Why The AVG-Level Platforms Deal Is Good News For SMBs
AVG Technologies acquired remote monitoring and management (RMM) company LPI Level Platforms earlier this year, which brought together two companies with the goal of providing cloud-based tools to help manage small business customers.
According to Mike Foreman, GM of SMB for AVG Technologies, AVG is working to integrate AVG’s CloudCare platform and LPI Level Platforms’ Managed Workplace to produce a cloud-based IT management portfolio for small businesses.
“We want SMBs who opt to let their trusted IT providers manage their systems to benefit from integrated cloud-based protection,” Foreman says. “By giving MSPs (managed services providers) tools like the new integrated AVG CloudCare Managed Workplace service module, we can help them ensure their small business customers stay protected at all times.”
In September, AVG announced the first integrated service module that allows AVG CloudCare partners with the AVG Managed Workplace RMM platform to manage their customer environments from within a single Managed Workplace dashboard.
Luke Walling, VP of sales and operations for AVG, adds, “Since the acquisition, we have effectively doubled the amount of people working on RMM technologies inside the company and added additional expertise and capabilities not available within Level Platforms before — like cloud and infrastructure management teams and UX (user experience) interface design teams.”
The acquisition not only enables technology development, but also makes additional resources available to AVG channel partners — about 1,500 more partners since the acquisition. AVG’s Helpdesk (HD) and the Network Operations Centre (NOC) are used regularly by smaller resellers who need help but who are not ready to hire additional in-house staff. “Helping these resellers focus on winning more business for themselves is closely aligned to AVG’s own vision and will be a significant part of our value proposition going forward,” Foreman says.