In this special two-part episode of Channel Insider: Partner POV, host Katie Bavoso speaks with Armon Aghaie, the chief revenue officer (CRO) of mid-market IT service provider 1Path. 1Path is an end-to-end IT service company offering fully managed or co-managed IT services to organizations across various industries, especially healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, and the legal space.
Aghaie has 10 years of experience in leadership, revenue development, and strategy. He shares insights into his approach to building client trust, the methods employed to standardize processes across organizations, and how he and his team at 1Path create value for customers.
Targeting the mid-market
Katie and Aghaie dive in with discussion of 1Path’s services and solutions, which specifically targets the mid-market. The IT service provider caters to companies with 100 to 5,000 employees, with a sweet spot of 250 to 2,000 employees. Aghaie highlights the unique position of serving this segment, often overlooked by other MSPs focused on either enterprise or SMBs.
“There’s this segment of companies that are all very large, either by revenue or employee counts, sometimes both, and they’re not well served,” Aghaie says. “They have a specific niche in terms of what they need. They’re not ready to call themselves enterprise, and they just want to outsource help desk-only type work where it’s very transactional.”
1Path identifies a gap in the industry, catering to companies between the enterprise and SMB sectors. By addressing this niche, 1Path offers a unique blend of personalized service and enterprise-level solutions.
Listen to Part 1 of the podcast:
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Specialization in senior living care
In discussing the verticals that 1Path caters to, Aghaie highlights senior living — a specialty sector for the company — by emphasizing the diversity within healthcare, noting that different healthcare facilities operate under varying structures despite sharing the common goal of providing health services.
“Why senior living? Well, a few things,” Aghaie explains. “One, they have an interesting business use case that operates very similarly to a lot of the other customers we support that aren’t in the healthcare industry, and that’s that most of their users are not technical.”
Aghaie also notes a common trend among senior living facilities: consolidation and standardization of technology stacks. As large companies acquire smaller facilities, there’s a pressing need to integrate disparate systems and establish uniformity in technology infrastructure. 1Path plays a critical role in facilitating this standardization process.
“They are often in this cycle where they’re getting bought up and gobbled up by a conglomerate of senior care facilities that are going around and buying up mom-and-pop shops, consolidating into what is now a 50-site organization. All that needs to standardize its technology stack,” Aghaie says.
Customer engagement: The lifeblood of MSPs
Katie acknowledges Aghaie’s perspective on the inadequacy of current MSP practices in facilitating easy client engagement. She prompts him to elaborate on this viewpoint, seeking insights into the underlying reasons driving this perception within the industry.
Aghaie shares his observations on the MSP landscape, highlighting a lack of standardized and transparent steps that clients can easily navigate. He emphasizes the industry’s immaturity as an opportunity for innovation in how MSPs market their services and product packaging.
“I love this industry for many reasons, and I think we have a lot of immaturity in this industry,” Aghaie explains. “That presents a pretty cool opportunity to be innovative in how we market our services and our product packaging.”
Aghaie’s perspective illuminates the challenges faced by MSPs in effectively engaging with clients. The absence of standardized techniques and transparent communication channels hinders clients’ understanding of MSP offerings, leading to a disconnect between providers and customers.
Exploring FYNL cloud and automation in IT services
In the second part of the interview with Aghaie, the focus shifted towards discussing 1Path’s initiatives, particularly FYNL (pronounced final) Cloud, which aims to provide customized private cloud experiences. Aghaie notes that FYNL Cloud addresses specific client needs for tailored cloud solutions, especially in sectors like senior living and professional services, where there’s a demand for dedicated infrastructure and specialized networking requirements.
“We call it Final Cloud because we want it to be the last cloud they ever need,” Aghaie says.
Listen to Part 2 of the podcast:
Watch the Part 2 video:
1Path revenue stream
Aghaie emphasizes that IT services constitute the largest sector of revenue for 1Path. He attributes the growth to low unemployment rates in the IT sector and the increasing complexity of technology ecosystems. He also stresses the benefits of outsourcing for mitigating risks and addressing diverse technology needs.
Exploring AI and automation
1Path seeks to leverage AI capabilities to enhance service delivery and streamline operations.
“I think we will start adding some level specifically of large language models, AI based technologies into our ecosystem before the end of the year,” Aghaie says. “Honestly, I think we will be at a state where we can. AI is kind of in its phase where we’re just tossing stuff at the wall, seeing what will stick, because there’s all these low-hanging fruit ideas. But the low-hanging fruit ideas are never the things that move the needle with new technology. It’s all the tried-and-tested and innovated-on things.”
Working with 1Path
If you’re interested in contacting 1Path to explore potential collaborations or learn more about their services, you can go to 1Path’s website and navigate to the 1Path Contact Us page, where you’ll find various options for getting in touch. Optionally, you can connect with Aghaie on LinkedIn for further inquiries or discussions.
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