SCOTTSDALE, AZ. – The primary market for Autotask’s IT process automation platform has traditionally been managed service providers (MSPs) serving the small and medium-sized business (SMB) space, but executives at the vendor’s annual Community Live 2013 user conference told attendees a new market is emerging: the enterprise space.

In an interview with CDN, Kevin Donovan, Autotask’s senior vice-president of global sales, said around the globe they see MSPs working with larger and larger IT organizations.

“There’s a shift happening where enterprise IT organizations want to run their internal IT like an MSP, so our tool becomes feasible for them,” said Donovan. “We were being dragged into conversations, so now we’re taking a more focused approach.”

Autotask’s preferred route to market here is through the channel. It prefers to work with MSPs that already have a relationship with enterprise clients, and help them close the sale. It has also created a referral program for consultants and reseller partners that want to bring Autotask to their enterprise clients. The implementation could reside either with the MSP or with the enterprise, but Donovan said it residing with the MSP is the preferred model.