Cisco Systems and ConnectWise executives moments ago shared deeper details about their managed IT services partnership here at Cisco Partner Summit 2017. Cisco Channel Chief Wendy Bahr teased the partnership during her keynote this morning. Now, executives from both companies are filling in the deeper details.
The effort involves ConnectWise Unite with Cisco, a new cloud platform that is "designed to allow Cisco partners that are developing or expanding a managed service practice to create a unique offering that combines networking, security, and collaboration services -- spanning Cisco Meraki, Spark, Umbrella and Stealthwatch Cloud," the companies say.
With those opportunities in mind, ConnectWise Unite with Cisco is a single management portal that helps partners to manage, monitor and bill customers, notes Cisco Senior Director John Graham. The dashboard is a standalone tool that does not require ConnectWise's other products, CEO Arnie Bellini told ChannelE2E.
Traditional MSPs have often focused on endpoint management. But this relationship allows MSPs to monetize collaboration, security, and additional points of entry, Bellini asserts. The offering gives Cisco partners a single doorway into managed services and/or a deeper play into that market. The effort could also pave the way for hardware-driven recurring revenues, the companies say.
The cost is $10 per company per month. So if an MSP manages five companies via ConnectWise Unite with Cisco, the total cost would be $50 per month for the MSP.
In some ways, the new dashboard sounds like a customized flavor of the existing ConnectWise CloudConsole, but ChannelE2E doesn't know that for sure. CloudConsole helps partners to manage Office 365 and Azure, with Amazon Web Services support also under development (I think; we'll be double checking on the AWS piece).
ConnectWise Unite with Cisco: Getting Started
ConnectWise is offering a free trial of ConnectWise Unite with Cisco now through January 1, 2018. It's available immediately in North America, Western and Northern Europe. A global rollout is planned over the next 12 months, the company said.
Early adopters include Liberty Technology CEO Ben Johnson and Dustin Group VP Jens Haviken.
Stay tuned for video interviews with each of the key players later today.
