‘Our whole message has been about the future of MSPs and where they’re going to make money with AI,’ says Michael DePalma, OpenText’s vice president of business development. ‘We started looking at vendors that were doing this well, and what Hatz AI enables is the ability to actually monetize AI—monitoring it, managing it, turning it into a service.’
OpenText is deepening its commitment to MSPs with a new AI-focused partnership aimed at turning AI into a revenue driver.
The Waterloo, Ontario-based vendor’s partnership with New York-based AI startup Hatz AI comes as OpenText prepares to relaunch its global partner program on July 1, a move executives said will reshape how partners access training, tools and growth opportunities in an increasingly AI-driven market.
Hatz AI helps MSPs deliver AI as a service to SMBs by enabling them to build and deploy AI tools like chatbots as well as offerings around automation and analytics.
Christine Gassman, global director of partner success at OpenText, said the Hatz AI collaboration reflects its broader partner program strategy of doing the vetting work for partners and embedding vendor relationships directly into the program.
“This isn’t just a surface-level partnership,” she told CRN in an interview. “Our technical teams have evaluated the platform—we’ve spoken with MSPs, we’ve had them test it, and we’re confident recommending it. That’s a big part of the value—we’re doing the legwork so our partners don’t have to.”
That legwork is central to OpenText’s refreshed partner program, which will introduce a structured on-boarding model, giving new partners 90 days to ramp up, close their first deal and demonstrate mutual fit.
“At a high level, what I want partners to understand is that this program is about growth, not just transactions,” she said. “We’re building it around three pillars: training and education, sales and marketing growth, and channel engagement. And when I say ‘training,’ I don’t just mean product training. We’re talking about real business growth: AI training, go-to-market enablement … things that help partners build sustainable revenue streams.”
The Hatz AI collaboration fits into OpenText’s third pillar, channel engagement, where the company is curating a network of vendors and community-driven opportunities, shaped by feedback from MSPs and the emergence of AI as a business opportunity.
“Our whole message has been about the future of MSPs and where they’re going to make money with AI,” Michael DePalma, OpenText’s vice president of business development, told CRN. “We started looking at vendors that were doing this well, and what Hatz AI enables is the ability to actually monetize AI—monitoring it, managing it, turning it into a service. For us, this is about helping our partners figure out where their next revenue streams come from.”
For Jimmy Hatzel, CEO of Hatz AI, the partnership is helping MSPs quickly capitalize on AI demand.
“AI is moving incredibly fast, and what MSPs need right now is a way to execute quickly,” Hatzel told CRN in an interview. “Partnering with OpenText gives us the ability to reach a massive partner base and help them get into the AI business much faster than they could on their own. Speed really is everything in this moment.”
He added that Hatz AI’s focus is on simplifying that entry point. With an “AI business in a box” offering that MSPs can stand up in a single day, partners can move immediately into building services and helping customers adopt AI.
“The demand from end customers is only going to increase,” Hatzel said. “Tomorrow they’ll need more help with AI than they do today, and that trend isn’t slowing down. For partners, the opportunity is right in front of them; it’s about getting started and moving quickly.”
OpenText and Hatz AI partner Tim Guim, founder and CEO of Pennsauken, N.J.-based PCH Technologies, said the new partnership with Hatz AI gives MSPs a practical way to expand into AI while complementing their existing security offerings.
“Hatz is a perfect complement to OpenText’s line card, and it dovetails into their cybersecurity packages,” Guim told CRN. “Adding Hatz as a secure AI platform creates a huge opportunity for OpenText partners to address shadow AI challenges and create a new revenue stream by providing AI as a service.”
