4. Power Management Vendors Aim To Drive Recurring Revenue Growth

The IT industry's leading power management players both jumped into the managed services fray this year with offerings and programs aimed at boosting recurring revenue opportunities for partners.

In January, Eaton launched a software offensive aimed at driving software, services and recurring revenue for midmarket data center-focused partners.

With the launch of the new Intelligent Power Manager (IPM) software version 1.52 on Feb. 1, the data center business unit of the $23 billion behemoth launched a "monetizing software" initiative aimed at driving high- margin software and services sales growth for partners.

Meanwhile, a new managed services program from APC by Schneider Electric, launched in May, is aimed at driving more recurring revenue for partners.

The program includes a new managed services certification, market development funds, and an 8 percent discount for bundling APC Smart-UPS, network card and one- or three-year extended warranty.

With the new program, APC has integrated its Smart-UPS power management and monitoring into managed services platforms such as ConnectWise, N-able, Kaseya and AVG. The managed services platforms provide partners with the ability to monitor an installed base of as many as 3 million APC-Smart UPS devices.