Tag Archives: MSP

AVG

AVG Business at MSPWorld 2017 Conference in New Orleans

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AVG Business by Avast is proud to be a Gold sponsor of MSPWorld®, the premier conference for cloud and managed services professionals.

You may have thought the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival was the highlight of springtime in “The Big Easy”, but for MSPs across the country, the event of the year is MSPWorld which takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana from March 26th to 28th. MSPWorld is the perfect place for people working in the managed services industry to learn from their peers, because this world-class conference is run by MSPs, for MSPs.

Visit AVG Business by Avast MSPWorld 2017 to get a 50% discount on a full conference pass, and stop by booth #33 to meet the AVG Business by Avast team. We are there to share our expertise on how to develop pricing models to support revenue growth, provide cost effective 24/7 support, and ensure your customers’ environments are secure and performing optimally.

We want to have some fun with you too, so plan to arrive early and join us Tuesday from 11:00am – 4:00pm at the Lakewood Golf Club for the MSPWorld Golf Tournament.  Reserve your spot to chill with us afterwards for an exclusive AVG Business Partner Event cruising on the Steamboat Natchez Tuesday evening.

Steamboat Natchez

Your schedule can get busy quickly at MSPWorld, so mark your calendar in advance for the following speaking sessions:

Creating a competitive MSP Pricing Model

Date: March 27, 2017
Time: 9:45am to 10:15am
Location: Gallery 1-3

Ryan Vallee, Product Management Lead for AVG Business by Avast, will be speaking about the importance of properly pricing your service to stimulate business growth. The science to calculating labor cost, overhead, software solution, etc. to achieve a desired margin can be a bit of a mystery to many. Whether you offer reactive, proactive, or fixed-fee models, this session will guide you to develop profitable service plans that take into consideration all known costs to provide a Managed Service to your customers; AND, help you evolve your business into higher levels of profitability.

Scaling your Managed Services for NOC & Help Desk

Date: March 27, 2017
Time: 2:15pm to 3:00pm
Location: Gallery 1

Staale Swift, Chief Executive Officer at NOCDOC will address what is going on in the market today and its impact on managed service providers. He will answer questions MSPs have about growing or expanding their businesses, what you can offer your clients, considerations when you are building up your offering, and the value you bring to the table.

We look forward to seeing you at MSPWorld. Visit our website to get your MSPWorld discount and for our exclusive partner event cruising the Mississippi River. Stay a few more days for Jazz Fest 2017.

AVG

New 2016 AntiVirus and Remote Control Options Available for AVG Managed Workplace

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We have seen an incredible excitement in the MSP market surrounding our release of Managed Workplace 10. This month, we have continued this momentum with new security and key enhancements.

Managed Workplace 10 now includes integrated advanced security features from our award-winning AntiVirus 2016 engine, in addition to expanded remote control functions, alerting and customized reporting enhancements.

This is all part of our Managed Workplace Service Pack 1 release, available now.

A few highlights include:

  • Advanced AVG AntiVirus 2016 Engine
    • Advanced heuristics: Through a combination of Artificial Intelligence and advanced algorithms, stops emerging and known threats from ransomware, malware, viruses, spyware, worms, rootkits, and Trojans
    • Cloud-based outbreak detection technology: Helps identify even the newest malware variants in real-time
    • Advanced scanning engine: Scans your systems without impacting the day with boot-time scanning, scheduled and on-demand scans
    • Online shield: Uses cloud-based detection to identify dangerous downloads fast
    • LinkScanner: Assesses web pages in real-time for safe surfing, searching and downloads
    • Identity protection: Shields passwords and credit card numbers from hackers and scammers
    • Email protection: Protects confidential data from latest spam and phishing attacks
    • Firewall protection: Strengthens your perimeter of defense, stops the spread of viruses
  • Enhancements to Premium Remote Control
    • Ad hoc and on-demand sessions: Offers remote support to anyone on the Internet without the need to have Managed Workplace deployed.
    • End-user consent: Respects the privacy of your customers by requesting access to initiate remote control to their devices.

AVG partners are already taking advantage of Service Pack 1.  An AVG channel partner in Ontario, Canada shared his feedback:

  • “Managed Workplace’s integrated AV will allow us to manage threat policies and customize update and scanning schedules while centralizing threat detection into one platform.”
  • “The Enhanced Remote Control feature is a welcome addition to the already fantastic Premium Remote Control client. The ability to prompt users for remote control authorization and provide remote assistance to any user via the on demand feature means we no longer need to purchase and maintain a separate remote control solution for our clients.”

