The Numbers Prove My Warnings!

by ray stasieczko November 02, 2025

Recently, The Cannata Report released the results of its 40th dealer survey, and the numbers were horrific!

The good thing about this published Survey is that dealers now know what I have been warning about is real. I am hopeful that the industry will take these results seriously and forge a new path forward regarding their IT services diversification.

A quick note, I am sure at the ConnectWise IT Nation Meeting this week someone will stand on stage and tell the audience that (X) percentage of the top ConnectWise customers come from the print industry! That message is completely irrelevant to the print industry being successful at diversifying into IT services. As I don’t believe any successful print services company wants to build a sub $2 million dollar lifestyle IT services business.

Over the last decade, I have been vocal about the print services industry diversifying into IT services. Too many dealers still cannot monetize five-figure assessment fees and monthly contracts. The sale of low-dollar contracts without fee-based assessments will not lead to anything beyond a small lifestyle IT business and according to the Cannata 40th Survey that is what most are building.

So, my repeated question is: why does a print dealer running a 10-15 million-dollar print services company want to build a 1-2 million-dollar IT business?

So, what is the issue in the lack of real momentum?

Over the last decade, how many IT service PSA/RMM platforms have been aggressively pursuing the print industry's actors? Folks, for the most part, one! Yes, I am talking about ConnectWise! Yes, there are others and I still cringe at the folks who were telling the print industry to follow their lead and they could get a 37% EBITDA - WTF! Was the least I said regarding that nonsense.

I am going to share in this article why I believe ConnectWise is not helping the print industry and why, in my view, ConnectWise is delusional in its past and current aspirations regarding the print industry. Again, they are not the only IT service platform I see as delusional; they are just the biggest.

I believe that when ConnectWise merged Continuum into its platform, it adopted the Continuum Mindset regarding the print channel, and that outdated mindset still prevails and is what I see as the failure in ConnectWise actually helping in the print industry's aspirations to diversify into IT services with a respectable percentage of overall revenues. I believe after a decade dealers should be at least 40% or greater and they nowhere close.

Let's go back in time a bit. Who in the print services channel remembers a company called Continuum?

Continuum was a Master Service Provider headquartered in Boston. It was In the 2013 timeframe, Continuum began to become obsessed with helping the print services industry diversify into IT services. So they hired some print executives to help navigate the print channel using the Continuum platform. It has been 13 years, and the results are not impressive.

A little history, Continuum was the rebranding of the Zenith RMM platform, which was spun off from Zenith Infotech following the major bond default at Zenith Infotech in September 2011.

I don't believe Continuum ever had a viable business model and was always more hype than reality, more hope than action!

I am thinking the folks leading Continuum at the beginning, along with their private equity owners, Summit Partners, were too focused on going public and never thought through the dysfunctions that occur when MSPs outsource help desk services. Especially those MSPs who were selling high four- or five-figure service contracts.

Now comes 2017, the year Summit Partners sells Continuum to Thoma Bravo. Within a couple of years of that, in February 2019, ConnectWise was purchased by Thoma Bravo. This development leads me to suggest that Thoma Bravo would dump Continuum into the ConnectWise platform. That happened in October 2019.

Before the merger of Continuum into ConnectWise, I, along with many others, considered ConnectWise the leading PSA/RMM player in the industry.

However, over the years since the merger, as I continue to witness how ConnectWise approaches the print services industry, it seems the Continuum mindset has overtaken the ConnectWise mindset. I don't see ConnectWise as the mighty PSA/RMM they once were.

Kaseya continues to take market share, and new players like HALO PSA are gaining momentum. I believe ConnectWise is losing to competitive platforms because it is distracted by the noise of being a Master service provider. I believe ConnectWise lost its way when it merged Continuum into its once world-class platform.

It does seem as the few dealers who reach a successful IT diversification are leaving the noise of ConnectWise for Kaseya and HALO PSA. Maybe both HALO PSA and Kaseya figured out it's not about chasing the print industry based on a 2013 lifestyle MSP mindsets. Instead It's about onboarding enterprise best in class MSPs.

So, here we are at the end of 2025, and according to the Cannata 40th survey, my friends in the print industry who have diversified into managed IT services average only 7.6% of their total revenues coming from managed IT services. That's not a diversification, it's a hobby! BTW, the difference between a hobby and a business is profit. I would also add that hobbies have zero accountability and profitable businesses live by accountability.

Think about that percentage 7.6% so, a $15 Million print dealer has a $1.1 Million IT services business! That's not near enough and tells me that the average customer size is way too small. I would also think these organization lack the human capital needed to monazite five figure assessments. and the ability to move up market.

Over the last decade, I have been critical of the print channel building what I describe as lifestyle IT services businesses. Selling low-revenue, low-profit contracts. That approach might be OK for 90% of the MSPs using ConnectWise. Or for the MSPs who attach themselves to any IT services platform, where over 90% of its MSP members run sub-$3-million businesses.

The Cannata 40th survey should have been an alarm bell to all those helping the industry transition into IT services because the low numbers prove many of the print dealers are failing at their aspirations towards building an enterprise IT business.

So of course, one would ask: do the folks at ConnectWise or any other platform helping the print channel pursue their IT aspirations really care if dealers only build hobby IT businesses? Especially if they pay the dues as they build their hobbies.

Only 7.9% of a dealer's revenues after over a decade in the industry selling IT services is way too low, and the dealers have to decide if they are really serious about IT or happy maintaining a process that will lead them to nothing they once dreamed of.

In closing, ConnectWise should spin off the old Continuum Platform and return to being a world-class PSA/RMM.

ConnectWise, like others attempting to help the print industry transition, should stop believing that outdated relationships, rather than expertise, based in realities better serve the print industry.

Again, I find it very puzzling that I am the only one screaming about what the Cannata 40th survey highlighted regarding the industry's failed IT diversification.

In my thinking, there are no other screams because too many in the industry get paid not to scream and do quite well pandering to an industry living in hope! I suggest hope has failed the industry and it’s now time to replace hope with action!

For those interested, here's a link to my End Of The Day With Ray Episode where I dig into the numbers referenced on the Cannata 40th Survey.

Episode digging into Cannata 40th Survey

Ray Stasieczko, Host of The End Of The Day With Ray!

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