Interview with Mr. Gil Pekelman, CEO of Atera

Modern IT companies are not just “local businesses,” and this is especially true with managed service providers. An administrator may be responsible for managing a network spanning across several states and regions. This can be a daunting task, and humans can’t be available 24/7.

To solve these issues, most IT organizations are investing in Remote Monitoring Management (RMM) tools to solve key issues. Even if there is a serious network or ticket issue after work hours, an RMM software can easily handle it.

Atera is one such cutting software that helps providers switch from reactive to proactive IT service providers by solving problems in advance. The tool gives you real-time alerts about potential issues so that you can solve them proactively. From task management to service management to command prompt access, you get full maintenance capabilities at your fingertips.

In Conversation with Mr. Gil Pekelman, CEO of Atera

We are glad to have interviewed Mr. Gil Pekelman, CEO of Atera, and gained insights into his company’s journey so far.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

A warm welcome from SoftwareSuggest Mr. Pekelman; our readers are eager to know about your & Atera’s journey so far. So tell us, how did it all start?

I started the company from scratch, bootstrapped it all on my own. In the beginning, it was just me and Oshri, Atera’s co-founder and CTO, and two others. From the very start, we wanted to help the IT professional, the MSP (Managed Service Provider), but it took us 5 years to get it right. We started out as a Firewall company. We worked all the time, well into the night for years.

In 2011 we started developing a RMM (Remote Monitoring and Management) and PSA (Professional Services Automation) product and began selling through direct sales, but that didn’t work so well. We decided to take a step back and analyze what we were doing and why it wasn’t working.

Our hard work paid off, in 2014, we discovered what MSPs really need. An all-in-one, cloud-based, Remote Monitoring and Management and Professional Services Automation software, that at its core is a predictive incident system that turns IT professionals from reactive task takers to proactive. We created a platform that runs the entire business of an MSP and IT professional.

With that in mind and 2 years of development later, we re-launched Atera in 2016.

What was the idea or impetus behind creating Atera?

After years of research and being in close contact with users, we understood that there was a gap in the market, a need that wasn’t being addressed. IT professionals were working as plumbers, going from place to place to fix issues.

There wasn’t any solution out there that was affordable, easy to use, that would enable users to predict and remedy issues before they become a problem, one single platform for all their needs to run an IT business.

That’s how Atera was created, to fill that void and help IT professionals grow their business.

What separates Atera from its competitors?

From the early stages, we knew that we wanted to build something different than what was available in the market.

The legacy solutions are clunky, with old technology, no scale, no data, automation is difficult, it’s expensive and not intuitive.

We’re here to change the industry. We’re disruptors, visionaries, and innovators. We were the first to introduce an all-in-one RMM and PSA with unlimited devices whose pricing model is pay per technician, without contracts or salespeople. Atera is intuitive, enjoyable, and simple to use. It’s everything an IT needs in one place.

We’re also cloud-based, and we run under a single code base – the only ones in the market. 

How has your sales & marketing strategy evolved during the shift from normal to new-normal?

Since COVID hit, we reevaluated our roadmap and prioritized features to ease IT professional’s work during these times. For example, we worked around the clock to launch the Work From Home tool in a matter of days, which was a huge success with our customers. One of our customers, Warwick Burns, owner of Warwick Data solutions, had it set up for his customer base that very day. He said it was the perfect solution at the perfect time that genuinely helped him and his customers.

One other aspect that became even more obvious is that the legacy solutions’ pricing model does not make sense because it goes against the best interest of the IT professionals.

For example, when COVID hit, suddenly people had to start working from home and IT professionals had to monitor 2x or 3x more devices (home and office).  This means that the bill would be 2-3x what it used to be, and the client would have to pay. Especially now, that is not good because everyone is trying to save money.

What is your vision and plan for taking Atera to greater heights in the next 5 years? Any new updates that we should be excited about?

We’re working on a number of innovations that will change the industry. We want to create something that transforms the service of the IT provider so dramatically that he’s no longer overworked or underpaid. This will make it difficult for our competitors to compete with

I’d love to say more and give more details, but it’s hush-hush until we release it to the public.

Be in constant touch with your customer. Observe them in their work, what are the pain points, etc

What motivates and strengthens you to keep up with the competition?

We work hard to make the best solution for our clients, which is why a lot of our growth is through word of mouth. Our community spreads the word about Atera because they love it.

We’re constantly in touch with our highly active and engaged community. In fact, everyone in our company is engaged with our community. Their feedback, suggestions and requests guide our roadmap.

When we hear how they’ve grown their business, how they’ve saved money, how they spend more time with their family, these are big motivators for us. I’m in touch with our clients on a weekly basis and getting those emails and messages on social means the most.

One of our oldest clients, Brad Johnston, owner of My Local IT Guy, who’s a good friend now, said how Atera has been a revolution for him because it’s everything at his fingertips. That means the world to us.