16 01732 759725 TR: What are the benefits for MSPs in partnering with Egnyte? DT: They’re huge. I’ve been an MSP for 30 years. I’ve built an MSP, I’ve bought an MSP, I’ve merged MSPs. MSPs supply Microsoft, and why wouldn’t they. It’s a great company, great products, great tools. But SharePoint wasn’t built to be a file server; it was built as an intranet, as a tool for sharing documents internally. One benefit of Egnyte for MSPs, I would suggest, especially for those that receive a large number of helpdesk tickets relating to SharePoint, is that it is more capable of handling certain files than SharePoint. SharePoint will meet 70% of end user requirements, but at a certain point it starts to creak – maybe the files are too large; maybe their file names are too long; maybe how your organisation operates, in terms of where people are located, creates a challenge; maybe VPN is a problem; maybe the applications being used make it difficult to collaborate and work together. Egnyte steps into those instances and will save the MSP money because it requires less resource and less service and helpdesk support. Equally importantly, it will save the customer money because it will enable them to work more efficiently. I call it SharePoint for adults or SharePoint on steroids because it serves that environment really well and takes away those pain-points. It will give MSPs a much better experience and the opportunity to make recurring revenue, rather than just doing a one-off project. TR: In the MSP world we hear a lot about compliance and governance as a new opportunity. Does Egnyte play into that? DT: It certainly does. As you know, before I joined Egnyte I was with Network Group, heading that community of nearly 90 MSPs across the UK and Ireland. Something I often spoke to them about is the risk of MSP services becoming commoditised and the need for MSPs to keep evolving and moving into new areas like regulation and compliance. How do you gather your data? How do you control that data? How do you do that on behalf of your customers? Egnyte is a into a collaboration tool all to do with your data: how you use it, how you protect it, and how you can get the best value out of what’s probably your company’s greatest asset. I call it ‘SharePoint for adults’. It’s a collaboration and file sharing platform that also has some great tools around governance and compliance. TR: What sort of presence has Egnyte had in the UK to date? DT: Egnyte’s already well established here. It opened an office in Bracknell in 2014 and has grown and expanded since then. Today, our UK and EMEA office is in Reading, where we now have 40 people compared with only around a dozen six years ago, plus 200 or more in Poland, where much of our engineering is done. Globally, we’re approaching 1,300 people. TR: You were recently appointed Director MSP EMEA. Is that a new role? DT: No, that role existed before, but there’s definitely more of a commitment to the channel now. As a business, Egnyte has had a channel presence across the world for a dozen years or so, including partners here in the UK, but it’s not been a channel‑first business – it was much more direct and enterprise-focused. However, we have made some key changes in the last six months or so and are now looking to really bolster and build the channel. TR: What’s inspired that greater commitment to the channel? DT: As much as I think the channel is super-important and where we need to be, the best companies have both a direct and a channel motion. It’s very often the case that larger customers like to be looked after direct and even when you come down the food chain, the end user customer might still like to be looked after by the vendor. Many of these companies, however, would be much better looked after by an MSP or reseller partner and I think the company now recognises the importance of a channel if they want to grow at scale. I’m just part of that jigsaw. In this edited transcript of an interview recorded in the summer, David Tulip explains why Egnyte, a cloud-based platform for content intelligence, governance and collaboration, is like ‘Sharepoint for adults’ and how it can help MSPs and resellers differentiate themselves and win more business. You can see the video in full on the Technology Reseller website. Technology Reseller: Please could you provide a quick overview of Egnyte for those who aren’t familiar with the business or its unified platform for protecting and managing a company’s digital content. David Tulip (DT): Egnyte was founded in 2007 in the San Francisco Bay area. It started out as a file server and evolved INTERVIEW David Tulip Q&A With David Tulip, Director MSP EMEA at Egnyte
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