IT Glue has acquired TruMethods, the MSP consulting and peer group organization founded by managed services pioneer Gary Pica.
In conjunction with that deal, which was announced on day one of the Kaseya unit’s online GlueX partner conference today, IT Glue announced an expanded integration between its managed services documentation platform and myITprocess, a TruMethods solution designed to help MSPs create and operate virtual CIO (vCIO) practices.
While an earlier connection with IT Glue allowed myITprocess users to import selected information about end users from their documentation records, the new integration automatically pulls in all of the data required to assess a vCIO customer’s alignment with an MSP’s recommended technical standards.
“The vCIO technician doesn’t have to go and spend hours and hours gathering all this information,” observes Nadir Merchant, CTO and general manager of IT Glue.
Linking IT Glue and myITprocess that tightly would not have been possible without owning TruMethods and its source code, according to Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola. “You can do integrations, but if you own both sides of the transaction you can make it one product,” he says.
Over time, he adds, interface updates and other changes to myITprocess will further erase the lines between that system and IT Glue. Future updates will also enable the combined products to do more than share information.
“The long-term vision of this is to build an end-to-end workflow that allows the vCIO to not only do the strategic alignment, but then also produce the reports, save them into IT Glue, and also execute the sales and fulfillment side of that” through Kaseya’s PSA and other managed services business tools, Merchant says.
According to Voccola, virtual CIO services are increasingly emerging as a differentiator among MSPs. “The ones that have been able to offer a vCIO type of service are exponentially more successful than those who don’t,” he says, estimating that perhaps one in 30 MSPs has such an offering at present. “Not a lot are doing it yet. We think they all should be and will be, and we think it’s a great market for us to be in and for us to deliver to the Kaseya MSPs, and teach them what vCIO’s all about, why SMBs need it, and why they can monetize.”
According to Pica, myITprocess users will remain free to run the product alongside any third-party solutions they wish, and will continue to receive support from the same TruMethods engineers at the same rates as before. “Their pricing won’t change,” he says. “They’ll just be the beneficiary of better and faster and more enhanced product improvements as we move forward.”
Also unaffected by the acquisition are the more than 170 current members of Pica’s TruPeer peer group organization. “I will continue to run that in my team as an independent unit,” Pica says, adding that members will not be required to use Kaseya products. Having access to Kaseya’s marketing budget, however, will enable him to grow TruPeer faster than would otherwise be possible.
“It’s going to help me expand that to reach more MSPs,” Pica says.
Owning TruMethods, as opposed to simply partnering with it, will provide more than just integration benefits to Kaseya, according to Voccola. For one, he says, Pica will be an invaluable source of front-line insights on what MSPs want and need during leadership meetings.
“He knows the MSP space incredibly well,” said Voccola this morning during a GlueX keynote.
In addition, Pica shares Kaseya’s strategic vision that managed service providers will gradually become business service providers in the years ahead.
“You’re going to see MSPs doing things like payroll, MSPs doing things like payments, MSPs doing things like marketing automation,” Voccola says. “That’s a transformation that’s going to happen over the next seven, eight years. Gary’s a year to 18 months ahead of that curve. That knowledge base and the ability to build that knowledge into products is super important.”
For Voccola and Pica, today’s announcement is the latest step in a relationship that extends back to 2015, when Voccola became Kaseya’s CEO and Pica volunteered to be a mentor on the MSP landscape. More recently, Pica contributed some 5,000 hours of time, at cost, to the Kaseya Cares emergency response program for partners impacted by COVID-19.
“It just seemed like a really natural next step,” Pica observes, and one that will pay rich dividends to myITprocess users.
“I’m excited that myITprocess has a roadmap that it could never have without the integrations to IT Glue,” Pica says. “It’s just literally going to change completely the value that we’re going to be able to drive.”
