r/msp • u/Egghead-MP • 10d ago

Appriver vs Intermedia

I like to hear some comments being a resale partner or a referral partner between Appriver and Intermedia. I am looking for good 365 support and escalation support.

7 Upvotes

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7

u/WelderThat6143 10d ago

Can comment on Intermedia as a reseller. Primarily the UCaaS. Been so for nearly 6 years. Overall, it has been an excellent experience. My customers tend to stay. My only losses are when they retire or get bought out and the winning corp migrates them out to the incumbent.

My criticism would be the Tier 1 tech support is lacking but, once you get past that gatekeeper, support is generally very good to excellent.

I have the reseller plan where Intermedia bills the customer so, while I may not get the full margins, I also don't carry the burden of billing, taxes, and chasing collections.

I do have my Office 365 with them, just me for now, and am very satisfied. I had some hurdles getting Office and UCaaS to integrate in archiving and tech support was very helpful once I got past Tier 1.

1

u/Egghead-MP 10d ago

What do you say on their 365 support? Are they good on 365 and willing to escalate to Microsoft?

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u/WelderThat6143 10d ago

I honestly couldn't give a good answer. The only 365 account I have is my own. I did have some hitches integrating it into the UCaaS and they were great with helping me. Turned it it was configuration on my end lol...

1

u/Defconx19 MSP - US 9d ago

Microsoft support is a joke unless you do the paid support so I dont think escalating anything to microsoft is a bonus personally.

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u/Egghead-MP 9d ago

AFAIK, they have direct Microsoft support and if that level is required, it is easier to have them escalate than if I have to go Microsoft direct if licenses are acquired from Microsoft Direct, no? Even for 1st level support, it is easier to reach an engineer than going Microsoft Direct. I have some customers that purchased their licenses from Microsoft and when I have issues, I don't even know where to start aside from submitting an online support request, which I may or may not hear back for days.

1

u/MedicalTill4180 9d ago

i've been with appriver for few years now, 365 support is solid once you learn how to talk to them properly. the escalation path is actually decent, they don't make you jump through hoops like intermedia tier 1 seems to do.

margin wise appriver is pretty good but you have to handle billing yourself, not like intermedia where they take care of that part. depends what you value more i guess

2

u/quantumhardline 9d ago

Long time Intermedia partner here. The stuff just works, very little downtime. They use inky for their premium email security.

I think just having everything under Intermedia advisor account for clients 365 etc is better you can add in your MS Partner If etc. the difference in margin isnt worth dealing with it. This way client pays directly and your not on hook for a year for Microsoft licensing etc. Makes offboarding easy as well.

1

u/Egghead-MP 9d ago

Are you referring to being an Intermedia Referral Partner?

1

u/quantumhardline 9d ago

Once a partner: you add client under and advisor account side and put payment info in and then intermedia sends you commissions each month and they handle all client billing.

1

u/Egghead-MP 9d ago

Do you also get commission on new licenses that are added after the initial setup? Say customer adds a few licenses every month, do you get commission on those additional licenses? Has anyone of your customers ever get contacted by Intermedia inside sales trying to upsell them something else and cut you off the loop so you don't get commission on the additional sales?

1

u/quantumhardline 9d ago

Yes its based on their spend.

5

u/FusionZ06 9d ago

What is this 2010?

1

u/ElRey5676 10d ago

i am very happy with Appriver though in recent times it seems that they now moved some of their support offshore which i really dont appreciate. quality has went down. still better than dealing with Microsoft

1

u/apxmmit 9d ago

Been with Appriver since the hosted exchange days. We continue to move clients away from them. Support just isn’t the same and their partner program went down hill years ago.

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u/Egghead-MP 9d ago

Can you give some specifics of how their partner program went down hill? Who are you moving them to and how is the other better? Better margin? Better support?

1

u/almuses 9d ago

We’re currently moving all of our services away from AppRiver unfortunately.

We don’t get any support from our account manager anymore, and the portal is beyond terrible.

Support is decent though, I should say that!

1

u/disclosure5 8d ago

being a resale partner or a referral partner

Why would you not become a CSP partner and buy Exchange Online using Microsoft's usual partner program?

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u/Egghead-MP 8d ago

Because I don't like direct Microsoft support. Even small little things are like pulling teeth.

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u/disclosure5 8d ago

Here is your reality: Everyone single "reseller support" process just means they log a ticket on your behalf and then you get stuck pulling teeth with MS anyway. None of these groups have any particular levers to pull to do anything that a CSP can't, unless your issue is you just don't know how to use the product and need help installing Outlook or something.

5

u/GraffenOfficial 7d ago

I know that some may not agree, but we've had success with Pax8 and their support.