Efficiency and profitability: how Pax8 is empowering MSPs in 2024

Starting out from a team of one to generating 169 new job opportunities Asia Pacific (APAC)-wide, Pax8 has quickly disrupted the distribution landscape, creating inroads with several Australian and New Zealand (A/NZ) managed service providers (MSP) along the way to help them tap into new market opportunities in cyber security.

Since Pax8 burst into the A/NZ scene in April 2022, it has made a couple of acquisitions in Sea Level Operations and Umbrellar, further boosting its prowess and strength in the market. 

Julia Talevski recently sat down with Pax8’s first APAC CEO, Chris Sharp to discuss its ambitions, what's next on the agenda and opportunities for MSPs.

Since Pax8 officially launched in the A/NZ market, what have been some of the biggest achievements so far?

Pax8 burst into the A/NZ market in April 2022 and continued to see tremendous growth in 2023 as we work to help partners across the Australia and New Zealand channel embrace opportunities within cloud - private, hybrid, partner hosted or public cloud.

In a mere 18 months, we've scaled from a team of one to generating 169 new job opportunities APAC-wide. 

In Australia and New Zealand, our acquisitions of Sea Level Operations and Umbrellar Cloud were fundamental in how we established footprint in the region, as well as expanded service offerings, such as on-demand learning, instructor-led courses, peer groups and one-on-one coaching.

The results speak for themselves with more than 85 per cent of partners who have participated in one of the courses subsequently increasing their revenue.

More recently, we appointed Danni Munro as Australia country manager and Donna Benjamin as APAC chief people officer, both based in Australia.

It's appointments of their calibre, alongside new agreements with major vendors such as CrowdStrike and Perimeter 81, which have created inroads with several A/NZ MSPs. 

For example, our strategic partnership with GCIT offered the Gold Coast-based MSP the resources of the Pax8 Academy, which saw it lower cyber security insurance premiums by nearly 50 per cent, a whopping saving for itself and its clients. 

What makes Pax8 different from other distribution models in the market?

Rather than be seen as intermediaries, we take a unique approach to the market. 

Pax8 is defined as a cloud commerce marketplace, which elevates us out of the traditional distribution model and empowers partners to capitalise on the growth of cloud services without incurring the costs, complexities and uncertainties often associated.

We do this through consolidated billing, automated provisioning, industry-leading PSA integrations and dedicated support; this is a big one.

Regardless of account size or revenue, every partner Pax8 works with receives the same high-quality and dedicated support, which encompasses expertise on matters of productivity, infrastructure, security, continuity and networking/communications.

What we do differently is ensure MSPs spend less time and money on provisioning cloud services so they can devote their resources to providing more value to end-user clients. As an example, one partner reduced their monthly invoicing period from three days to just three hours after implementing the Pax8 platform.

Ultimately, our business model is set up to drive efficiency and profitability, but also give the smaller guys a fair go - they too need access to the advanced technologies built for the big end of town, spanning cyber security, infrastructure and Microsoft solutions.

Historically, there's been a lack of focus on the SMB [small to medium business] market across A/NZ, making it challenging for them to access the same enterprise-grade technology and support as larger companies.

We see our ability to give MSPs access to advanced cloud technology previously only available to enterprise-size companies as the impetus to our local success so far. And our efforts to make a difference in this space won't slow, particularly under the hot lamp of building the nation's collective cyber defences.

How do you think a distribution model like Pax8’s has impacted the A/NZ landscape and the wider view of the role of distribution?

The MSP model looks very different now compared with the traditional model of only a few years ago. 

The pace of technological change and its utmost relevance is one thing, but the economic landscape and potential for a recession is now also top of mind for channel partners and their customers, which means finding efficiencies for their operations and their customers are crucial.

Pax8 stepped into the market as a 'community mentality' unfolded in A/NZ. 

We've seen the role of distributor evolve from a state of convenience or 'nice to have', to a protagonist in how MSPs and their customers navigate supply chains, technical talent shortages and cost of doing business.

Because the channel ecosystem understands business cannot happen in isolation, and rather it takes a village, we've been successful in our position to address the challenges faced by partners in procurement and management of cloud services and intertwine unique partner enablement services that bridge gaps in the market.

What are some of the key areas that partners are seeking to get out of a distributor and how is Pax8 fulfilling this?

MSPs want to expand their business, while saving time and money and implementing best practices without having to re-invent the wheel. Their challenge, however, is most often sourcing skilled talent.

Distributors are uniquely placed to assess the state of skills in market and help partners take advantage of targeted education opportunities. In essence, they drive education and enablement that helps organisations learn how to better solve business and technology challenges.

For example, we worked with New Zealand partner NTT to help train, upskill and educate a tertiary education client, so the team there were well positioned to manage and maintain their cloud environment to best practice standards moving forward.

By upskilling the customer's team, NTT and Pax8 together enabled them to manage their platforms independently and continue expanding cloud capabilities with their applications now migrated into Azure.

What are some of your plans for Pax8 in the year ahead?

When an SMB organisation experiences a cyber-attack, the Australian Signals Directorate reports average financial losses of $46,000 to small businesses and $97,200 to medium businesses. This is crippling. If we're to see the local florist, corner store, or grassroots neighbourhood start-up not only survive but flourish in the digital economy, industry needs to better work with the government to give the 'little guys' a fighting chance.

At Pax8 APAC, we are uniquely positioned to support the SMB segment across both Australia and New Zealand and contribute to the building of national cyber defences. To achieve this, we will spend the year ahead laser-focused on conversing with the right people at both a government and on-the-ground economic-level to polish the cyber security message and lift education and enablement.

Other focus areas will include growing our technical services teams to better cater for our partners as they expand and address new markets both geographically and vertically. 

We will also continue to invest in our partner enablement teams under the Pax8 Academy, which will deliver even more content on how our partners can drive success for themselves and their customers.

Are there any particular areas of the market that you’ll be ramping up in?

In the year ahead, we expect to see Australia and New Zealand's action around cyber security go from a collection of solo performances to an intricate ballet with every corner of the economy playing a role. 

Pax8 APAC's access to a large cross section of this very economy is an undeniable opportunity to take a director role and make sure SMBs - historically on the sidelines - not only know how but indeed why they should get involved to collectively raise their nation's cyber defences.

In Australia, the Albanese government's swathe of cyber security support measures announced in its 2023-2030 strategy are a valiant effort at finding a way to ensure our small businesses become more secure. But the advice to the market needs to be polished.

The APAC business is dedicated to expanding its Pax8 Academy reach and equipping the more than 11,000 MSPs across Australia and New Zealand with the necessary tools and knowledge to improve both theirs and their clients' cyber posture. 

This will be a huge focus for us in 2024, because ultimately, MSPs will be the driving force to educate the right people across an extremely diverse SMB landscape.