MSPmentor

As we all keep our eyes on Hurricane Gustav, our first thoughts turn to the safety and well-being of everyone caught in the storm’s path. In the days ahead, MSPmentor will write about contingency planning, managed services and cloud computing — and their potential role in disaster recovery efforts. But ultimately, we’ll strive not to lose sight of the fact that millions of Americans have been displaced by Gustav.

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Disappointing quarterly results at Dell Inc. dragged down MSPmentor’s SaaS 20 Stock Index for the week ended August 29. The index, which tracks the software as a service industry, fell 2.13% during the week.

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Erick Simpson over at MSP University has introduced a new managed services book, titled “The Best I.T. Service Delivery Book Ever.” I haven’t seen it or read it yet. But perhaps he’ll hand me an autographed copy when we meet at MSP Revolution in Chicago?

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Attention U.S. business owners and entrepreneurs: We’re heading into a holiday weekend. Employees are already looking at the clock. Your staff has been working overtime to drive growth and improve customer satisfaction amid a mixed economy.

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Managed service provider partner summits are becoming quite the rage. In addition to industry summits hosted by CompTIA, MSPAlliance and MSPSN, the list of vendor-hosted events (ConnectWise Partner Summit, N-able Partner Summit) continues to grow. Do some quick math, and more than 1,000 managed service providers will be attending partner and vendor events this fall.

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Sixty-two percent of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) now use managed IT and telecom services, according to the firm Research and Markets. That sounds impressive, but I’m always a little wary of such big claims about the managed services market. Here’s why.

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If you’re heading to the MSP Revolution managed services summit in Chicago on September 4, you might want to arrive a little early. Stuart Selbst (from Secure My Company) and Matt Makowitz (author, A Guide to Selling Managed Services) are holding a pre-event session titled “How to Add $100k (Or More) In Revenue In the Next 6 Months.” The session runs 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on September 4. Find details here.

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A single email from Nimsoft to me has now spiraled into a conversation involving hundreds of readers. What happened? Nimsoft alerted me earlier this week that the company had landed on the Inc. 5000 list, which identifies the fastest growing privately held companies in the United States.

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Earlier this week I noticed both ConnectWise and Nimsoft on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing privately held US companies. But I overlooked Everon Technology Services, one of the industry’s most vocal managed service providers.

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Managed storage providers take note: CDW is launching a remote backup service based on Asigra Televaulting, according to a press release from Asigra. The CDW-Asigra relationship comes only a week after MSPmentor readers debated whether basic online backup services would commoditize. Anybody concerned about CDW pushing deeper into this market or is this a non-event for managed service providers?

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Welcome to MSPmentor Live: Podcast edition. In this episode, I interview Dell’s Greg Davis, VP and GM, Americas Channel Program, about a range of issues (PartnerDirect, managed services, acquisitions, and plenty more). Tune in now…

• Episode #: 009 (August 27, 2008)
• Featured Guest: Greg Davis, VP and GM, Americas Channel Program, Dell Inc.
• Topics Covered: The podcast runs about 15 minutes and has four main sections:
  • 00:49: PartnerDirect: The story so far
  • 05:21: Global partner strategy
  • 07:29: Acquisitions: Sorting out Silverback, Everdream, MessageOne and EqualLogic
  • 13:01: What’s ahead for partners?
• Other Highlights: Davis describes how partners can contact him directly with questions; and he touches on new initiatives that will lower deal registration requirements to $25,000 (from the current minimum of $50,000); plus a push toward IT certifications for vertical markets (health care, federal government), MSPs and ISVs.

And check the MSPmentor Live: Podcast Center for additional weekly podcasts.

 

 MSPmentor Live: Podcast Featuring Dell Channel Chief Greg Davis [16:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Managed service providers have flooded me with email in recent days. Dozens of MSPs wanted more information about Sparxent, a start-up company in Salt Lake City, Utah, that’s acquiring MSPs and solutions providers across the globe.

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MSPmentor Editorial Director Joe Panettieri will be among the guest speakers at MSP Revolution, a managed services summit scheduled for Sept. 4-7 in Chicago. If you’re a managed service provider seeking information about the summit, visit www.MSPrevolution.com.

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Sparxent, a start-up company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, is seeking to acquire managed service providers and VARs that generate roughly $5 million to $20 million in annual revenues.

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ConnectWise and Nimsoft, two prominent companies in the managed services market, rank among the United States’ fastest-growing privately held software companies, according to Inc. Magazine’s annual Inc. 5000 list.

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MSPmentor and its sister site, The VAR Guy, are scheduled to record a podcast August 26 with Greg Davis, vice president and general manager of Dell Inc.’s Americas Channel Group. Davis leads Dell’s PartnerDirect channel initiative. If you have questions or comments for Davis, please send them to our editorial director, Joe Panettieri (joe [at] ninelivesmediainc.com).

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Don’t forget to register now for our next MSPmentor Live: CEO Exchange. The managed services webcast is scheduled for September 10 at 2:00 p.m. eastern.

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Salesforce.com (CRM) delivered good news — and bad news — in its latest quarterly results, pulling down the SaaS 20 Stock Index 2.86 percent for the week ended August 22. It’s the first time since July 11 that our software as a service index has posted a weekly decline.

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I spent some time at Kaseya’s User Conference in Las Vegas. Here is a poolside video interview featuring Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie.

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I just got off the phone with one of my first editors — the man who showed me the ropes in the high-tech industry. Back in 1992 at InformationWeek, he made two rather stunning statements to me that I never forgot:

1. Software Never Dies
2. Software Wants to Be Free

Remember, he made those statements long before open source and the Internet revolutionized the way we think about software and collaboration. And both statements are critically important to managed service providers. Here’s why.

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This just in from MSPmentor’s sister site, The VAR Guy: A start-up company, currently working in stealth mode, intends to acquire multiple VARs, integrators and managed service providers. Total combined revenues for the acquired companies will be about $100 million to $120 million.

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I spoke with Avnet Technology Solutions on August 20 to get more details about their expanded OneTech Managed Services initiative, which the company announced earlier this week.

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MSPmentor Editorial Director Joe Panettieri will be answering questions and driving attendee discussions at several upcoming managed services summits, conference and Webcasts.

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