MSPmentor

Even banks and financial services firms are discovering the power of managed services. A case in point: Square 1 Bank, which works closely with venture capital firms, has embraced managed services from Hosted Solutions. Under terms of the relationship, Hosted Solutions’ Raleigh, N.C., data center will host Square 1’s core applications. The deal also calls for Hosted Solutions to offer dedicated servers, managed back ups, SAN storage, monitoring, managed security, internet services, and network connectivity.

I ran into Hailey Lynne McKeefry, a freelance writer, at the MSP Alliance conference earlier this week. She was busy doing a series of interviews at the event, so I knew she was prepping a story on managed services. But what specific piece of the managed services puzzle was she investigating? I finally have my answer. Hailey has posted this story on MSP pay scales over at TechTarget.

Can you really become a managed service provider (MSP) in 30 days or less? Frankly, I doubt it. There are too many challenges in terms of sales, marketing, technology, customer education, etc. However, small business consultant Karl Palachuk is writing a series of blog entries to show solutions providers how to become MSPs in 30 days. I’m looking forward to reading Karl’s updates. Here’s his first piece on the topic.

Autotask made an intriguing move this week with its product branding. Solutions providers and software companies should take note. As Autotask prepared to launch an entry-level MSP solution, the company must have been tempted to call it “Autotask Lite.” In my humble opinion that would have been a mistake. Here’s why. Read More >

If cost is the biggest hurdle standing between you and a managed services practice, consider this: Autotask has launched a new, low-cost managed services platform called Autotask Go! The hosted MSP platform has a fixed fee of $99 and no start-up costs. And the user interface resembles intuitive, consumer-oriented designs (a la Quicken or Google Analytics).

According to Autotask CEO Bob Godgart, the Go! edition is designed for solutions providers with three or fewer employees. Godgart has been hinting about a potential low-cost solution for a few months, and officially announced it the SMB Nation conference in Seattle. Read More >

I just got off the phone with Autotask CEO Bob Godgart. He’s out at the SMB Nation conference in Seattle to share his managed services vision and make a few strategic announcements.

Godgart has a habit of sharing interesting factoids that a lot of people may otherwise overlook. A case in point: He’s extremely upbeat about managed service platforms converging with the mobile market. Surely, field technicians and mobile executives want to access their MSP dashboards from handhelds, smart phones and other devices.

Skeptical? Don’t be. The number of people leveraging Autotask’s LiveMobile software has doubled in the past 45 days, according to Godgart. The software’s CRM (customer relationship management) component is particularly popular, Godgart adds.

Check this site again on September 28 for more perspectives from Godgart. If you do, you’ll learn why Godgart had such a strong motivation to “go” to the SMB Nation event.

Okay, I was a little bit off with my dates. Last week, I suggested that a few low-cost managed service provider solutions would debut this week at the MSP Alliance conference in San Jose. I was half-right.

Untangle, an open source network security company, unveiled an MSP program with no up-front costs for solutions providers. But there’s more news coming. I hear that at least one — or two — MSP platform providers will use the SMB Nation event in Redmond, Wash., to unveil extremely targeted solutions for very small businesses. I’ll share more details later this week.

I lifted the headline for this blog entry from a presentation David Strom delivered this morning at the MSP Alliance conference in San Jose. So, what were the five disruptive technologies? Three of them were obvious, but David caught my ear with his analysis of the other two — and some timely perspective on Microsoft Small Business Server. Read More >