MSPmentor

It looks like Microsoft is looking to establish the “Essentials” brand as a label for free and useful, if bare-bones, services for users of the Windows platform. To wit: today sees the availability of Microsoft Security Essentials as a completely free antivirus/malware protection suite for small businesses up to 10 users. Here’s the scoop.

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Conventional wisdom says MSPs — already hooked on recurring revenue models — will move faster than traditional VARs into cloud computing. But is conventional wisdom correct? I found the answer by piecing together some anecdotal information from Rackspace and Ingram Micro. Here are the quick details.

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Sure, Thrive Networks, the IT services arm of Staples Advantage is planning on enhancing its virtualization play over the next several months. But President of Thrive Networks Jim Lippie (pictured) says that what’s really led them to the kind of growth that let them claim spot 38 on the MSPmentor 100 2010 list is a focus on the customer, not so much the technology. Here’s the scoop.

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A little bit of hometown news for MSPmentor today as Google announces that 697 K-12 public school districts in New York State will be going to their Google Apps cloud productivity suite. That’s over 3.1 million students and hundreds of thousands of teachers all potentially going to Google Apps. Here’s the scoop.

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Nearly 700 VARs and channel leaders attended this week’s Ingram Micro VTN conference in San Francisco. But this evening, Ingram Micro’s new VP of Managed Services and Cloud Computing, Renee Bergeron (pictured), is traveling from the VTN event to another conference in San Antonio, Texas. Her destination: The Rackspace Partner Leadership Summit. Why are scores of VARs and managed services leaders like Bergeron gathering at this annual Rackspace conference? Here’s the answer.

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When Hewlett-Packard’s new fiscal year begins on November 1, the computing giant will unveil partner program enhancements that reward MSPs and VARs for promoting managed print services. HP’s managed print channel effort surfaces amid a report suggesting that Xerox commands about 50 percent of the managed print market. Here’s the update.

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The MSPAlliance has launched an Angels Network, which the association calls a “unique community that will connect early-stage Managed Service Providers (MSPs) with potential investment opportunities.” Details about the angels network are expected to surface at this week’s MSPWorld conference in Los Angeles. Here’s what the MSPAlliance has said so far, plus some MSPmentor perspectives.

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Back in May 2010, I wrote a blog post called “Selling the Real Value of Managed Services.” Now I’m back for an encore because sales strategies — what works, what doesn’t — is the core issue facing aspiring MSPs. I believe it’s key to understand what you are really selling to your prospective clients in order to bolster your sales efforts. Let’s take a look. So let’s take a closer look at what you may be doing wrong… and what you can do right.

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Google tends to favor announcing major Google Apps customer wins as they’re  confirmed. Not Microsoft, no. Microsoft likes to announce a lengthy list of BPOS and Live@edu cloud customer wins all at the same time, and yesterday saw Microsoft add companies like Sunoco Inc. and DuPont and schools like San Francisco State University to the list of SaaS victories. Here’s the story.

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For the third time in roughly a year, ClearPointe has made a managed services-related acquisition. The latest deal involves Do IT Smarter, a well-known Master MSP in San Diego. Will Do IT Smarter President Lane Smith and his peers stick around under ClearPointe ownership? And what will become of the Do IT Smarter brand? Here are some clear answers, according to prepared statements from Do IT Smarter and ClearPointe.

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As Tigerpaw Software prepares to host its first user conference (Oct. 6-8, Dallas), MSPmentor is poking around the Tigerpaw community to see what key questions VARs and MSPs have for the PSA (professional services automation) software provider. Plus, we’ve compiled a few questions of our own. Once the conference kicks off, here are five key questions MSPmentor intends to discuss with Tigerpaw President James Foxall.

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Between hosted services, hosted servers, web-based applications, virtualization, and any number of other technologies, it’s hard to know what we’re talking about when we’re talking about “the cloud.” That’s a problem highlighted by managed hosting provider The Planet in a recent blog entry that asks: What’s in a name when it comes to cloud computing?

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Every once in a while, Microsoft likes to remind the IT world that the company knows how to play to their strengths: Redmond has released Windows Live Essentials 2011, a suite of free desktop applications for Windows 7 that leverages cloud services both inside and outside Microsoft’s own walled garden — including cloud backup. Here are the potential implications for MSPs.

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As the economy continues to sputter, companies of all sizes are looking for ways to cut costs, but no one wants to look cheap doing so. When it comes to travel, which can run up fairly sizeable budgets for some companies, one elegant way to curtail expenses is to embrace telepresence. Here’s why.

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The MSPmentor staff didn’t have enough time to chase every piece of managed services news in recent days. But for the sake of weekly closure, here are seven managed services blogs MSPmentor didn’t write for the week ending October 1, 2010.

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Data center expansion continues, with more initiatives surfacing in the past week. The latest efforts involve such companies as Data Foundry, SunGard Availability Services and Verizon Business. On the one hand, the new initiatives suggest growing demand for cloud, hosted and managed services. But on the other hand, some skeptics are starting to wonder if there will be too many data center providers. Here’s a look at the situation.

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Big Business just got a little bigger over at Hewlett-Packard. The computing giant says its new CEO will be former SAP CEO Leo Apotheker (pictured). The big question for small managed services providers: Will Apotheker, who joins HP on November  1, show any interest in the managed services market, or will he focus mainly on HP competition against IBM, Dell and Oracle in the enterprise? Here are some educated guesses.

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The time-tested formula for MSPs when creating service contracts is to set fixed monthly fees to ensure regular recurring revenue. But that may not be the most profitable strategy, especially if you are not incorporating key business terms and conditions to clearly define the work scope, and then managing to those deliverables. And that approach can be a real crap shoot, unless you have a solid business management platform in place to help you analyze your performance against each and every contract so you can make adjustments as you go.

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A post over at the Google Enterprise Blog highlights the new features that have been made available to users of the ever-more-popular Google Apps cloud productivity suite over the past few weeks. Headlining the list is the long-awaited (by MSPmentor, at any rate) revision history for Google Docs. Here’s the scoop.

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Users of Zendesk, the hosted help desk software, already had Apple iPhone and Google Android smartphone apps available to them. But now RIM BlackBerry users of Zendesk can get in on the mobile customer support action with the launch of an official application. Here are some details.

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