I think everyone would do well to take note of your last comment…

Hint: Focus on scaling your “service” offerings and not reselling “stuff”.

I think the Connectwise CEO has shared this sentiment of late given their investment in hosted services before the announcement of MOS. David said something along the lines of “you gotta get paid for your what you know”

While I was prepared initially to be up in arms against MS and their restrictive low margin opportunity, the recent changes steered me away from Google Apps and also reminded me that resellers of IT stuff have a hard time making boat payments in ANY economy.

Also, as a partner we just recieved 250 free BPOS licenses for internal use, which is about a $2500/month value. No cost to join the program, took less than a day to complete requirements.

The invoicing and 12%/6% still isnt great, but they are offering $500 deployment incentives and anyway do we really want to sell email accounts for a living?

LotusLive is touting a price drop for the web mail (iNotes or whatever) for $3/user/month. This isnt as interesting to me as their Connections product (previously I beta tested it as BlueHouse) which is a secure social network/project management/collaboration site that allows you to work with co-workers as well as customers/contractors.

Michael@5: Thanks again for your time back at CompTIA Breakaway. You opened my eyes to a few things.

Jeff@6: Thanks for your time at ConnectWise Partner Summit. Looking forward to continued updates from you and Stephen Cho.
-jp

With less money flowing into the pockets of fewer vendors, we can expect to see both increased consolidation and fierce competition for the IT spending that remains. Those MSP’s & vendors that can help CIOs & business owners do more with less stand to benefit from this shift to low-cost, high-value computing.

And those that can’t? Well, let’s just say they may pine for the good old days of the global recession.

Hint: Focus on scaling your “service” offerings and not reselling “stuff”.

Michael Proper

CEO & Chairman
C: 801.361.6453
O: 801.851.5556
http://www.clearcenter.com
http://www.clearfoundation.com

Arnie’s keynote not only mentions Google, but SADA Systems, Inc. in the same breath, we helped facilitate that visit. Some MSPs, SADA Systems included, have gone well beyond just kicking the tires. I personally hope we’re not alone? In fact, by virtue of our established Cloud Service Practice around Google and their Apps platform, we’re helping lead the charge for MSPs and their entry into the Cloud through our most recent Channel offering, thecloudtoolkit.com. SADA delivers these tools to VARs/MSPs, who need zero-resistance options to deliver a complete and seamless Cloud experience for their already uncertain, sometimes skeptical market.

We too are not suggesting blind adoption. Rather, we think that VARs and MSPs become engaged in discussions with their clients about the Cloud, what their options are, understand their needs, and if appropriate, help move them into Apps, BPOS, or whatever appropriate platform.

Niv Dolgin
Director, ITS
SADA Systems, Inc.