HaloPSA exec Tim Barton-Wines on the company’s “cheat code”

At XChange August, Halo’s CCO explained how it appeals to partners through its unique service proposition.

Professional services automation platform HaloPSA is privately owned and has publicly stated they will never be involved in any mergers, acquisitions or private equity deals. CCO Tim Barton-Wines called this their “cheat code”.

Speaking to CRN Australia at XChange August in Washington D.C. Barton-Wines said, "In this space there are two big players, and they acquire everything. It's a buy, not build mentality, and that's just an American way of life, which is fine.

“But it means that anyone who does enter the professional services automation (PSA) market gets acquired,” he noted.

“Trying to retain quality or competitiveness of the solution is very tough because it's so large, and it's about a third of the profit of wider backup and RM solutions.

“We do a release every two weeks, product first, long term thinking, privately owned, co-founder is the active CEO, and he's a developer by trade.”

Halo runs very lean with 300 staff globally and purposely positions its offices next to universities which Barton-Wines notes is part of their strategy.

“Halo has only ever hired graduates,” he explained.

“But essentially, if you go to website and look for a job, there's only one job: Halo graduates.”

Barton-Wines further explains the stance, “Because Halo hires graduates it means that you get a bunch of curious, young, competent staff who are mouldable.

“Who basically don't have entrenched values, ceilings, thoughts or behaviours that have come from an outside world. We basically begin to create this ecosystem. It's like an incubator where people don't know limits.”

According to the CCO, Halo is trying to take on British Telecom for the largest graduate scheme in the UK, as they’re number two.

View of the Australian market

During XChange August, Barton-Wines announced several new features including domain separation as a way for MSPs to move further upmarket and create new recurring-revenue opportunities.

Speaking to CRN Australia, he explained that this feature would be available in the Aussie region.

“Halo was an ITSM tool for internal IT teams, before it was a PSA for MSPs,” he said.

“If we can get a small team to take the only option on the market that is both because it's the same application and basically deliver ITIL, AI as a service and cybersecurity services to the SMB and mid market, that will be genuine industry innovation.”

For the long term, Barton-Wines wants to keep Halo on the same path of growing and developing.

“Build it, and they will come,” he explained.

He did note there is expansion plans in the mix for the APAC region.

“We are looking at a New Zealand office, and then the rest of Asia,” he added.

Looking at the Australian market, Barton-Wines has a soft spot for Aussies calling them “straight up” people.

“They're typically pioneers. It's they seem to be more mature operationally than other teams I work with. I don't know how that is,” he said.

“They just seem to adopt technology quicker and seem to be more open to the idea of change. They seem to be more willing to spend more proportion of their profit on it.”

HaloPSA has more than 40 Aussie staff with Dan Goldsmith at the helm of the Australian arm.

XChange August was held at the Gaylord National Resort in Maryland. XChange Australia will be held on September 16 at the Intercontinental Sydney.