Put the new features to the test today. If you’re new with Managed Workplace, join our Daily Demo by clicking here. As always, please continue to share your feedback.

AVG

MSPs Share Positive Feedback on AVG Managed Workplace

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Monitoring and managing your customers can be challenging as demands increase and environments become more complex. Your tools must present fast and complete information– reducing complexity, not adding to it.

In April, we introduced AVG Managed Workplace 10 – a simplified approach to RMM that enables MSPs to deliver managed services and advanced security in a simplified, scalable and applied way that also meets their own business goals.

Feedback from our AVG partners indicates we’re on the right track – take a look:

“We have used Managed Workplace since 2006; it is our eyes and ears to everything. We looked at Kaseya, LabTech, Microsoft Systems Center – but AVG had the full featured RMM solution and with Managed Workplace 10, keeps improving.” 

“Managed Workplace 10 is helping us reduce our onboarding time. The change to service plans was a big step forward in terms of architecting a managed service offering. We have gained immediate time savings and it’s easier to roll this out for our technicians.”

“The AVG Managed Workplace service templates are a stroke of genius. We literally onboarded a new customer on the first day of the product’s release and applied a monitoring, antivirus and proactive plan for a new customer within 10 minutes.  We removed about five days of technician time thanks to the solution.”

“We can see that AVG Managed Workplace represents a significant improvement. We like the ability to apply a service plan to a site and like the fact that these are customizable.  We also see the ease of use in setting up services and linking these to the service plans and speeding onboarding.” 

“Using AVG Managed Workplace 10, onboarding is a breeze. There are multiple things you need to do when onboarding customers and setting up a site but with AVG Managed Workplace’s service plan model, all the alerting is pre-configured and ready to go. You don’t have to go in and customize each individual client based on the service plan they are part of and you can see quickly how the customer is being supported and the specific environment.”

“During the beta process, AVG really encouraged us to put Managed Workplace through its paces. They gave us a checklist of items to try and it enabled us to experiment with everything – it was a fantastic approach. We upgraded all customers without a hitch.”

“We have used different RMM tools in the past but they either had terrible support or too much required maintenance.  AVG has a good balance of necessary information, self-management, and of course, price point. With the new Managed Workplace 10, we were able to easily transition our clients into standardized Service Plans.  It was easy to reassign sites into their proper service plans.  Configuration changes can now be adjusted very easily and only one time!”

 

Put Managed Workplace to the test today for your business. Join our Daily Demo and experience the simplicity by clicking here.

AVG

Bluecom Buys Big from AVG Business

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2015 has been a big year for AVG Business. Our worldwide community of partners has been supporting businesses in cities across the globe, giving their customers the reassurance that their applications and data are protected on any device, anytime, anywhere.

I’m excited to welcome a new partner, Bluecom, to our AVG Business network. Stockholm-based Bluecom, a rapidly-growing IT service provider, has recently chosen AVG Managed Workplace to manage network monitoring, control and automation for its small and medium business customers throughout Sweden.

This represents the largest order of the year for AVG Business in the Nordics region.

According to Bluecom CEO Robert Sjöholm, after conducting tests with several solutions on the market, AVG Business was selected because our product had the breadth Bluecom needed, “AVG Managed Workplace has all of the major functionality, while being more user-friendly than other products on the market we tried.”

Bluecom has already seen a positive effect on its sales since it started using AVG Managed Workplace, with Sjöholm noting that, “The reports we get from Managed Workplace are so good that we can often see flaws in customer systems that are unknown to them.”

AVG Business solutions like AVG Managed Workplace are a great example of how we are listening to our partners and responding with powerful security solutions to help partners proactively manage and monitor their customers’ networks and automatically deploy and update critical security tools.

With Managed Workplace 9.2, released in September, we move one step closer to a complete, end-to-end IT and managed security solution. The Managed Workplace platform streamlines IT management for our partners, providing ease of use, security and control of the entire IT infrastructure (devices, applications and networks) from a “single-pane” of glass. With premium remote control integrated at no additional cost to the remote monitoring and management platform, partners also gain cost savings as well as reporting tools to streamline billing and demonstrate client ROI.

Visit http://www.avg.com/partners to find out more about our AVG Business solutions and how we can help your business.  We look forward to sharing new products and services with you in 2016.

Happy holidays and best wishes for the new year!

AVG

A simple solution to IT security sprawl?

