Advisory Solutions reaches 1Password Certified Partner status

The launch of 1Password Enterprise Password Manager – MSP Edition marked a critical step in 1Password’s mission to support our Managed Service Provider (MSP) partnerships. Now, we are pleased to announce that Advisory Solutions, a New York City-based MSP that works with companies worldwide, has reached the Certified Tier in the 1Password Partner program.

1Password's new Certified tier is a milestone we’ve implemented to recognize the investment and success of MSP partners who have reached 1,000 or more managed external users. Advisory Solutions was able to become a Certified Partner by rapidly scaling its 1Password deployment to more than 1,000 managed users. This not only represents their dedication as a partner, but demonstrates that the Certified tier is an achievable milestone for MSPs committed to growing their 1Password practice. We’re excited to see companies like Advisory Solutions further the momentum behind 1Password’s MSP program and embrace the value of participating in it.

The journey to Certified Partner for 1Password MSPs

What does it take for an MSP to work their way up from Authorized to the Certified Tier? Jay Chaudhrey, Director of Business Development at Advisory Solutions, shares some of the key principles that Advisory Solutions followed to operationalize 1Password and become a Certified Partner so rapidly.

Authorized and Certified Partners

1Password’s MSP Partner Program now consists of two tiers: Authorized and Certified. Like every MSP in 1Password’s program, Advisory Solutions began as an Authorized Partner, establishing the operational foundation that ultimately led to the becoming a Certified Partner. At the Authorized Tier, partners gain immediate benefits, including specialized pricing NFR licenses for internal use, and enablement resources.

For Advisory Solutions, “It was really important for us to work with the best companies in their respective fields.” That’s how they found 1Password.

When it comes to finding the “best” tools, Chaudhrey says that Advisory Solutions focuses on, “Making sure the tool is easy to use and seeing what adoption looks like, and the best way we do that is by using the tool ourselves. So before we were 1Password partners, we were 1Password users.”

At the Authorized Tier, partners typically focus on:

• Deploying 1Password internally
• Delivering initial customer deployments
• Establishing operational familiarity with managing 1Password

The Certified Tier represents the next stage, when an MSP has reached 1,000 or more managed external users. For Advisory Solutions, achieving this status demonstrates that they’ve successfully operationalized 1Password within their service offering.

For Advisory Solutions, their journey to the Certified Tier began by identifying clients that would most benefit from 1Password – for instance, clients with a remote workforce, or those that have specific compliance needs. From there, Advisory Solutions was able to reach over 1,000 users rapidly to become a Certified Partner. As Chaudhrey says, “There wasn't much of a sale to be made. When you quickly realize what this accomplishes, the sale's kind of made on its own.”

This emphasizes how achievable it is for 1Password’s MSP partners to reach the Certified Tier and reap the rewards of the tier. For Certified Partners, 1Password offers further benefits: expanded enablement, marketing opportunities, and a regular cadence to participate in product feedback sessions and roadmap planning with 1Password.

Serving the needs of MSP clients

MSPs are naturally focused on serving the needs of their customers, and Advisory Solutions recognized that password managers were a critical solution for their clients.

Chaudhrey explains, “Our responsibility for our clients is making sure their endpoints are fully secure, and their users are fully secure.” Password managers represent a critical step to managing a critical security risk: credential compromise. When it comes to serving this need for clients, Chaudhrey says, “In this case, there's typically a right or wrong answer. Either you have a password manager, or you don't.”

For many MSP clients, security needs are focused on two major areas:

• Cybersecurity compliance
• Cyber insurance

According to Chaudhrey, “If you don't have a password manager, compliance gets very difficult, borderline impossible to pass… that's why implementing this tool becomes a very early conversation for them. The other part is cyber insurance. The reality is all the businesses need it, and a password management tool becomes very critical to it.”

Serving the needs of the MSP

Still, there are plenty of password managers on the market, and MSPs need to consider how different vendors can serve their needs.

For instance, Advisory Solutions has a small team that serves companies of all sizes. With 1Password: “Across the 5-person client to the 1,000-person client…it's one tool that we're experts at, and we recommend that to all of our clients. The win-win for our client is they don't feel the effects of feeling too small or too large for a tool. And for us, it doesn't change our processes, our support model, or how we implement them. All of that stays pretty much the same.”

More importantly, Advisory Solutions found true partnership from 1Password. As Chaudrey shared, “I even reached out to [1Password] about a client having adoption problems, and was pointed to specific documentation that might be helpful. That's the part that's often overlooked…That partnership piece is what takes it to the next level. We're not just a partner on paper.”

The Certified Tier is a significant achievement, and Advisory Solutions’ rapid success is due in no small part to their deep collaboration with the team at 1Password, who are dedicated to helping our partners reach the next stage as quickly and seamlessly as possible.

Scaling the solution

Once an MSP partners with 1Password, the journey to Certified Partner relies on how they scale the solution, both internally and for their clients.

Chaudhrey’s advice for MSPs that are just getting started with 1Password is to look at all the areas a password manager comes into play and answer some key questions:

• What does vault structure look like for a client?
• Who should get access to what vault?
• What does hiring look like?
• What does off-boarding look like?

As he put it, “I think getting those SOPs down is what really helped with adoption.” By answering those questions, Advisory Solutions was able to scale adoption quickly, achieving over 1,000 users and becoming a 1Password Certified Partner.

The next step for 1Password partners

1Password is already trusted by over 200,000 businesses to help them stay secure, and we wouldn’t have reached that figure without the support of our MSP partners.

We want to express both our sincere congratulations and our sincere gratitude to Certified Partners like Advisory Solutions, who have worked so closely with 1Password to pursue a shared mission: ensuring that security and productivity don’t have to be at odds, and enabling MSPs to deploy a security-first tool that their clients are happy to use.

Interested in joining the 1Password MSP program?

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