‘What’s important is that the product keeps progressing faster. In the past few years, things haven’t moved as quickly as their competitors, so I’m hoping that these changes will help speed things up,’ says Dustin Bolander, founder, partner and CIO of Clear Guidance Partners.
Raghu Bongula, CTO; Jake Varghese, executive vice president and general manager; Ameer Karim, executive vice president and general manager, cybersecurity and data protection; and Rafael Marty, executive vice president and general manager, cybersecurity, left the company Monday, the spokesperson confirmed to CRN.
“With a focus on unifying how ConnectWise prioritizes, builds and delivers solutions across PSA, RMM, cybersecurity and data protection, David Raissipour, chief product and technology officer, continues to drive the next phase of platform innovation,” the spokesperson said. “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.”
ConnectWise’s Asio platform is a cloud-based solution that consolidates essential business functions such as monitoring, automation and reporting into a unified interface. The platform offers MSPs a comprehensive, scalable and secure solution to manage their operations more effectively, driving growth and profitability for their business.
The leadership transitions are seen as a pivotal moment in ConnectWise’s push to evolve its platform and position itself for the next phase of technological advancements and amid an ongoing effort to modernize its infrastructure and ensure the platform’s competitiveness in a rapidly changing market. They also come less than six months after CEO Jason Magee departed and Manny Rivelo took the helm.
Dustin Bolander, founder, partner and CIO of Austin, Texas-based ConnectWise partner Clear Guidance Partners, said the leadership transition is “a loss of key personnel,” particularly Marty.
“Raffi was really good,” Bolander told CRN. “He was one of the guys that could speak not just broadly on strategy, but also at a very detailed level. I think that’s a loss for the company that he’s not there anymore.”
While Bolander acknowledged the challenges that the company faces, he emphasized the importance of faster development on the Asio platform.
“I think they need to get it up to feature parity with everything else faster,” he said. “It’s frustrating from the partner side because we’ve been hearing about these changes for a while, but we’re still using the legacy platforms because Asio isn’t feature-equivalent yet.”
But what’s key is that the technology moves forward, he said.
“What’s important is that the product keeps progressing faster,” Bolander said. “In the past few years, things haven’t moved as quickly as their competitors, so I’m hoping that these changes will help speed things up.”
Brian Ruschman, president of Covington, Ky.-based C-Forward, a ConnectWise partner of 14 years, said the biggest concern is how leadership changes might impact day-to-day operations, especially within the Asio platform.
“Partners will look at these big replacements and hope that new faces fill those shoes quickly,” Ruschman told CRN. “This is something we’re keeping a close eye on.”
He said partners are hoping for “swift action and a seamless evolution” of the platform all while addressing partner concerns.
“The user interface is crucial for us,” he said. “We don’t want major changes that require a lot of training, especially for our 25 technicians. If changes create disruptions or require extensive retraining, it could be a significant inconvenience.
“We just need it to evolve without missing a beat,” he added. “We’re hopeful, but only time will tell.”
Jason Slagle, president of Toledo, Ohio-based MSP CNWR, echoed Bolander and Ruschman’s sentiments over what the changes mean for the company’s ability to deliver results.
“I’m excited for the possibility of future changes, but I’m also a little bit worried about what ramping up a new leadership team means to the pace of play and their ability to deliver on anything to the partners in the near term,” said Slagle.
One of Slagle’s biggest concerns is the direction of product development and Asio’s integration into the company’s existing suite of tools. He believes the company needs to modernize to “stay relevant” in the market and is looking forward to the possibilities of the products working better together, “But again, the proof will be in seeing it actually delivered,” he said.
“I need the core tool suite that they sell to be a cohesive platform instead of a bucket of parts loosely bolted together,” Slagle added.
