A simple blog posting set off an MSP firestorm this week for LogMeIn. The company is discontinuing LogMeIn Free, a popular way for MSPs to remotely work with customer’s machines. MSPs were given a scant 7 days warning, pony up for a premium service or be cut off.
In some regards it is hard to feel bad for MSPs that no longer get something for free. But remote access tools are critical, and if you are used to LogMeIn it is not always so easy to change.
LogMeIn may be shooting itself in the foot. After all, a big part of its future is partners, and irritating a bunch of MSPs may not be the best call. The biggest beef is not so much pushing users to a premium service, but the terribly short notice.
“This is a shame. As I receive an email notification today announcing the end of the service today! It's hard to make a shorter notice than that,” wrote one user on a LogMeIn message board. “Sorry, this shows no consideration to your customer base. I'll think twice before going for paid service alternative...I'm disappointed.”
There was, however, some misunderstanding as many MSPs thought they had less than a day to make a decision, when in fact it was a full week, still mighty short.
“After ten years, LogMeIn’s free remote access product, LogMeIn Free, is going away. We will be unifying our portfolio of free and premium remote access products into a single offering. This product will be a paid-only offering, and it will offer what we believe to be the best premium desktop, cloud and mobile access experience available on the market today. We will be notifying those impacted by the change in the coming days and weeks. In the meantime, we wanted to take a minute to explain the change and help users of LogMeIn’s access products better understand what this means for them,” the company said.
The seven day window begins the next time a user logs into LogMeIn.
LogMeIn Still Wants Partners
LogMeIn may have started with consumers, and moved up to SMBs, but it very much wants partners, the very partners that are upset that the beloved free service is going away. But LogMeIn Elevate partner is anything but going away. The program is aimed at MSPs, VARs and outsourced IT providers.
“LogMeIn Elevate, will give channel partners new ways for managing users across devices that blur work and personal lines, as well as across cloud-based apps and related data that span this myriad of devices,” the company said. “The channel program will also open the doors to resell LogMeIn's popular cloud collaboration apps, like join.me and Cubby, giving MSPs, VARs and IT service providers new ways to establish and grow client relationships.”
There are two parts to the program. The first part, rolling out now, is aimed at helping service provider partners provide support and management services for devices both bought by the employer and BYOD.
The other phase, coming later on this year, is a program to resell the company’s productivity and collaboration apps. Also included will be the ability to manage third party cloud apps using LogMeIn’s AppGuru.
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker
