7 Things To Know About New National MSP Integris

‘The SMB market is mostly served by small MSPs,’ says Integris board member Mike Jenner. ‘I think that well organized, scaled national providers can provide a better experience for clients than the small mom and pops can.’

Four MSPs have joined forces to form Integris, a premium national MSP, to capture more of the SMB market with a large focus on cybersecurity. The name Integris is formed from the term “integrity” as it underpins the new MSP’s values as well as the four that have come together, according to the company.

The MSPs that form Integris are Domain Technology Partners, Compudyne, ProviDyn and MyITpros. All four companies specialize in IT, cybersecurity, cloud and network services of professional services firms in New Jersey, Maryland, Minnesota, Michigan, Colorado, Georgia and Texas.

The company, which will have about 400 employees by the end of the year, will be led by Rashaad Bajwa, CEO of Domain (pictured above). Arlin Sorensen, industry veteran and vice president of brand and ecosystem evangelism for ConnectWise, is joining the board of directors. Mike Jenner, CEO of Controlcase –which was acquired by Domain last year, has also joined the board of directors. Financial terms of the acquisitions were not disclosed.

CRN spoke with Bajwa, Sorensen and Jenner about what makes Integris unique and how they plan to capture the market in 2022. Here are seven things to know about the new MSP.

On The Idea Behind The Big MSP Merger

“The big part of it is the domain and the best-in-class peer group relationships that we created in Arlin‘s ecosystem at [ConnectWise] IT Nation,” Bajwa told CRN. All of these companies came out of that peer group network that Arlin started 20 years ago. We were there learning all of these best practices, building our businesses independently, looking and feeling a lot like each other and focused on a lot of the same values and goals.”

“Last year when we started seeing what was going on in the industry we decided we we‘re going to bring the best of the best out of that peer network and bring them together to create a national MSP platform,” Bajwa said.

“With Mike Jenner, who had already done this once before, along with Frontenac, we’ve started this journey and now I think we’re, I don’t want to say we’re the biggest, but we’re definitely near the top,” he said.

What Differentiates The MSP In The Market

“The SMB market is mostly served by small MSPs,” Jenner told CRN. “I think that well organized, scaled national providers can provide a better experience for clients than the small mom and pops can. There‘s a lot of work you’ve got to do but there are things that Integris can do that a small group cannot. They can invest in technology, they can invest in their people, they can create a career path for the most talented people in their organization. That’s very tough for a small provider to do.”

“When you can attract the best people because you can create a career path for them, if you‘re well organized, they’re going to provide a better service for the client,” Jenner said. “The small guys own most of the market today but we think an operation like Integris can do a better job serving the client base and gaining a lot of the market share.

“The particular focus on the work that I‘ve seen in the industry around how to be well organized has come out of the stuff that Arlin has done with those peer groups,” he told CRN. “They’re operationally mature and they have a focus on how we provide a better experience in all the businesses that Rashaad has put together. They all have common systems, common processes and a common philosophy on delivering great service.

On Priorities For 2022

“No. 1 is going to be about sharing this vision of a premium national MSP platform and bringing it to other organizations that are similar to these originating companies. Companies who were maybe isolated in their market, grew their business to a certain scale and now want to bring more resources and assets not only for their people but also for their clients,” Bajwa said.

“Things like our cybersecurity expertise is something you can only do at scale. It‘s very difficult for a small organization to be able to deliver that level of premium service, not just white glove service from a customer service point of view, but also incredibly deep, talented cybersecurity cloud architectural skills, something that a small MSP cannot do so.”

On Revenue Growth For 2022

“I think COVID has shown the world their dependence on technology,” Bajwa said. “In all of the cybersecurity threats that we‘ve seen has shown people how vulnerable that technology is. MSPs have found themselves at that nexus, and a premium provider like Integris is that partner of choice. And I think that that reputation in that marketplace is leading us to significant double-digit growth.”

Where Most Growth Is Happening In The MSP Space

“One of the things that Rashaad mentioned is cybersecurity and I want to link two things together there,” Jenner said. “If you‘re a small shop and you’ve got 20 people and you happen to get somebody who’s really talented in cybersecurity into the company, and you know they do great stuff for the client, where are they going to go? Where are they going to learn from? What’s their career path going to be?

“It‘s really tough, particularly as it relates to cybersecurity and creating a career path for somebody if you’re a small business,” he said. “Pretty much every customer you talk to, the number one thing on their mind is cybersecurity. If you’re going to be good at it, you’ve got to be able to afford to invest in the technology and the tools you need and you’ve also got to have a career path for those people.”

“Security is definitely the growth area and the focus area that people are paying attention to right now so there‘s no question that the demand is there,” Sorenson said. “People are no longer pretending like it won’t impact them. Now it comes down to who can you trust to really help you provide what’s needed and having those resources in a larger company.”

On Strategy To Attract More Customers

“Reputation is your wealth,” Bajwa said. “That‘s kind of my tagline. The right customers find their way to us. We have a great marketing team, we have a great sales team, but we find that the best customers are those that make decisions based on reputation. Those who are in our markets understand that the originating companies that are coming together to form Integris were the best-in-class, best reputation companies. Most of our growth comes from people hearing our story and understanding that their eggs are safest in our basket.”

On Challenges For Integris

“People are our biggest strength there‘s no doubt about that,” Bajwa said. “If we don’t have the best people, we don’t have a business. End of story. However, people are also complicated. When you’re bringing all of these companies together and plenty of incredibly talented people with reasonably well define confidence levels, it’s a management act.

“The No. 1 reason why a lot of these CEOs are joining us is because they want to bring this to scale, in particular in cybersecurity and cloud services and things along those lines. They want to bring that opportunity to their clients because they can‘t do it themselves, meaning they’re scared to try to do it themselves,” he said.

“The fun part, also, is developing the people and seeing them grow to new lengths or to new heights of where their career potential was within our organization,” he added.