needed both proactive and reactive control sub needed for security and you need a solid solutions for each of the layers. I think at connectwise with our own internal Solutions Plus.

Also what we are partnering and what the partitions you have around that, you know itination connect. I think we'll be able to solve pretty much all the vectors of the threats. What do you think is the biggest challenge that managed service providers face today?

And what is it maybe that their customers don't really appreciate about those challenges that kind of needs to be better understood by all concerned. Yeah, I think differently. I think it's all about efficiency.

I think what In my opinion what small business care about his efficiency and how well as managed services provider can provide the efficiencies. Okay, whether through an Automation and in many cases, I think I would say I think there are a lot of things management is provide us do which small businesses are not even aware because they happen behind the scenes and they're always they're always work. Let me put that so those are some things I think you know, which which might not be appreciated in some cases.

But but that aside that aside I think you know, I would say I think if minus Services providers keep providing the value keep providing the value, I think they're gonna be noticed when we are the other we're gonna be what is all the time because that's amount of work which a small business is not having to focus or you know, that's those are the parts of the equation which they don't have to worry about because that always works I think so that that's gonna be the key and to get to the efficiency. I think automation is gonna be be the key automation workflows are gonna be the key. So, how can you kind of automate or there are peace of what you Small business never have to think about I think if they solved from the customer perspective if they think about from a customer, what is that?

They're doing today, which they don't because they don't have to I think if manager service is provide a start thinking that way how are including you know, as that's what we think about what do we do today? So that you know, our customers are managed service providers. They don't have to do that anymore.

So that kind of yield stress Solutions, which I think it becomes lesser and lesser challenge for the small business to manage their it. As you think that through of course everybody wants a good deal. But you think there's too much pressure on pricing and a lot of times the End customer doesn't really understand that.

You know what the trade-off is for something that they perceive to be a really good deal, but then they may realize with that they have some sort of substandard level of service. So do we need a better conversation about pricing in general? I mean, I didn't even pressing always in any industry has been a challenge always, you know you I mean always customers want, you know, the cheapest possible price so that always take an increase in margins now, I think yet trying to wise.

I think we have been super focused on predicting the value and not a silly thinking about, you know, trying to kind of be the cheapest or trying to kind of get it done, you know get it done if the lowest price we have been focus on saying that what can we do? Which adds value to the business small business? Okay.

What can we do so that I think we can provide more and more options. We look at their workflow. We look at this user Journeys and say okay.

These are the 10 things a customer does today. What can we do to kind of register to five? What can you do we reduce it to three.

So what we've eventually feel is this add value addition is going to be is going more important than actually what price they are paying because end of the user experience and the customer experience in a partner experience what they get is going to definitely when in the long term It almost seems also that we reinvent the same wheel over and over again, and maybe we don't have a good sense of what's differentiated value versus what's a commodity it service and there's just certain things that are better consumed as a service delivered by somebody else whether I'm the MSP or the End customer or not. So do we need to have a better understanding of exactly what it is that we need to focus on as the customer versus something that is just delivered as a commodity by somebody like you guys. Yeah, I think that always happens in so me being in the software industry for 20 years.

I've seen this journey where when there are new problems occur or when there are new Solutions which are not as mature. There's a lot of free invention like everyone rather price reinvent including customers including service providers in product management service providers, everyone tries reinvent as a maturity improves. It becomes a table stakes and it becomes a table Stakes it becomes a commodity at that point at that point.

What would happen is now it reaches inflection point it makes it cheaper to cheaper and efficient to actually go and use the third party service provider to do that income doing it ourself, but when things are in, you know early stages, there's always a question of what makes the most sense. That's where you see a lot of lot of Wheels spinning on like everyone trying to solve the same problem. So that occurs but what I feel is you know in this industry also as Solutions become more and more make sure you know across the board like we have already seen with RM and you know things all that software they become rich you I think most of them parties to kind of solve the problem instead of following it by themselves themselves.

So once your best advice to folks what kind of after all these years makes you shake your head and go geez, I can't believe that we're still having this conversation. And what is it you wish that you know, everybody would just kind of wake up and move Beyond. Yeah, I think so to me.

I think software like computer has been extremely extremely mature take advantage of the tools, you know, as you said don't reinvent the will. Get the components get the Lego pieces and put them together. Don't try to build a Lego pieces by yourself because a lot of Lego pieces available, okay and pick an ecosystem, which is open like, you know connect wise equal system like with where we are going with our issue platform.

So that way you can can come up with a combination which works best for you. So that's what we would say. That's that's no different than what AWS has done for the cloud or AWS or as you or you know, Google have done for the you know Cloud that's similar thing.

I think you know Asia is trying to do that for the you know, speed space. So that's that's my advice pick any open ecosystem. Don't build the Legos.

Assamesa Legos, which makes more sense for you? All right, folks, you heard it here don't reinvent the same wheel over and over again. If you want to get the most that it do something unique with it because somebody else can probably do all the other bits better than you can hey Rango.

Thanks for being on the show. Thank you. Thank you Mike.

Thank you for having me. All right back to you guys in the studio.