Comments on: Cloud Computing: Why MSPs Need A Single Dashboard

By: Peter Sandiford

Peter Sandiford — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:13:09 +0000

Glad to see our friends at Nimsoft lining up with us on this. Remote monitoring of cloud applications will soon be a basic requirement for MSPs serving the SMB market. Here is a press release from May when we launched this service offering with Microsoft’s BPOS as well as a detailed description of the strategy.

http://www.levelplatforms.com/files/Press_Releases/2009-05-13_LPI_Launches_Cloud_Services_FINAL_May_14.pdf

Since the launch we have continued to announce new monitoring Solution Sets for SMB Cloud Services providers.

Peter Sandiford
See All. Manage All.
(hey that tag line is starting to make sense )

By: Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:05:57 +0000

Gerson: Thanks for the heads up. I’ll be waiting for the link.
Phil: Thanks for triggering this conversation with your blog entry.
-jp

By: Gerson

Gerson — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:21:00 +0000

We started working on a our unified interface a few month ago and plan to launch before end of month. Monthly reports from our PSA and quarterly business reviews simply don’t make the msp offering as tangible and ‘real’ as as your own branded website with realtime stats, record of work, tutorials and some self service tools.

We’ll be connecting into our PSA and RMM databases and combine that info with other solutions.

My inspiration came from the control panels that alot of web hosting companies offer their customers.

Joe – I’ll send a link over when it’s ready!

Gerson
http://www.degasystems.com

By: Phil LaForge

Phil LaForge — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:00:20 +0000

HI Chris, Vlad,

Sounds like we envision a similar end game – cool. Very soon the Nimsoft Service Delivery Portal will support standards based portlet integration. We’ll bring Service Desk, CMDB, Asset Management tools, etc. from other providers into the single pane of glass, so customers can be in one place to run all things IT.

If you visit http://www.unifiedmonitoring.com you’ll get an idea about the broad array of performance and availability instrumentation – from internal data center to cloud – that is available today.

Best – Phil

By: Chris Chase

Chris Chase — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:22:32 +0000

Just to clarify, when I said dashboard I wasn’t referring to a monitoring dashboard like what Nimsoft is doing. Our dashboard would be to access client portals, which could even be the Nimsoft client portal login for their dashboard. Maybe I should be calling them too

I just went and checked out the Nimsoft Dashboard, cool stuff!

-Chris

By: Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:42:50 +0000

Chris, Vlad: Thanks for building on Phil’s thoughts.

Hi Phil: I know you avoided the temptation to evangelize Nimsoft’s own dashboard in your blog post. I got a few private emails asking if such a dashboard exists but frankly I haven’t tried Nimsoft’s dashboard so I don’t know what’s real/delivered right now. I won’t hold it against you if you post a comment about Nimsoft’s approach.
-jp

By: Vlad Mazek

Vlad Mazek — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:56:48 +0000

I’ll vouch for what Chris mentioned up there, the easier it is for people to access ExchangeDefender the quicker they can manage the service and be more profitable.

Typically what happens is the ticket gets filed somewhere, someone (with proper credentials) then digs them out, logs into another portal, manages whatever needed to be managed and the entire process relies on management of information on multiple platforms and systems. Doing so seamlessly and securely makes for a more profitable provider.

-Vlad

By: Chris Chase

Chris Chase — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:38:12 +0000

Great article, this is a problem we’ve been frustrated by for a long time. We built a product called JoomConnect. It has two primary goals, both are client/prospect facing. JoomConnect automates/enhances website marketing activities and lead capture to ConnectWise and integrates client portals to the MSP’s website.

The first issue we tackled was integrating the ConnectWise Client Portal to the MSP’s website providing a single logon for both portals. We launched this app on September 28th of this year.

We are currently working with multiple companies to integrate their client portals and products with the JoomConnect platform. So far some of these integrations include Reflexion (http://www.reflexion.net), Exchange Defender (http://www.exchangedefender.com) and ConnectSmart (http://www.connect-smart.com), there are a few more we’re not ready to announce yet.

Clients will login to the MSP’s website and have 1 click access to each portal, without having to remember multiple urls, usernames and passwords.

We are actively pursuing additional integration partners, our ultimate goal is to integrate every client facing portal an MSP might provide to their clients via the JoomConnect Platform. This will keep the client coming back to the MSP’s website every time they want to access their portals.

It’s not a full “dashboard” (yet) but it’s a start. Can’t wait to see where this leads.

—
Chris Chase
CEO
JoomConnect / DTi
http://www.joomconnect.com