Channel Chief View

AOM Lifecyle Management— ‘We Do IT For Life’

Q. Why is AOM different than TPM?

A. AOM (Alternative to OEM Maintenance), a lifecycle management offering, was created with the charter to empower all distribution channel resellers with the tools and support to manage their customers assets for life. TPM starts years after the initial ship date and TPM providers usually are direct competitors to channel resellers.

Unlike TPM, AOM is there for your customers from the very beginning of the assets’ lifecycle. We’ve partnered with the biggest distributors in the world to help populate your portal with all the asset information from the time of sale to give your customers the best experience possible. Based off the International Association of IT Asset Managers (IAITAM), our end-user facing cloud-based portal “Epicenter” is an asset, license, subscription management tool and service delivery portal. From the day your distribution partner ships your end-users’ product to the end of its life, AOM is going to help you capture more revenue opportunities for the life of that asset.

Q. Why is AOM critical to the success of reseller partners over the next few years?

A. We believe a proactive asset management service offered by our reseller partners will generate incremental revenue long after the initial sale. From memory upgrades, break fix/end of life hardware support, extended warranties, maintenance and ITAD, “we do IT for life”.

The Founder of IAITAM, Dr. Barb Rembiesa says, “If you’re not managing your assets, you’re not managing your business.”1 She’s referring to the end user, but shouldn’t we, as VARs, MSPs and NSPs be managing our customers assets as a “value add” or “managed service”? We believe you should, and Epicenter by AOM is how we’re going to do it.

Q. Why should resellers choose AOM’s Epicenter over existing asset management and service delivery platforms?

A. There’s a lot of reasons, let’s give you the top three. One, we’re not a software company, we’re a maintenance company. Our tool is free to our reseller partners, they can choose to monetize it or incorporate lifecycle management into a hardware deal, giving them a competitive advantage. Two, AOM, a Zepol Productions Inc. company, is minority and veteran owned. If you choose to partner with us and enroll in our supplier diversity program, you and your end user can retire diversity spend while offering true value add with lifecycle management. Three, we are the only TPM provider that is truly channel friendly. We offer lifetime non-compete, non-circumvent and non-solicit down to the serial number. And D, we’re funnier than they are.

1 Dr. Barb Rembiesa, https://iaitam.org/ https://aompartner.com/epicenter/

Darrel Letcher President and CEO

”We believe a proactive asset management service offered by our reseller partners will generate incremental revenue long after the initial sale. From memory upgrades, break fix end of life hardware, extended warranties, maintenance and ITAD, “we do IT for life”.

COMPANY/YEARS ON LIST TOP EXECUTIVE WHAT EMERGING TECHNOLOGY AREAS WILL BRING THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY THIS YEAR?

Base Solutions

Tysons Corner, Va.

Years on list: 2019, 2021, 2022

Blue Layer

Lubbock, Texas

Years on list: 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022

Broadview Networks

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Years on list: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022

C3 Integrated Solutions

Arlington, Va.

New to list

Cloudticity

Seattle

Years on list: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022

Common Knowledge Technology

Englewood, Colo.

Years on list:

2019, 2021, 2022

Convergence Networks

Portland, Ore.

Years on list:

2014, 2015, 2022

Daystar

Newington, N.H.

Years on list: 2021, 2022

Expedient Technology Solutions

Miamisburg, Ohio

Years on list: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022

Fortify 24x7

Point Roberts, Wash.

Years on list: 2018, 2022

Atul Bhagat President, CEO

Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certi cation (CMMC) will be key this year.

Michael Strong COO

SOC and governance risk compliance (GRC) solutions will be an important focus.

Michael Orlo President

Cybersecurity is the top area. With the rising cost of cyber insurance, customers need to keep premiums a ordable by investing in their cybersecurity prevention.

Marc Pantoni CEO

Gerry Miller Founder, CEO

Secure access service edge (SASE) and cloud-native security tools that enable zero trust for example, Azure Active Directory, will be critical.

Health care has moved forward dramatically, with a decade’s worth of technology adaptation and adoption in the space of mere months. High-speed research and epidemiology infrastructure, remote work and telemedicine systems, models for rapid vaccine development and deployment all suddenly became pressing public-health necessities. All were enabled by harnessing the cloud to support integrated operations, data science and massive on-demand computational needs.

