ConnectWise this week announced several leadership departures, including CTO Raghu Bongula; Jake Varghese, executive vice president and GM; Ameer Karim, executive vice president and GM, cybersecurity and data protection; and Rafael Marty, SVP of product management. In addition, Gregg Lalle, SVP and GM, IT Nation, announced his departure via LinkedIn last week.
ConnectWise issued this statement to MSP Success:
“ConnectWise today announced leadership transitions within its Product and Engineering teams to accelerate innovation on Asio, the first purpose-built platform for MSPs. With a focus on unifying how ConnectWise prioritizes, builds, and delivers solutions across PSA, RMM, cybersecurity, and data protection, David Raissipour, Chief Product & Technology Officer, continues to drive the next phase of platform innovation. As part of this evolution, Jeff Bishop has been promoted to EVP of Product Management, taking on an expanded role in leading product strategy and execution for PSA and RMM. Raghu Bongula, Jake Varghese, Ameer Karim, and Rafael Marty have chosen to depart ConnectWise to pursue new opportunities. We thank them for their dedication and contributions to ConnectWise and wish them well in their future endeavors.”
Raissipour joined ConnectWise in November of last year. Bishop joined ConnectWise in 2015 with the acquisition of ScreenConnect, and most recently served as chief product officer.
MSP Success has reached out to ConnectWise for further comment.
ConnectWise Leadership Shakeup Started with Last Year’s CEO Replacement
These recent executive changes come on the heels of last September’s appointment of Manny Rivelo (pictured above, at IT Nation Connect) to replace CEO Jason Magee. (Magee just took the helm at cybersecurity company Cynet at the beginning of the month.)
In addition, in 3Q of last year, ConnectWise lost its No. 1 spot in the RMM/PSA market for the first time to Kaseya, according to data from Canalys.
Meanwhile, ConnectWise’s Asio platform, introduced in 2021, has been slow to roll out, with some issues along the way. The Asio platform aims to unify all ConnectWise applications inside a modern code base and user experience, with generative AI and robotic process automation (RPA).
At IT Nation Connect in November, ConnectWise announced that its PSA was in preview on the Asio Platform, joining ConnectWise RMM, ConnectWise Security360, and ConnectWise Backup360.
In an interview at IT Nation Connect, ConnectWise’s Jeff Bishop readily admitted that the Asio RMM had some issues early on. “The product had a lot of gaps at the beginning of the year. … We weren’t happy with the level of resiliency that we were seeing there. It seemed a little fragile. Little things were causing it to kind of fall over sometimes. So we spent the last nine months really building out.”
Asked if the Asio platform been taking too long to be fully realized, Robert Cioffi, CTO and co-founder of Progressive Computing, an MSP in Yonkers, New York, says, “In a word: yes. “It’s been far too long. I know software development is not easy but there appears to have been a lack of execution. That needs to change now otherwise this could be the beginning of a fall from being No. 1. And the descent will be unkind.”
He says the leadership changes are not a surprise. “ConnectWise is in the middle of a ‘curve jump.’ What got them to this point isn’t going to get them to the next level. I’m sure Manny has a lot of tough decisions to make but having a fresh leadership team was expected in order to drive the value and innovation customers demand.”
Getting the Right People in the Right Seats
Lawrence Cruciana, president of Corporate Information Technologies, an MSP in Charlotte, North Carolina, adds, “What I can say is that as a ConnectWise partner the organization has been clearly making efforts to remain true to their core tenants and value proposition for some years. Through the conversations with their leadership and information shared at partner conferences like IT Nation, they have been making efforts to put highly experienced and skilled people in the right seats to maximize the chances of both success and excellence.”
He adds, “With that said, the MSP space is a hard market in which to excel. Smaller and more agile companies have entered the space and succeeded selling into the ConnectWise customer base. I think the recent departures signify that to-a-point. The organization lost some excellent talent in the recent reorganization. I’m optimistic that under the new leadership we will see some clarity as to their going forward plans that support the decision.”
Competitive Market Pressure
Both Cioffi and Crucianca see market pressure on the top RMM/PSA players coming from more agile vendors. In the Canalys Q3 market share report, NinjaOne had climbed into the No. 3 spot, moving ahead of N-able, and HaloPSA claimed the No. 5 spot, growing revenue 102%.
“Both companies [ConnectWise and Kaseya] need to seriously worry about Ninja and Halo,” Cioffi says.
Cruciana adds, “Other competitors to ConnectWise have been much more agile in their adoption of more modern software feature sets, responsive architectures, and technologies. They have also met the MSPs where they are rather than requiring the MSP to come to them. That speaks to the flexibility of some of the other platforms. Also, the rapid evolution of security requirements in the market and how those translate to needs at the platform level have largely fallen on deaf, or at least unresponsive, ears in ConnectWise. They have made some tremendous strides in the area of security but not as a whole platform. I do have to give a tip of the hat to the fact that ConnectWise pursued and achieved authorization as a CVE Numbering Authority.”
The MSP Partner Community Will Be Key
Asked if ConnectWise has been forthright with partners in communicating the changes/goals since Rivelo came on board, Cioffi says, “So far, I think so. I’ve had the opportunity to listen to and ask him questions in small group settings. One thing that struck me is his keen awareness of the power of the partner community. I think he sees that as an essential element in righting the ship and for their continued growth.”
Lawrence sayss ConnectWise needs be looking inward “and breaking down the barriers between the myriad of products they’ve purchased over the years. Drive a nearly-impossibly-high cybersecurity culture across those product sets. Maximize the value for partners through the confidence that the platform is secure, and then dominate the market in a way that only a few companies can do, pulling from the decades of experience serving MSPs.”
Ultimately, Cruciana believes ConnectWise will be OK. “Does the organization have some hard work cut out for them?” he asks. “Absolutely.”
