‘Everyone wants to put prices up’: Koncise Solutions CEO addresses NI increase, vendor consolidation and KnowBe4/Egress merger

Ben Konopinski tells CRN the reseller grew double digits last year owing to continued health in cybersecurity budgets

While tight purse strings are a thorn in Koncise Solutions’ side in some places, expanding budgets are showing green shoots of growth in other areas for the channel firm.

That is according to Ben Konopinski, founder and CEO of the reseller, who recently caught up with CRN about how the business is evolving.

Konopinski quickly highlighted Koncise’s “good year” which saw the business increase revenues about 30 per cent last year.

Its financial year ended June 2024.

“We lost some business, but gained more than we lost,” Konopinski tells CRN.

The reseller CEO admits “things are getting tighter”, with Koncise feeling the effects of various macroeconomic factors.

“With the changes to national insurance, the increase is there.

“That has a knock-on effect. Everyone wants to put prices up because of that.

“We can't always push that to our clients. If we did it would give clients more reason to shop around because they're getting pressure from their CFOs as well.

“If we're selling to a 1,000-person company or a 100-user company, they're still going to have the increases that they've got to stomach and are pushing on price increases to their clients and so on and so forth.”

He adds that with the corporation tax increase from the previous government, piled on top of the cost of living crisis, there are mounting pressures which he believes the full effects of are yet to be felt.

“I've certainly thought about, do we make do with the team that we've got, carry on and all try ten per cent harder to equate to another body, rather than employing someone else.”

Healthy vendor business

On a brighter note, Koncise is reaping the rewards of its play in the cybersecurity game, which helped lead the company to double digit growth last year, Konopinski says.

“We’re fortunate that we're in cybersecurity and I think the budgets for that have been increasing with clients, as threats become more visible and more tangible, and the cost of if something happens, what that would be.

“We've chosen some good technologies. We don't always get the vendors that we partner with right, but I think the last 18 months, the vendors we've chosen to partner with have been really positive and hit the ground running.”

He revealed Koncise is in “early days” with Halcyon but is already seeing wins. While the reseller is “doubling down” on its Arctic Wolf partnership.

“Since we partnered with Halcyon, the ransomware threat has really come front and centre.

“This isn't just about selling a solution. This is about telling people there is this issue. This is the effect it can have. This is the cost it could create for the business and the overhead. This could be end of game for businesses, it can put you under.”

The reseller has also benefited from KnowBe4’s well-timed acquisition of cloud email security Egress.

“Egress, we partnered with a few years ago and then last year, they were acquired by KnowBe4. So randomly, completely by coincidence, about a month before they acquired Egress, we partnered with KnowBe4. So suddenly we got some KnowBe4 business and Egress, and it's all come together as one.

“But that’s helping the story. If we sell a company Egress, we ask if they’d like KnowBe4 as it’s now one business, and vice versa. So that's paying dividends.”

Vendor consolidation

Last year Konopinski told CRN managed detection & response was one of Koncise's core solution offerings and main investment area over the next 12 months.

MDR and EDR remain front and centre, but now Konopinski is grappling with businesses wanting to shrink their number of vendor solutions.

“People are looking to reduce costs and complexity and therefore trying to consolidate.

“There is that argument, you don't want all your eggs in one basket. And I think a lot of people were a little bit impacted by the CrowdStrike issue last year.

“However, I think CrowdStrike did a good job of communicating. It's unfortunate, everyone has one of those days once and once in a while. It was a big one, but they got through it, and hopefully they're out the other end.

“So I think consolidating and working out where they can reduce costs and increase the technologies in use is really important.”

The solutions battle

Konopinski acknowledges the competitive IT market sprawling with services and solutions as the number one challenge for the business.

“We can't be a jack of all trades, so we focus on cybersecurity. And we also don't really have competitive vendors. We have a few crossovers with vendors, but we don't have competitors.

“And I think it's just trying to get through the noise, try and be seen, try and be heard. And try and make sure there's some something we do that resonates with our clients to win the new business.

“From speaking to other people in the industry, some of my peers, other resellers like us, some much bigger, new business is hard.

“We’re all fighting for the same piece of business with different solutions. We're all saying it's the best, but ultimately, it's trying to get over that.

“I think if we just keep being honest and keeping ourselves honest, hopefully everyone will see that and support us when the time's right, but the challenges are there.”