Peter Horewitch President

Chris Remy CEO

Building out a virtual CISO o ering to help manage new security programs and building a culture around security at customers are the key focus areas for Common Knowledge Technology in 2023.

Cybersecurity is going to be a driver of service more than ever, with the need for more advanced cloud security monitoring and alerting, Cyber SOC and compliance requirements, including network penetration testing.

Keith Bamford Co-Founder, CEO

Daystar is launching a new service around end user productivity measurement and application training and optimization. It is starting with the Microsoft stack but will expand this out in years to come. This will give customers visibility into usage and gaps in their teams’ use of software applications and strategy to increase productivity and engagement.

Marcus Thompson CEO

Jeremy Murtishaw CEO

Expedient Technology Solutions sees continued opportunity in managed cybersecurity and compliance solutions as well as penetration testing and cybersecurity strategy.

Fortify 24x7’s MDR and XDR services continue to grow, and the company is seeing rapid expansion in governance risk compliance (GRC) services.

Fuse Networks

Tukwila, Wash.

Years on list: 2019, 2022

IN-TELECOM CONSULTING

Slidell, La.

New to list

Iris Solutions

Charlotte, N.C.

Years on list: 2020

Optfinity

Spring eld, Va.

Years on list: 2018, 2022

Pegasus Technology Solutions

Frisco, Texas

Years on list: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

Stronghold Data

Joplin, Mo.

Years on list: 2021, 2022

Techsolutions

Wilmington, Del.

Years on list: 2019

Triton Networks

Dallas

Years on list: 2022

Visual Edge It

North Canton, Ohio

New to list

Xceptional

San Diego

New to list

Travis Thom CEO

Fuse Networks is focused on Azure Endpoint Management and Azure Virtual Desktops. There is less overhead to manage, faster deployment speeds and it is easier to consume for customers as an operating expense.

Shawn Torres CEO

Reggie Stevens CEO

In-Telecom Consulting sees its biggest opportunity as a blend between cybersecurity and digital trust. SMBs are falling victim to attacks that in many cases render them unable to do business or recover nancially. To combat this threat, it expects to see even more impressive technologies and strategies emerge, especially as more business owners grasp the true nature of the risk that a lack of basic essentials can mean.

Iris Solutions believes cloud and security will lead to more opportunities this year.

Michael Drobnis CEO

Opt nITy believes that cybersecurity and advanced tools to manage them are going to be the best opportunities this year.

Buck Jones Founder, CEO

Pegasus Technology Solutions is seeing as-a-service take hold in the market more and more, particularly Security as a Service. It is also seeing an increase in arti cial intelligence for operations and security. Companies are wanting insight into their data to make it usable for driving business decisions.

James Richards CEO

Rich Kenney Co-Founder, VP

Stronghold Data is focused on helping customers accomplish their business objectives, partially through helping them understand their data to impact their go-to-market strategies and be more e cient—moving past the technology stack only and really impacting their business’ capacity for growth and revenue.

An emerging trend Techsolutions sees as the biggest opportunity is using the rise of cyberinsurance policy questionnaires as a sales and revenue tool that helps customers understand the importance of utilizing more of its services to improve their security posture. Improving customers’ overall security posture is a huge opportunity in 2023.

Robert House CEO

Secure access service edge will be a key contributor to secure managed network services as the network and security continue to converge. Triton has been focused on security, cloud, virtual services and IoT for several years. The convergence of these areas continues to grow, and Triton is well positioned to take advantage of the market and opportunities that lie ahead.

Austin

Vanchieri

Chairman, CEO

Secure access service edge is an emerging cybersecurity architecture that will be the future of network security in the cloud. SASE brings together both on-premises and remote workers under a common security policy, enhancing the enterprise’s security posture. This allows Visual Edge IT to apply secure access no matter where the customers’ users, applications or devices are located.

Chris McKewon

Founder, CEO

Everything as a Service is a growing trend within the market that Xceptional is capitalizing on. A large percentage of small and midsize customers are looking for cost-e ective and dynamic ways of consuming and utilizing IT operations, services, hardware and software, platforms and applications. Many customers are seeking utility-based pricing models, so Xceptional is continuing to expand its portfolio of managed services. This includes Security-as-a-Service and Compliance-as-a-Service o erings, which represent a massive market opportunity in 2023.