LPI Level Platforms Inc. says it has enhanced and simplified its partner program to help managed service providers (MSPs) go to market more quickly and effectively.
In some ways, I think Level Platforms’ announcement represents an inflection point for the managed services industry. The early mover stage is over, with many solutions providers succeeding (check out our MSPmentor 100 list) but others failing to cash in on managed services. Going forward, the challenge is to make sure new MSPs don’t repeat the mistakes of first-generation MSPs.
With that thought in mind, Level Platforms is documenting information from its most successful MSPs, and then sharing that content with aspiring managed service providers. Here’s a bit more on the strategy.
“As an industry we have done a real disservice by making managed services so intimidating. This program strips it down to the basics–increasing recurring service revenue, lowering costs and providing additional products and services your customers need to operate their businesses more effectively,” said Peter Sandiford, CEO Level Platforms, in a prepared statement.
I’m scheduled to speak with Sandiford on April 11, and will dig for more details. In the meantime, here are some quick highlights from the Level Platforms announcement. The expanded partner program features:
- In-depth white papers;
- best practice guides;
- end-user collateral;
- live-trainer courses; and
- one-on-one coaching
The white papers show solution providers how they can drive net new service revenue; reduce their service delivery and operations costs, and increase their product and service sales, asserts Level Platforms.
Several companies are taking similar steps to educate and share best practices with MSPs. Kaseya, for instance, in January launched a managed services resource program to help gather and funnel best practices information to MSPs.
Related Coverage
- February 11, 2008: Making Money With Managed Services, Guest blog from Level Platforms CEO Peter Sandiford
- January 14, 2008: SaaS and Managed Services: Friends or Foes, Guest blog from Level Platforms CEO Peter Sandiford
- December 19, 2007: Podcast with Level Platforms CEO Peter Sandiford
Posted In: Level Platforms | Marketing | Partner Program | Peter Sandiford | Platforms | Sales
Tags: Level Platforms | Level Platforms CEO Peter Sandiford | Managed Service Provider | Managed Services | MSP
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where do i find these new offers from level platforms? particularly interested in case studies. URL please.
I don’t want to speak for Level Platforms, but I think I can safely say you’ll find the info on the company’s partner site, http://levelplatforms.com/Partner-Program/.
Also, please note that I’m not endorsing Level or any of its rivals.
It’s MSPmentor’s policy, however, to respond to reader inquiries and comments whenever a key question is raised.
I would much rather see Level Platforms focus their energy and resources on fixing the long list of bugs in their product….
Rick: We certainly welcome comments — pro and con — on the site.
But if you’re going to throw Level Platforms under the bus, I request that you disclose who you are and your company affiliation. Sweeping, generic statements like yours — without any factual evidence disclosed — are at best pointless and at worst misleading.
Some important questions:
1. Do you work for a competitor or are you truly a Level Platforms customer?
2. What problems did you have and with what components? Every piece of software has bugs … so, what specific examples can you describe?
3. When and how did you elevate your concerns to Level Platforms and what response did you get?
Without these important questions answered, it’s impossible for readers to determine whether you’re a rival looking to trash a company, a customer who didn’t follow directions, or someone who has a legitimate concern.
I will happily endorse Level Platforms and would also like to respond the the statement about the many bugs. I do agree that there are bugs in the current SP2 release, however can you name an application that does not have bugs in it?
LPI is the 6th monitoring tool that we have used and I can tell you that it is much less buggy and much more feature rich than the 5 before it.
I believe that this is very standard practice for vendors; define the features you want to release and a timeline for them then develop the product with both of these in mind. There is no doubt that the software when released is going to have bugs in it, but the vendor will weigh the value of the new features vs the bugs that are still in the RTM product. This is where Service packs and patches come in to play.
I know that Level Platforms has been frantically testing their SP3 release and it is nearing completion with a release date near the end of this month. I too am looking forward to this release, but I am patiently waiting for it as the functionality in the current release is why I purchased the product.
Lane: Always good to have your perspectives.
To give our readers a bit more info, how many monitoring tools does Do IT Smarter now have available as a service to MSPs and what process did you use to select them?
We currently, offer SaaS models of Level Platforms, Silverback and SonicWALL GMS (although more a management tool than a monitoring tool). Without going into to to many details I can tell you that we go through a pretty extensive process before selecting any solution for our program.
We look at the company, what their support looks like, are they profitable, what their roadmap looks like, the technical features of the product, how simple is it to implement, can it scale, will the price point fit our resellers target customers, will the technology fit our resellers target customers, etc..
We know that our resellers count on us to provide them with the best of breed tools, so we we can’t let them down by offering a product that is anything less.