MSPmentor

On behalf of Kaseya I would like to wish the entire MSPmentor community and The VAR Guy (MSPmentor’s sister site) a healthy and prosperous new year! Looking forward I would like to offer the following predictions…

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In recent days, I’ve noticed a few folks joining Facebook groups organized by managed services-oriented software companies. Call me crazy, but I’m one of those Facebook users who rarely joins vendor and media groups on Facebook.

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Happy New Year a little early from MSPmentor. As you gear up for 2009, you can find dozens of managed services case studies, customer profiles and business strategy documents in the MSPmentor Resource Center (free registration required).

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Despite gloomy economic forecasts across much of the globe, N-able Technologies yesterday offered some upbeat perspectives to managed service providers. The Ottawa-based company says 2008 was a “record year” for N-able in terms of revenue, international growth and partner success.

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If you’re seeking a career in managed services, the MSPmentor Career Center (www.MSPmentor.net/careers) has new listings for multiple positions. The latest career opportunities include:

• A managed security services expert (Chicago)
• A ConnectWise administrator (New York)
• SaaS (software as a service) sales (New York)

If you’d like to advertise a position in the MSPmentor Career Center, the job board is free for anyone to use — as long as the career opportunity involves managed services, SaaS or the IT channel. Our current Career Center is a rudimentary system. Watch for enhancements to debut in January 2009.

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Watch the video above from Cisco Systems and Tata Communications, and you’ll see the “start” of the TelePresence revolution. But where is next-generation video conferencing heading next? Right into the living room, thanks to Cisco, OnForce, LifeSize Communications — and a range of managed service providers. Here’s how the market may unfold, and the roles MSPs and hardware as a service (HaaS) will play.

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eWeek has a glowing article about the booming market for IT co-location centers. It’s hard to argue with many of the anecdotes in the article — including a close look at ThePlanet.com, a company MSPmentor profiled earlier this month.

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When a managed service provider stumbles, you can bet plenty of rivals will swoop in and try to steal the MSP’s customer base.

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Small, nimble software companies — some of them promoting open source, many of them leveraging closed source — continue to attack big, legacy network and systems management platforms.

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Recently, I was updating my contact database and asked my newsletter recipients to answer a question along with giving me their mailing info. The question was, “What is the biggest challenge you faced when making (or thinking about) the transition from being an executive to being an entrepreneur?”

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Managed service providers are using a range of approaches to monitor and proactively troubleshoot customer networks over the holidays. According to MSPmentor’s weekly reader poll (fielded Dec. 22-26), during the holidays:

• 36 percent of MSPs have their own NOCs (network operation centers) supported by full-time staffers
• 41 percent of MSPs have full-time staff members working from home offices to monitor customer systems
• 9% of MSPs are outsourcing some of NOC services to a monitoring partner
• 9% of MSPs are outsourcing all NOC services to a monitoring partner
• 5% of MSPs are using another approach to maintain customer systems during the holidays

Sixty-six MSPs participated in the one-question poll. MSPmentor Weekly Polls debut each Monday on this Web site.

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Software as a service (SaaS) stocks are limping toward the close-of-2008 finish line. Our SaaS 20 Stock Index fell 2.81 percent for the week ending December 26 and the index is down 46.99 percent so far for 2008.

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As you develop your marketing, sales and PR strategies for managed services in 2009, you can embrace a range of closely related Web 2.0 technologies — blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds and so on. Which Web 2.0 technologies are right for managed service providers? Here are six tips to get you started.

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NetEx, which specializes in high speed data transport over TCP, plans to offer its data transport acceleration technologies to managed service providers, according to a press release from the company. NetEx’s solution, called HyperIP Data Transport, provides application acceleration for remote data replication and large file transfer requirements.

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As you sort out your managed services marketing strategy for 2009 (here are some tips), be sure to keep marketing’s best friend in mind: Public relations. Through some simple steps, you can generate positive media buzz about your managed services practice in 2009. And that buzz, in turn, can generate new sales leads.

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One of the managed services industry’s best-known Master MSPs is moving to a new software platform. Specifically, MSP Services Network (MSPSN) has migrated to itControl Suite.

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GroundWork Open Source and Roaring Penguin Software Inc. are preparing a technology alliance to jointly serve VARs and managed service providers starting in January 2009, MSPmentor has learned.

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I have a neighbor who really gets into Christmas.  His house is covered with lights and ornaments.  The combination of bright lights and shiny objects captures lots of attention, even prompting a local TV crew to broadcast in front of his house.

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Imagine if you wanted to take a traditional application and re-write it for software as a service (SaaS) deployments. How would you handle provisioning, billing, subscriptions, multi-tenancy and other variables in the SaaS equation?

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In a number of surveys, various researchers have determined that nearly 70% of companies are at risk for an e-discovery litigation headache. The root cause of the litigation headache is the fact that everyone from government agencies to regulators to judges views electronic communications as business records that must be produced and, in many cases preserved, by organizations.

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While some Web sites go dark during holiday weeks, MSPmentor will continue to bring you fresh content. Over the next week, we’ll offer five basic tips on:

• Marketing (Dec. 22)
• Sales (Dec. 23)
• PR (Dec. 24)
• Leveraging Web 2.0 Technologies (Dec. 26)

Let’s kick things off with marketing — which often represents a managed service provider’s greatest challenge. Your target customers need to hear your marketing messages at least seven times to influence a buying decision, according to About.com.

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If you have been dilly-dallying with the idea of starting a managed services business, look no further, 2009 is the ideal year for you to become an MSP. For a complete guide on how to setup a managed services business, plan for resources, and run it like a pro download this guide “How to become an MSP in 2009.”

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Some companies are closing their offices for the holidays. Other companies are carefully organizing employee vacation schedules to ensure customer service doesn’t lag. So, how is your company remotely monitoring customer networks during the holiday season? Take this quick poll and we’ll provide some conclusions on Friday, Dec. 26.

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