MSPmentor

When Computer Services Inc. (CSI) yesterday announced plans to acquire HEIT, I had numerous questions about the pending deal. What are the real synergies? How did CSI and HEIT, an MSPmentor 100 company, find each other? And what’s the message to HEIT’s customers — roughly 400 banks and credit unions that leverage HEIT’s managed services and cloud services? Now, HEIT CEO Dan Holt (pictured) offers some answers and insights.

Read More >

Computer Services Inc. (CSI) is buying HEIT, a top managed services provider and cloud services provider focused on the financial services vertical. Computer Services is a publicly held bank services specialist that generates about $40 million in quarterly revenues. HEIT is an MSPmentor 100 company that has key executives on the MSPmentor 250 list. Here’s a closer look at the CSI-HEIT deal.

Read More >

Computer Services Inc. is acquiring HEIT, one of the best-known managed services providers and cloud services providers focused on the financial services vertical. The deal is expected to be completed on September 1. Updated 5:07 p.m. eastern, Aug. 10: Here’s a closer look at the deal.

Read More >

Mycroft Inc., an identity and access management specialist, is partnering up with SailPoint on a range of security initiatives.The relationship caught our attention because SailPoint has a channel partner program, and Mycroft is positioning the joint solution as a managed service for enterprises.

Read More >

A final reminder: Join us today (Wed., August 10, 2:00 p.m. eastern) for our webcast: Sales Strategies for Secure Cloud Storage. The webcast, hosted by Talkin’ Cloud (our sister site), will include sales, business and technology perspectives from two top channel partners and i365, the webcast’s sponsor. We’ll take your questions throughout the event, and we’ll focus on how VARs and MSPs can most effectively select and promote a secure cloud service designed for SMB customers.

Read More >

SunGard, a large managed services provider, sees a new opportunity in the security market. Indeed, SunGard Availability Services plans to leverage Alert Logic‘s SaaS tools for various vulnerability assessment, intrusion detection and log management services.

Read More >

Qualys Inc., which develops a SaaS-based security and compliance suite for customers and service providers, is putting a new user interface on its cloud platform. At the same time, the company continues to promote QualysGuard MSP,  which allows managed services providers and hosting partners to offer vulnerability assessment services.

Read More >

Sometimes a personal-life decision can lead to the career change of a lifetime. Just ask Jennifer Anaya, vice president of corporate marketing at NetEnrich Inc. and member of the MSPmentor 250. Anaya was part of the Ingram Micro team that launched the Ingram Micro Services Division in 2007 before leaving the company in 2009. Today, she’s driving a closet-to-cloud strategy at NetEnrich, which offers NOC (network operation center) services to VARs and MSPs.

Read More >

These are challenging economic times. But MSP software companies continue to issue momentum statements — reassuring managed services providers and signaling continued MSP industry growth. The latest example comes from N-able Technologies, which says its MSP partner base now manages more than 47,000 end-users, up nearly 150 percent since January 2010.

Read More >

ConnectWise and LabTech Software have confirmed plans to move into a new, larger headquarters in Tampa, Fla. The move is part of ConnectWise’s ongoing expansion, and it also provides some clues about growing synergies between ConnectWise and LabTech.

Read More >

If you haven’t been following the debate on BYOD – Bring Your Own Device – you soon will.  The debate was inspired by the proliferation of $300 netbooks four years ago. Managed service providers were successful, for the most part, in keeping those consumer devices off the corporate network due to lack of security, manageability as well as raw horsepower.

Read More >

In mid-July 2011 we hinted that Tasktop Technologies and Hewlett-Packard (HP) were working on a range of application lifecycle management solutions. More recently, Tasktop released Tasktop Sync — which allows IT organizations to synchronize their existing ALM servers. ITasktop Technologies CEO and Co-Founder Mik Kersten described the strategy to me.

