Weak Economy Begins to Impact Managed Service Providers
I’m not ready to press a panic button or sound an alarm. Generally speaking, the managed services market remains healthy and growing rapidly. But the weak US economy is starting to impact some managed service providers, according to a recent MSP roundtable attended by Axis Business Solutions.
Managed Microsoft SharePoint Services Continue to Proliferate
Anecdotal evidence suggests that managed service providers are pushing deeper into the Microsoft applications market. Most of the Microsoft-centric initiatives seem to involve hosted Exchange Server, Dynamics CRM and /or SharePoint applications.
RightNow: Will SaaS Sales Shine Today?
RightNow, a CRM provider that has been shifting to a software as a service (SaaS) business model, is scheduled to release financial results after US markets close today.
Dell Prepares to Brief Managed Service Providers
Dell on May 1 is set to host a webinar for its certified managed service provider partners. The company is working overtime to brief press (including MSPmentor) about the webinar.
Kaseya Extends Safety Net to Managed Service Providers
Sometimes, managed service providers (MSPs) struggle to scale their business while fulfilling service level agreements (SLAs) with customers. With that challenge in mind, Kaseya has launched Network Operations Center (NOC) Assist, which allows MSPs to leverage Kaseya’s talent pool without hiring more full-time employees.
JAJAH Launches Managed Voice Service
Smith on VoIP, one of my favorite blogs, has an interesting piece today about JAJAH — a fast-growing “Voice 2.0″ company that just signed up its 10 millionth customer. Now, according to Smith on VoIP, JAJAH is launching JAJAH Managed Services, positioned as:
“a turnkey telephony service, with everything from network services to billing incorporated in the package.” More importantly, however, Yahoo! will be utilizing the JAJAH platform to provide voice services for their 97 million Yahoo IM users.
For managed service providers, JAJAH represents the latest opportunity to embrace and extend a telephony platform with your own custom code.
Update: Top 250 Managed Services Experts
We’ve updated our MSPmentor 250 map to reflect many of our recent reader nominations.
MSP Acquisitions: Alentus Buys Linux Hosting Firms
Mergers and acquisitions continue at a rapid pace in the managed services industry. The latest deal involves Alentus — a managed service provider with software as a service expertise — acquiring two Linux-centric hosting firms.
Microsoft Set to Counter Google Apps
Microsoft is preparing an “application streaming” initiative, in an effort to more effectively position Microsoft Office against Google Apps, according to ComputerWorld. Anyone who thinks this is nothing more than a commodity software war needs to think again.
Dell Misses Mark On MessageOne Announcement
When it comes to Dell’s partner communications, subtle statements — and non-statements — count for a lot. On the one hand, Dell has worked overtime to tell VARs and managed service providers how to participate in the company’s growing partner program. Kudos. But on the other hand, Dell is potentially sabotaging its own partner program with some of its software as a service (SaaS) press materials.
