MSPmentor

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.

Here are some anecdotal stats and trends culled from the event. Read More >

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.

The latest example involves Azaleos Corp. — a well-known MSP focused on Exchange Server — launching a managed SharePoint Server 2007 service called OneStop ViewPoint. The Azaleos strategy also involves a hybrid on-premise/off-premise MSP model, where some equipment is deployed at customer sites and other software runs remotely.

Here’s what aspiring MSPs can learn from the Azaleos strategy.

Read More >

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.

RightNow’s results could give managed service providers and SaaS enthusiasts a few hints about the overall health of the on-demand software industry. Also, RightNow may help other companies to better plan their own shifts to SaaS.

So far, the move to SaaS hasn’t gone very smoothly for RightNow. The company hit a few financial bumps in recent quarters, but received an upgrade from one investment firm on March 31. We’ll be back with some analysis of RightNow’s results once they’re announced.

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.

I will certainly welcome the briefing. I beat up Dell a bit on April 25 for issuing a press release in which the company described how end-customers will benefit from managed services. Unfortunately, the release made no mention of Dell’s MSP partners.

This time around, I expect Dell to communicate much more clearly. Here’s what to expect from the company on May 1. Read More >

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.

From where I sit, NOC Assist is part of a bigger trend in the managed services market. From Autotask to ConnectWise, OnForce and Kaseya, many MSP platform providers and IT market places are striving to help MSPs find more talent (through partnerships or vendor relationships) without increasing full-time payroll. Read More >

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. Read More >

We’ve updated our MSPmentor 250 map to reflect many of our recent reader nominations.

But I’ve got to be honest: We still need to plot an additional 50 nominations on the map below. It seems like the pace of nominations is accelerating as we near our final deadline for the MSPmentor 250 list. That final list, to be unveiled in July, will likely include CEOs, senior executives, entrepreneurs, consultants and other MSP experts from around the world.

To nominate someone for the MSPmentor 250 and for complete details about the forthcoming list, check out our MSPmentor 250 center.

Here’s a quick look at the updated nomination map:

View Larger Map

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.

Based in Laguna Niguel, Calif., Alentus snapped up Austin, Texas-based Website Source, Inc. and SpeedFox, Inc., which specialize in Linux website hosting. The acquisitions reinforce the growing popularity of hosting both open source and closed source applications under one roof.

Alentus’s acquisitions are the latest in a growing list of MSP buyouts followed by our MSPmentor M&A Tracker.

Read More >