As managed service providers seek to outsource work to one another, you’ll need to do your homework before signing on the dotted line. Generally speaking, I believe most managed service providers are honest, hardworking entrepreneurs. But there are a few horror stories in the managed services sector — the most famous one involving former Compulinx Managed Services CEO Terrence Chalk.
The former New York MSP owner allegedly stole his employees’ identities in 2006 and now faces separate charges for allegedly trying to defraud a Connecticut BMW dealership, reports Channel Insider’s Chris Gonsalves. Chris has been tracking the Chalk story since 2006, when he reported for VARbusiness and ChannelWeb.
Gonsalves’ reports are timely reminders to make sure you pursue thorough background checks before signing MSP-related partnerships.
Over the next few months, you’ll hear more and more about outsourcing management systems that allow MSPs to coordinate work with one another. Autotask and OnForce plan to announce joint work on such as system at XChange ‘08 (August 17-21, Dallas). Such systems could help to speed customer engagements and extend an MSP’s geographic reach through partners.
Posted In: HR
Tags: Channel Insider | ChannelWeb | Chris Gonsalves | Compulinx Managed Services CEO Terrence Chalk | Managed Service Provider | Managed Services | MSP | VARbusiness
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This story has been followed closely by many of us here in Connecticut providing MSP services. Our organization has taken the step of background checking all employees, which was once reserved for only our staff that interacted with our datacenter.
As we began looking deeper at our team and who touches personally identifiable data on a daily basis, both internally and externally, we found that it included everyone right down to our administrative staff. To insure regulatory compliance and security best practices for our clients, we started conducting background checks for all staff. This process has aided us not only in retaining the confidence of our existing clients, but has proven to be a big plus during the sales process. I have found out from clients that have subscribed to our services that the background check was a big differentiator in our service and many of the companies we competed against did not conduct backgrounds. Our sales team is now highlighting that fact on every sales call.
Background checks are standard practice for solutions providers that service the federal gov’t. Generally speaking, MSPs should follow that lead for the sake of their businesses — and their customers’ businesses.
WOW! These companies are JUST starting to do background checks? At Thorne Digital Media Group, Inc here in NYC, we do background checks on ANY prospective employee, even our graphic designers.
Nice to see the other companies out there finally putting some effort into protecting client data. We’ve been doing this as a SOP since inception in 2003.
Hey Lawrence: Good to hear your team does some real research before making a hire. Thanks for weighing in.