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According to recent research conducted by Forrester Consulting, the vast majority of enterprise security professionals believe that security should be delivered as an integrated platform via the cloud.

Indeed, 98 percent of those questioned said that integrated security platforms would be effective to both improve their security posture and to reduce overall cost in comparison to traditional on-premise security appliances and point solutions.

As our channel partners have experienced firsthand from their small and medium business clients, the ultimate problem addressed in the research is one that has been gaining increased airtime over the past year – security sprawl. With more data sharing, more device connections, and more security solutions to manage everything than ever before, companies are struggling to keep themselves secure.

Though targeted at an enterprise level, I believe you’ll agree that these research findings are just as applicable to smaller businesses – with the fragmented security landscape posing a management headache no matter your company size.

Our AVG Business product line includes a managed services and security platform that offers a range of features. We have designed the products with absolute simplicity in mind to help relieve security sprawl headaches. AVG CloudCare is one example, enabling direct, real-time management of a full suite of cloud-delivered security services – antivirus, online backup, content filtering, email security, premium remote control, secure sign-on and more, all from one dashboard. Instead of having to deal with the complexity of multiple, different security solutions, we provide a ‘single pane of glass’ view for easier IT management.

AVG CloudCare supports our partners, so that MSPs can give their customers the reassurance that their applications and data are protected on any device, anytime, anywhere.

As John Quatto, Channel Partner Manager at Zobrio Inc. recently put it, “the only problem you might face now is that your clients will never witness and appreciate the work you’re doing – As an MSP you have to be able to prove your worth – ironically, that’s difficult if you’re fixing issues before the customer even knows they exist!”

If AVG CloudCare sounds like it could be an asset for your business, visit our AVG Business website today to find out more.

AVG

Position your managed services business for success

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It has been a busy time at AVG Business with our recent product releases and there is still more to come.  As we roll out new tools and services, your feedback continues to be critical.  Insight and comments from our channel partners and their clients help us continually raise the bar for security and managed IT business solutions.

So far, the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Starting with our latest release of AVG Managed Workplace®, we’ve delivered the advantages of premium remote control at no additional cost and remote monitoring and management all in one platform.

We haven’t stopped there. Weeks later, we introduced our new, enterprise-class business security products that feature advanced protection. Last month, AVG also received a 100% detection rating of real-world malware and 100% detection of widespread malware from the Independent IT Security Institute, AV-TEST.  Our business security products are based on this same AVG engine.  This ‘double 100%’ result from AV-TEST demonstrates that our products are protecting SMBs without compromise whether the threat is new or a known malware variant that is widespread.

They say that good things come in threes, and now we’ve rolled out new onboarding training and support to help new partners get up to speed right away and established partners continue to drive growth for their managed services business.

The simple-to-follow onboarding services can be accessed through our partner portal, which was recently upgraded with a brand new user interface and easier navigation to give partners quicker access to the technology and knowledge they need to succeed.

If you’re not an AVG Business partner yet, sign up for a free 14-day trial today to check out the latest release of our Managed Workplace 9.2 product, the new services portal and onboarding tools.

Here’s a look at what you’ll find:

  • A 12-month, 5-step success plan: Targeted business plans that help partners achieve monthly, quarterly or yearly milestones.
  • AVG Accelerator Partner Academy: On-demand business and technical training to quickly onboard technical staff plus best practice tips and discussion on sales, marketing, business and channel operations.
  • In-depth knowledge base: Frequently asked questions and information for troubleshooting issues.
  • User forums: Community engagement and fast access to your peers for learning and networking.
  • Sales and marketing materials: Ready-to-use content to sell AVG Managed Workplace and other AVG Business products.

But that’s not all. Coming soon, you will be able to access our new AVG Managed Services Pricing Calculator from our partner portal. This cool calculator can be used by AVG channel partners to help price their managed services, develop the desired contract margins and predict profitable monthly recurring revenue. It captures critical elements of client service: labor costs, business overhead and software licensing, onboarding and more.

These new updates are all part of our continuous effort to develop and improve upon the products and support we provide to our partners — an ongoing process that is informed by the valued feedback we receive from our growing network.

