The VAR Guy

Former SAP Global Channel Chief Pat Hume has joined GFI Software, The VAR Guy has heard. Hume’s move to GFI Software, promoter of SaaS and cloud-based management tools for VARs and MSPs, signals a strategic win for the managed services market, The VAR Guy believes. Here’s the scoop.

Hume left SAP earlier this year. She’ll join GFI Software as senior VP of Worldwide Sales, leading the fast-growing company’s worldwide channel sales program. In a recent interview with MSPmentor, GFI Software CEO Walter Scott said the company now had more than 3,000 managed services channel partners. Hume will report directly to Scott, The VAR Guy has heard.

What promoted Hume’s career move? The VAR Guy hopes to find more answers on Thursday, Feb. 10 (hint, hint: Tune in). UPDATE, February 10, 2011: Hume describes her decision to join GFI Software in this MSPmentor interview.

In the meantime, Hume’s move to GFI Software is significant for multiple reasons:

• In addition to her global channel chief work at SAP, Hume has also focused on the SMB channel for SAP and Avaya. She also held a key channel partner post at IBM Lotus.
• Many channel chiefs from major software companies have overlooked the MSP channel. In mid-2010, Microsoft Channel Chief Jon Roskill conceded that he was still getting up to speed on managed services.
• SAP itself was late to the SaaS market with a credible offering, though the company now seems to be gaining momentum with the Business ByDesign SaaS platform.

By joining GFI Software, Hume essentially endorses the managed services and SaaS channel movements.

For its part, GFI Software has been in growth and acquisition mode. The company is increasingly well-known for its GFI Max brand, which includes remote monitoring and management (RMM), anti-virus and anti-spam capabilities for VARs and MSPs. The GFI Max portfolio is SaaS-based.

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