Inbay has hired Datto and Autotask veterans Matt Takhar as CEO and Jamie Daum as business development director, respectively, the NOC (network operations center) partner to MSPs confirmed today.
Inbay is a well-known name in the white label NOC and service desk market. The company, which started as an IT support provider in 2002, gradually transitioned to managed services and then focused purely on the channel by 2015. Inbay has grown to 70 full-time employees, and is "actively recruiting" to fill more positions, Takhar tells ChannelE2E.
Inbay competes with such MSP-centric companies as Collabrance, Continuum, GMS Live Expert, IT By Design, Kaseya NOC Services, Live Virtual Help Desk, and other options. The companies typically offer NOC and service desk capabilities that allow MSPs to scale their businesses.
The business model is quite popular with a range of MSPs, but it also comes with a range of challenges -- including the alignment of business, technology and financial models from the NOC provider to the MSP to the end-customer.
Amid the evolving threat landscape, the challenges can be even more dramatic when NOC providers attempt to build and launch SOC (security operations center) and outsourced MSSP services for MSP partners.
So how will Inbay strive to stand out in the outsourced NOC market for MSPs? In an email interview with ChannelE2E, Takhar provided some answers and perspectives. Here's the conversation.
ChannelE2E. How did you hear about the Inbay CEO opportunity, and what attracted you to the company?
Takhar: I’ve known of Inbay for a number of years, initially talking to them at industry events. The opportunity was brought to my attention through a mutual friend in the industry.
I was extremely happy working for Datto (originally Autotask). I’ve had three key roles with them which I’m grateful for and have learnt a lot from. I had occasionally joked with my friends, saying the only reason I would leave Datto would be for an MD/CEO role, at the right company.
Inbay ticked the right boxes for me. We are a great company, with great people that is aiming to improve and expand. We can offer tremendous value to the MSP community. Inbay are in the industry which I have spent the majority of my career in. I feel that this opportunity personally plays to a number of my strengths and knowledge I’ve gained throughout my career.
ChannelE2E: What are your first priorities as CEO?
Takhar: I’m extremely keen to map out our Partner journey, to hear from existing Partners as to how we can improve. I will also be focused on the operations within the business, making sure we can meet our customers expectations and expand in the near future without impacting our current service delivery standards.
Making sure the team has the right support is equally as important to me. Are they in the right seat, do they have access to training, day-to-day support, and so on?
ChannelE2E: You have offices in the UK (London), US (Greenville, South Carolina) and Australia (Sydney). Are there any plans to double-down on any of those regions, or push into new regions?
Takhar: The majority of our staff are based in Sri Lanka (Colombo). This is our main technical office. We will be doing more to promote the expertise and experience we have here. The team is truly incredible with a vast amount of industry accreditations. We will be expanding our UK office in the coming months as we gain focus in EMEA initially.
ChannelE2E: Scaling an outsourced NOC and service desk for MSPs worldwide can be a tricky journey. Are you taking any key steps to scale the business?
Takhar: Very much so! We are starting with systems and process. We need to make sure our internal systems are fully optimize and can handle the growth. We have a few systems we have developed ourselves which we are already enhancing, allowing us to onboard and support partners more efficiently.
I’m a strong believer in having documented process in place, something I learnt whilst at Taylor Made. It allows you to easily check information is flowing correctly through the business. It makes sure everyone is aware of what needs to be done -- and more importantly, why. And it allows you to see areas of improvement. As we scale these two areas become far more important.
Jamie will be focused on our go-to-market strategy. Everything from social presence, events, pricing, productization, market focus, sales enablement, and more.
ChannelE2E: Inbay currently promotes service desk, NOC, project and staff augmentation services. Any plans to push into additional service areas – say, Security Operations Center, for example?
Takhar: We have already started reviewing our current services as well as additional services we can offer. SOC is an obvious option which we are being asked for.
However, any new service we offer needs to be thoroughly thought out, implemented and not rushed to market. This is especially true with SOC!