Read More >

This is turning into a familiar story: Cogent Growth Partners has once again played a pivotal role in finalizing a managed services provider (MSP) acquisition. This time, Cogent has advised NCC Data, a Dallas, Tex.-based IT services firm, to purchase the IT support company Data Direct. The acquisition was completed on August 1. The companies will integrate their resources and procedures throughout August and September before offering a single IT solution – something that NCC Data President and CEO Daren Boozer sees happening fairly easily.

Read More >

Managed services firms and e-discovery software companies continue to find common ground in the burgeoning legal market. We’ve written about D4’s work with e-discovery software houses and noted how some vendors derive more than half their revenue through service providers. Here’s another example: Falcon Discovery, which provides managed e-discovery services, has been solidifying its relations with a short list of software firms.

Read More >

MSPmentor 250 member Vikas Aggarwal (pictured), CEO of Zyrion Inc., has been in the managed services industry for over two decades. He’s been the general manager of GES Internet, led the engineering effort at Verio, had a heavy head in the transition from Arpanet to NSFnet while with JvNCnet, and is an active TiE Silicon Valley charter member with four patents in distributed computing and processing for network management applications.

Read More >

Join us this Wednesday (Aug. 10, 2:00 p.m. eastern) for our next webcast. We’ll cover sales strategies for cloud storage — including some key tips for selecting a cloud backup and storage provider, pricing and initial customer engagement ideas.  The webcast, hosted by Talkin’ Cloud (MSPmentor’s sister site) will include tips from two top channel partners and i365, the webcast’s sponsor. And we’ll take your questions throughout the event.

Read More >

Pomeroy, a VAR 500 company, apparently is on the acquisition trail. Indeed, the IT services firm has named Chris Quish VP of mergers, acquisitions and corporate development. According to a prepared statement, Quish will focus on acquiring acquiring cloud service providers, infrastructure management firms, and remote management and monitoring companies (RMM). The move is part of a growing trend in the MSP market.

Read More >

Wall Street seems to have everybody on edge. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped roughly 630 points today, and cloud computing stocks fell nearly 10 percent during today’s market sell-off, according to the Talkin’ Cloud Stock Index, operated by MSPmentor’s sister site. For MSPs there’s mixed news ahead… Rising interest rates could pressure expansion plans, pending M&A (merger and acquisition) deals and overall profits. But MSPs still have the opportunity to give their customers peace of mind during stressful economic times.

Read More >

MSPs, many of whom are SMBs themselves, are in a position to assist the US healthcare industry advance its use of new IT tools, according to a recent white paper from non-profit IT industry association CompTIA (Computer Technology Industry Association).  Industry estimates project spending in the healthcare IT market at more than $34 billion this year, and about one half of healthcare practices surveyed expected to increase IT expenditures in the next year.

Read More >

The recent trend among help desk providers has been to leverage social media to make it easier for customers and representatives to connect. But nanoRep, an emerging help desk specialist, hopes to further automate help desks and service desks through the use of a support widget.

Read More >

Our fourth-annual MSPmentor 250 list debuted last week. Now, we’re busy profiling many of the managed services experts, executives and entrepreneurs who landed on the list. Today, we turn our attention to Australia and New Zealand, where Rob Anderson and Clint Bratton – co-Founders of Winning New Clients – are teaching MSPs an invaluable lesson: talking tech works behind the servers, but talking finance works in front of customers.

Read More >

Do IT Smarter, owned by ClearPointe, is exiting the Master MSP (managed services provider) business, according to multiple sources. Do IT Smarter recently sent an email to its MSP partners, informing the companies that they had 30 days to move off of Do IT Smarter’s systems. Here’s the update — along with a bigger question: What’s the future of the Master MSP business model?

Read More >

There was plenty of official news at this week’s CompTIA Breakaway conference in Washington, D.C. But off stage MSPmentor also stumbled onto plenty of industry chatter. Here are seven managed services blogs that our team didn’t have time to write for the week ending August 5, 2011.

Read More >