The third option was to hire new people – something that wasn’t plausible given an inconsistent pipeline. The last option – one that became
the default more often than it should – would be to simply lose the business to someone with resources.
Seeing an opportunity, Altit used his connections to confirm if the problems extended beyond his firm.
As he anticipated, other organizations were consistently running into resources issues.
Taking a leap of faith, Altit and two of his peers, Steve Boi and Itzik Gur, founded Insentra with a single goal in mind – to enable
channel partners through pre-sales and consulting engagements while supporting long-term cloud engagements with managed services and
support on the back-end.
A collaboration-first model
Altit and his team had seen the problems facing businesses firsthand, and he knew that he needed a unique business model to fill the gap in
the market.
“It was important when we were getting started to look at the problem, look at the solutions we had at the time, and come up with another
option – something new and different.” – Ronnie Altit, CEO, Insentra.
The solution was to commit entirely to a culture of partnership, uncompromisingly creating a business model to align to the vision – a 100
percent partner-only company whose success would stem from collaboration, transparency and integrity.
Insentra’s new business model would transact exclusively on the partner’s paper, Insentra would never do business directly with the
partner’s client and would walk away from deals where the client would not work with a partner.
Insentra does not sell licenses independently – they only provide expert consultative and support services to clients engaged with one of
their channel partners. The result? Success without compromising integrity, and a firsthand account of how a rising tide can lift all
boats.
“We offer our channel partners access to exceptional pre-sales at zero cost, with our agreement being that we will then deliver services
and support for the end user client through the partner. We have found many of our partners actually make more margin on their engagements
using us than they do delivering themselves.” – Ronnie Altit, CEO, Insentra.
Insentra’s model is unique and has enabled them to build a reputation as a trusted and reliable partner with highly skilled technical
resources and an above-the-line approach to partnership that overcomes partner’s traditional hesitations towards partner-to-partner work.
Insentra’s approach to partnership fosters complete transparency with their partners, avoiding gray areas regarding who owns the client
relationship.
The value of the Microsoft Partner Network
Insentra has been a member of the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) since 2011, a year after their founding. Microsoft’s commitment to partnering and partner
to partner (P2P) engagements aligns naturally with the work that Insentra does, enabling a philosophical partnership that underlies what has become a
successful and profitable relationship for both companies.
“Throughout our partnership with Microsoft they have always been fantastic to work with. Every person we work with at Microsoft comes to us with the same
five words – ‘how can I help you?’” – Ronnie Altit, CEO, Insentra.
Insentra is not a traditional partner for Microsoft in many ways as they do not transact any licenses themselves. Despite this, Insentra worked to achieve
gold status as a Microsoft partner and, through the work they perform with their channel partners, have come to influence over 750,000 seats of Office 365
consumption alone, providing support and services. Altit and his team are quick to point out the value their gold status affords them when working with new
partners.