MSPmentor

CA’s Chris O’Malley (pictured) and Nimsoft’s Gary Read dialed me about an hour ago to offer additional insights on CA’s $350 million buyout of Nimsoft. When did the negotiations start, how did Nimsoft initially react — and why is CA so intrigued by the managed services market? O’Malley and Read provide the answers. Here they are.

Read More >

During a media call that continues now, CA and Nimsoft executive team members described why CA paid $350 million in cash to acquire Nimsoft — or a bit more than 10 times Nimsoft’s 2009 revenue. Also, CA explained how Nimsoft will potentially help CA to move deeper into cloud computing and the managed services market.

Read More >

Another day, another MSP deal. The latest: CA Inc. has purchased privately held Nimsoft for $350 million in cold hard cash. The move has far-reaching implications for managed services providers as well as the MSP software industry. Here’s a first look at the deal, and how we expect it to impact the MSP landscape.

Read More >

The managed services software market continues to consolidate. The latest move involves CA Inc. acquiring privately held Nimsoft for $350 million. We’ll be back shortly with more analysis, and the implications for rival software providers as well as managed services providers. Here are two four updates…

Read More >

Microsoft unveiled the latest chapter in its cloud strategy today, as Channel Chief Allison Watson outlined potential cloud opportunities for VARs and MSPs. Watson held a webcast for channel partners earlier today. And she sat down for a FastChat video with The VAR Guy to answer additional cloud-centric channel questions. In the FastChat videos, Watson discusses opportunities involving Windows Azure and BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite), competition with Google, first cloud steps for VARs, and the SaaS pricing questions that sometimes pop up within Microsoft’s channel ecosystem. Here are the videos.

Read More >

How do you continue to “build” a managed services business — even as you try to “run” day-to-day operations while maintaining your existing customer engagements? I must concede: We deal with that balancing act Nine Lives Media Inc. (MSPmentor’s parent). On the one hand, our team has to meet daily business and editorial deadlines. But on the other, we have to keep innovating. Otherwise, a market shift or competitive shift will surely sink us. It’s a careful balancing act that I suspect many MSPs are facing as well.

Read More >

For skeptics, Google Apps represents consumer-oriented SaaS applications that aren’t really designed for enterprises. But poke your head inside the new Google Apps Marketplace, and you’ll begin to see just how serious Google is when it comes to pushing SaaS deeper into businesses. Here are some observations for managed services providers who are trying to decide whether to cooperate  — or compete — with Google Apps.

Read More >

RIM, get ready for a fight: HyperOffice has announced that HyperSynch, an over-the-air push-messaging solution that works as well with the iPhone, the Droid, or even Windows Mobile devices as it does the BlackBerry, has entered beta testing. What’s more, it’s going to be included, gratis, with HyperOffice deployments. Interested?

Read More >

All of your customers carry mobile devices. The key question: Can managed services providers actually generate revenues and profits by seeking to manage iPhones, Google Android, BlackBerry and other customer devices? Before you answer the question consider a recent mobile managed services move by Orange Business Services. Here are the details.

Read More >

MSPWorld, the MSPAlliance’s conference for managed services providers, will be co-located this year at ITExpo West 2010, scheduled for Oct. 4-6 in Los Angeles. The move potentially opens up MSPWorld to a broader audience of Internet Telephony experts, but MSPWorld will also need to compete with roughly six other conferences that will be co-located at ITExpo. Here are the details.

Read More >

Before I start, the answer is NO. You can’t afford to ignore that elephant in the room. You’re risking everything that you have established up until now. A fundamental shift is taking place and it can’t be ignored. It’s not a matter as to IF it’s happening, only when it will fully take hold. Tim Shea, CEO of Alpha Netsolutions Inc. recently wrote: “Pretty soon, clients won’t care where a server sits or what brand it is. They will just care that they have the computer services they need—and how much it will cost to have them.” Here are the implications for MSPs.

Read More >

Cloud vendors, at least the publicly held ones, have been disclosing cloud-centric revenue for a few quarters now. The top line revenue results are helpful, since they chronicle demand for emerging cloud services. But, obviously, it doesn’t say much about the underlying business fundamentals. With that in mind, what metrics should cloud companies use to track financial performance and operational efficiency? How should they keep score? Here are some clues — and some similarity between cloud success metrics, and MSP success metrics.

Read More >

In a blog post, Google has announced that Google Apps — the software-as-a-service collaborative productivity suite — is now fully disaster-proof and ready to instantly restore data lost in the event of a catastrophe. Here’s why their braggadocio has some IT pros seeing red.

Read More >

I was on the road today. The usual flood of email hit my inbox. Some senders expected instant responses from me. But I’m starting to listen to good advice from Stuart Crawford, the former VAR who now specializes in social media. In a polite but clear manner, Crawford reminds senders on a regular basis that email isn’t designed for instant communications. Within our own business, we’re spending less time on email and more time using Google Docs to manage internal discussions. Here’s why. And here’s how.

Read More >

Some Australian managed services providers allegedly are in an “uproar” over Kaseya’s SaaS pricing vs. on-premise pricing. But take a closer look at the situation, and you’ll likely discover the SaaS “uproar” may actually involve an apples-to-oranges price comparison of tools that offer vastly different capabilities. Here’s some perspective.

Read More >

In today’s fast-paced world of technology, new IT issues — and new solutions — can arise in the blink of an eye. This poses a unique challenge for MSPs and VARs trying to stay ahead of the game while simultaneously working to contain costs and maximize ROI. After all, if you can’t or don’t evolve with ongoing service advancements you will quickly begin to lose customers to those competitors who continually find ways to reinvent themselves. So, what’s your next move? Here’s some guidance.

Read More >

It’s a common question for VAR and MSPs: How can you get into the SaaS market while avoiding strategic and tactical errors? For the answer to that question join us for our Four Steps to SaaS Success webcast series, which starts April 7 at 2:00 p.m eastern.

Read More >

QuoteWerks, a sales quoting and proposal tool, continues to strengthen its integrations to PSA (professional services automation) software platforms like Autotask, ConnectWise and Tigerpaw Software. The latest move involves a direct integration with ConnectWise. Here are the details.

Read More >

The MSPmentor Career Center has received more than a dozen new job listings over the past few days. All of the submissions — including sales and technical positions — are now advertised in our free MSPmentor Career Center. Here are some quick details.

Read More >

It was another typical week at MSPmentor, filled with planes, trains and automobiles. Before I catch a flight from San Francisco to New York, here are seven managed services blog entries the MSPmentor team didn’t have a chance to write for the week ending March 5, 2010.

Read More >

GFI Software, the London-based provider of infrastructure solutions for SMBs, has launched a Building Blocks channel program, designed to help IT support companies make the transition to providing real managed services. The company’s strategy reinforces the familiar theme of moving from break-fix to recurring revenue. Here are some perspectives.

Read More >

Rewind to 1995, Bill Gates wrote the famed Internet Tidal Wave memo to help turn Microsoft toward the Web. Earlier today, current Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was trying to recapture some of that old memo magic, this time saying Microsoft is going “all in” with cloud computing. Will that old memo magic work again? Our sister site, The VAR Guy, has some thoughts.

Read More >

The convergence of SaaS with managed services is on display at the Intermedia Partner Summit in Silicon Valley. A few minutes ago, MSPs started asking Intermedia if the company would integrate its hosted Exchange service with MSP-oriented tools. Intermedia said yes. In fact, some of the work is already complete. And more integrations are coming.

Read More >