AvePoint wants partners at ‘the top of the tree’ to sprout UK growth

Chris Shaw digs into why he wants the industry to know AvePoint’s roots stem from more than just backup technology

AvePoint seeks to branch out with its UK channel partners and change the perception that it is only a backup vendor.

That is according to Chris Shaw, AvePoint’s country channel manager for UKI & SA, who speaks with CRN about his top priorities almost one year into the role.

“My priority for the next 12 months is fully driving a greater channel engagement,” Shaw says.

“We’re a channel company already, and we're doing a huge amount in the channel with a significant number of partners, both in resale and MSP terms.

“But what we need to do is change a couple of perceptions, and that's my big area of focus.”

Shaw explains AvePoint has established a name for itself in the backup space, but emphasises it is more than just a backup vendor for Microsoft 365 data.

“Backup is more than half of our business. So, it’s still a cornerstone of our business in the UK.

“But when Microsoft, for example, is driving so much Copilot messaging, the areas that we're seeing the biggest level of growth in are technologies that enable access control, like data migration technology.”

‘We need to go for the big fish’

He adds that finding partners who have “sporadic engagement” with AvePoint and growing that relationship is another focus for him.

“AvePoint is multifaceted and our channel fits loosely into two pods,” Shaw explains.

There’s the vendor’s resell business, which is around traditional deal registration reselling to the end user, and there’s selling to distributors who sell to the MSPs.

“Our strategy is very much driving both of those metrics.

“The resale is fundamentally net new business, and the MSP business is about maintaining what we currently have and expanding at the same time.

“So, our strategy is to enable more MSPs to do more, find more MSPs to work with, and deliver a high level of service and to get multi technology conversations.

“Ideally, I want to have all of our MSPs on more than one or two technologies. I want all of the resellers that we work with to be more aware of how we identify more customers and have more conversations than just backup. And it's also targeting the right end users collaboratively with those partners.”

AvePoint currently works with around 50 resellers who are signed up to its partner programme. But Shaw wants more.

“We do want more partners. We do want more MSPs. We're not closing the books at all.

“We need to target who we look for, and we are currently looking to try and get to the top of the tree, rather than middle and bottom.

“We need to go for the big fish who might just be dabbling with us today and need a reason to talk to us more.”

Shedding its backup vendor skin

Shaw has been planting the seeds to change AvePoint’s reputation as solely a backup vendor since his promotion from UK channel manager last December.

“Backup is both a blessing and a curse in disguise. Backup is the red button for a lot of vendors.

“It’s easy to get pigeonholed into that backup vendor category, and our biggest challenge is breaking out of that and making sure people know we do other things.

“If you've got an end user that goes to an MSP or reseller for a backup license for data, talking to a more traditional backup vendor means you can only have a backup conversation. All you can do is sell them a backup license.”

But if you sell them AvePoint, he continues, you can sell a backup license immediately, and then talk about migrating data and data resilience, risk mitigation, and storage optimisation.

“So, my challenge firstly is making sure that message resonates and we get the right tone, the right content to make sure that we do that.

“And secondly is to make sure we're targeting the right people with the resources that we have, whether that's an MSP, end user or a reseller.”