Kaseya continues to put the final polish on its next major software platform — which will include on-premise and SaaS (software as a service) components. But the company is rethinking whether to call a major new release Kaseya 6, according CEO Gerald Blackie. Here’s more on Kaseya’s branding and launch strategy.
According to an email from Blackie:
“K6 [short for Kaseya 6] is in production (we are not going to go with that designation at release – most likely Kaseya 2 for second generation) with several of our customers — and its all going very, very well. We will expand this limited rolling release as we go week to week and are finding it very a nice, stable release given everything that has been included in the base framework.”
Still, don’t expect a massive launch day where Kaseya pushes all customers to the new platform. Instead, Kaseya plans to gradually move the software out to a larger and larger base of customers through the balance of the year, according to Blackie. One reason for the controlled, gradual roll out: Kaseya in 2008 took some lumps for a major upgrade that suffered several support bumps.
SaaS In October
Meanwhile, Blackie says Kaseya’s SaaS strategy is “rolling continuously and a big piece of it is expected to come alive in October.”
Back in June 2009, Blackie discussed Kaseya’s vision for a SaaS portal that would allow MSPs to pick and choose from a range of services — including online storage. And in August 2009 at the CompTIA Breakaway conference, Blackie in this video described Kaseya’s emerging SaaS relationship with The ASCII Group:
The Big Question
For Kaseya, SaaS is both an opportunity and a challenge. In particular, the company will need to come up with a compelling SaaS subscription model that doesn’t pull the rug out of Kaseya’s traditional on-premise software business.
It’s a familiar challenge. Many MSP-oriented software providers — including ConnectWise, Dell’s Silverback Technology, Level Platforms and N-able — have pushed beyond on-premise options to introduce hosted or SaaS approaches. Still others such as Autotask, GFI Max (formerly HoundDog Technology) and Paglo have successfully focused purely on SaaS from the start.
We’ll be watching as Kaseya prepares to pull back the curtain on its cloud applications.
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Posted In: On Premise | Professional Services Automation (PSA) | Remote Monitoring & Management Software | Software as a Service and Hardware as a Service
Tags: Dell Silverback | GFI Max | Hosted ConnectWise | Kaseya 6 | Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie | Kaseya Cloud | Kaseya SaaS | Level Platforms | N-able | Software as a Service and Hardware as a Service
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Can you say support support support and $$$$$$$$ thats all that Kaseya is about give me give me then dont call me go away tell you want to buy something more.
I understand that you may be frustrated with Kaseya support. However, It is common knowledge that Kaseya support has been improving since August of this year. Each month, I have posted monthly statistics at blog.kaseya.com providing the feedback scores from Kaseya customers. Here are the stats for September. As you can see they are very positive
These stats are based on the percentage of positive response.
1 How satisfied are you with the handling of your issue? 88.8%
2 Request handled in a timely fashion 92.8%
3 Support Reps were knowledgeable 90.1%
4 You were given good advice 87.5%
5 Reps were courteous 98.7%
6 Reps communicated clearly 96.1%
7 Given regular progress updates 92.1%
Although it is impossible to meet 100% of expectations 100% of the time, we will continue to do our best in meeting the needs of our customers.
If you are having issues with a specific support request. Please contact me directly at chad.gniffke(theatsign)kaseya.com with your support ticket number. I will escalate accordingly and insure that you receive a response.
Lastly, why is it that Kaseya continues to come out with new products that just cost our customers more money? I will quote my father to answer this question. “I would rather tell you today why it costs what it costs, then apologize later for not being able to keep my business open due to lack of revenue.” Being in business 5 years from now should be one of the most important aspects in choosing an IT management platform. Many MSP focused applications are hurting financially and it is uncertain whether they will be around in a year or two. Kaseya, on the other hand, is profitable, has not outside investors, and despite the downturn in the market, has hired more staff to improve the products and its’ offering.
Chad: Thanks for stepping into the discussion with some stats. I’m not here to defend or endorse Kaseya. But I do know our readers value the fact that people like you respond when an alleged issue pops up in our comments area.