Below is just a sample of some of our most recent feedback:

“AVG Managed Workplace has completely changed how we do business. We really like it because we now have visibility on our clients’ networks. In many cases the automation feature detects and resolves an issue before something fails.” — Terry Johnson, Consultant, Infrastructure and Data Solutions, Experis  

“As a value added reseller, we needed a partner that could help us create and implement solid security plans, and then deliver cost effective ongoing monitoring and maintenance of customer networks. The strength of AVG CloudCare’s cloud-based administration, integrated with the power of AVG Managed Workplace, was the answer.” — John Quatto, Channel Partner Manager, Zobrio   

“Our partnership with AVG is taking our business to a whole new level. We have a complete portfolio to deliver, from the security aspect outwards. The antivirus side of our business has grown 96% year on year, and anti-spam 29%. And with hosting, Online Backup and social media services still largely untapped, the only problem is finding the time to follow up all the AVG-generated opportunities.” –Gordon Montgomery, Operations Director, MCC Computers

Visit http://www.avg.com/gb-en/partners to find out more about our AVG Business solutions and how we can help your business.

AVG

The channel opportunity to reduce security complexity

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According to PwC’s latest Information Security Breaches Survey a staggering 74 per cent of small businesses have suffered a security breach in the last year—jumping significantly from the 60 per cent recorded in 2014.

Aside from the monetary losses suffered, the damage to reputation can be incalculable. The topic of data security is higher on the media’s agenda than ever before and the resulting bad press from any security breach today can severely impact a business’s reputation and credibility.

It’s clear that SMBs need to take immediate action, but what’s holding them back? The answer is not just money but time. Discussing small business vulnerability in a recent article in the UK newspaper The Times, journalist Mark Frary called out one of the underlying problems as follows:

“One of the barriers to implementing cyber security is the amount of management attention it takes. SMEs are naturally focused on profit and loss and cyber security can seem less relevant than other challenges.” 

Time management issues shouldn’t be the reason for neglecting security. That’s where AVG Business channel partners come in. This is an opportunity for our partners to add new value for clients, removing the complexity of multiple, different security solutions.

Solutions such as AVG CloudCare can help partners easily implement security strategies for their clients.  AVG CloudCare offers a single cloud platform that enables the real-time management of a full suite of cloud-based security services including antivirus and online backup (OLB), among other key features.

Brookland Computer Services (BCS), an AVG Business channel partner serving clients in finance, legal, manufacturing and accounting, has found AVG CloudCare’s security products fit well in the ICT provider’s business model. BCS Managing Director Eamonn Fogarty explains, “With the old method of purchasing antivirus, you just hope It worked because no one could check it. Businesses were potentially left unprotected. Using AVG CloudCare, we can monitor and control every device and every environment, with reduced workload for us and our clients’ internal IT people.”

Another AVG Business channel partner, Northern IT Consultancy (NITC), is using CloudCare’s security portal to manage clients’ security services from a single screen dashboard. NITC Managing Director Ritesh Mehta commented that it has improved control and flexibility, and provides a straightforward product they can resell at a competitive price, “Threats are detected and the remote management means we don’t have to go onsite to fix the problem or interrupt the client. They’re very happy with that and our client retention speaks volumes.”

If you haven’t heard about AVG CloudCare or the portfolio of security and managed IT services from AVG Business, visit our AVG Business website today.

AVG

AVG works with National Federation of Independent Business to raise awareness of online security

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Read the headlines and you would think cyber-crime was all about big brands fighting to keep customer data out of hackers’ hands.

You might even think it is about governments and cyber-espionage.

But behind the headlines, there is a day-to-day story of small business under attack.

So to mark National Cyber Security Awareness Month, we’re working with the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) to share free tools and resources and about online threats.

Through October, we’ll help NFIB members and small business owners learn more about some of the practical issues around cybersecurity.

We’ll share information about the common tricks and tactics of hackers, and we’ll explore the issues around Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and the challenge of keeping a business secure when the lines are blurring between an employee’s personal tech and their professional life.

This week we’re encouraging small business owners and NFIB members to take our AVG Small Business IT Security Health Check.

It’s a simple free tool to help business owners think about how well-prepared they are against cyber threats.

The tool poses 17 multiple choice questions across a range of security topics: from password security to IT infrastructure.

There are also questions about what plans business owners have in place to deal with the fall-out if a security breach happens and customer, employee or suppliers’ personal information is compromised.

In the weeks ahead, we’ll share updated versions of our free ebooks through the NFIB’s regular email newsletter to members:

  • Digital Policy Guide
    What kind of issues emerge from employees and business owners using social media for personal and professional life? This guide looks at how social media can be a positive tool for businesses – and a management challenge if it’s misused. Download the guide.
  • Hackers and Hacking
    What are hackers looking for and what are their common tricks and tactics? Employees’ payroll data? Customer and suppliers’ bank details? This guide covers the threat of hacking, the motives behind it, what is at risk and how to combat these kinds of attacks. Read the ebook.
  • Bring Your Own Device
    Mobile tech from smartphones to tablets means that employees can keep in touch with friends and family on the same device they use to keep track of work emails, appointments and data. So what does that mean for your business? This guide looks at the issues around BYOD.

Sadly, there’s no way to stop hackers from trying to breach the virtual defences of small businesses. Wherever they are in the world, hackers will keep trying to find valuable data and disrupt business operations. And as Steve Chabot (R-OH), Chairman of the Congressional Small Business Committee, explained earlier this year, 71 percent of cyber-attacks are targeted at businesses with fewer than 100 employees.

So we hope our association with the NFIB will spread awareness of the issues and help small business owners feel better prepared to deal with online threats and ready to take steps to make their businesses more secure in future.

AVG

Managed Workplace 9.2 makes big debut

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As we shared last week, Managed Workplace 9.2 is now globally available to our channel partners and offers our slickest remote management and monitoring (RMM) solution to date. Now with premium remote control integrated directly into our RMM platform at no extra cost, we’re making it easier than ever for our MSP partners to provide remote IT management services to their business customers.

The new platform is also catching press attention and our AVG execs have been busy sharing the highlights with tech and channel media reporters at ChannelBuzz, Channel Insider, ChanelLine, CRN UK, CRN U.S., Lanline.de, and MSP Mentor.

More interviews are scheduled across our markets over the next few weeks. The response has already been overwhelmingly positive, with press coverage describing our updated platform as ‘game-changing’ and also touting the new premium remote control, backup disaster and recovery, and Mac support features.

As with Managed Workplace 9.1, the development process was driven in large part from the input of hundreds of our partners around the world. We want to ensure that our products meet their evolving needs and we are proud to say that our latest version of the platform does just that.

In developing 9.2 and integrating additional features, we continue to partner with the best in the industry. Partners such as ISL Online, a Slovenian company with more than 200,000 customers in more than 100 countries helped us integrate premium remote control seamlessly into our platform. Our Backup and Disaster Recovery partner Infrascale is also a proven leader, recently named a Gartner Cool Vendor as ‘innovative, impactful and intriguing.’

The value of strategic partnerships like these can clearly be seen in the reaction to the end product. Initial feedback from our channel partners has been fantastic. Many have said using the updated platform will be a ‘no brainer’ for them. Some of our partners have already previewed the updated platform, with Advanced Technology Services (USA) providing feedback that “it works great on both Macs and PCs, features a new user interface that instantly shows all activity, and also enables us to seamlessly view user sessions.”

We recognize that our channel partners need IT simplicity and efficiency. The updates we have made to Managed Workplace 9.2 show our ongoing commitment to putting partners first.

We are listening and appreciate your feedback.

AVG

AVG kicks off free on demand training series for partners

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Opportunities for business growth are often right in front of us but taking advantage of them and succeeding may require specific knowledge or experience. This is why we have established the AVG Business Accelerator Partner Academy to help support your growth and equip you to win in your markets.

Through the Academy, we offer you and your team free online technical training in six modules as well as business transformation training in three different modules. We’ve worked with industry leaders and MSPs to design the curriculum specifically to help AVG Business partners grow and succeed rolling out Managed Workplace to your customers.

We know your time is limited and very valuable. The tracks we’ve put together are based on what you have told us you need, designed to help give you a competitive advantage. We want to equip you for success in your market and help in any way we can to accelerate your growth.

Beginning this month, the Business Transformation training kicks off and includes:

  • September:  Sales & Marketing Transformation
  • October: Business Transformation
  • November & December: Service Transformation

The technical training, which will include six modules split into several short videos covering Installation through to Reporting, will be available in October.

These ‘live’ sessions will include open Q&A sessions so that you can learn from our specialists and other MSPs in real-time. After each scheduled training session, these will be available for viewing on demand via our Partner Portal (sessions available for viewing October 1 and after).

Taking the Academy curriculum will help you:

  • Build your leads inflow and pipeline for business.
  • Leverage professional services automation to increase efficiency and profitability.
  • Work in partnership with your account manager to seize new revenue opportunities.
  • Use metrics to better manage sales, marketing and operations.
  • Better represent your expertise with customers and potential clients.

I encourage you to attend and let us know what you think. We’re listening.

To find more information and sign up for free training, visit AVG Business Accelerator Partner Academy.