MSPmentor

I’m pleased to say the entire MSPmentor 250 is now live. As promised, this year’s edition is far more than a spreadsheet listing. We’ve incorporated photos, videos, bios and social media links so that you can network up with peer MSPmentor 250 members. But are we really done with this year’s MSPmentor 250? Truly? Well, actually…

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There are a lot of acronyms in our world: MSP, SMB, SOHO, VM, RAM, ROM, LMNOP.  (Heh, I’m just making sure you’re paying attention on that last one.)  The whole acronym world salad gets a little crazy sometimes.  At Intel, too, someone is always tossing out some new acronym that is supposed to be better and faster than just speaking in plain sentences.

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How do you explain the following: masterIT, a managed services provider in Tennessee, recently told me annual revenues are on track to grow 30 percent this year. And Rackspace‘s CEO yesterday said business demand for cloud services is insatiable. Yet Wall Street and foreign markets have tumbled amid growing debt fears in the U.S. and Europe. So what’s the real economic outlook for MSPs and cloud services providers (CSPs)? I have some hopeful, educated guesses…

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Roughly six months after joining GFI Software, Patricia Hume has jumped to Convio Inc. as VP of worldwide sales. Hume is a well-known channel chief who previously held top sales and channel posts at IBM, SAP and Avaya.

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Our next two webcasts are approaching fast. First Up: On Wednesday, August 10 at 2:00 p.m. eastern we’ll explore Selling Secure Cloud Data Protection and Recovery to SMB Customers. The event will include insights from two top channel partners and i365. Next: On Wednesday, August 24 at 2:00 p.m. eastern, we’ll explore Five Steps to Building Winning Sales Proposals for VARs and MSPs — including insights from Quosal. Registration is open for both webcasts. And we’ll take your questions throughout both live events. (Note: the webcasts are sponsored by i365 and Quosal, respectively.)

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The MSPmentor Job Board has received several new listings in recent days. The free job board highlights careers in managed services and cloud services — including opportunities in management, sales, marketing, technology and more. Here’s a look at the latest opportunities.

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Zendesk has introduced the Zendesk Enterprise Plan for larger managed services providers (MSPs) and enterprise customers. It’s an interesting name for something that’s not actually a plan. Instead, Zendesk Enterprise Plan is a higher-end version of the company’s cloud-based help desk software for SMBs and start-up companies. Zendesk COO Zack Urlocker (pictured) — a veteran of Sun Microsystems and MySQL — gave MSPmentor an update on the company’s strategy.

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In speaking with members of this year’s MSPmentor 250, it’s becoming clear than managed services experts have a knack for reinventing themselves. For example, when Scott Anderson launched CORE Business Services in 2005, he positioned the company as an accounting software consulting firm. But as CORE began deeper customer interactions, Anderson realized it became easier to sell CORE’s IT services to potential customers.”

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NovaStor, which develops backup software for MSPs and corporate IT, has been taking steps to strengthen its global partner strategy — with a particular emphasis on Europe, Africa and the Middle East — for the past year. The partnerships mark NovaStor’s entrance into new markets while consolidating some efforts in other parts of the world, according to a NovaStor spokeswoman.

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RES Software, which develops Windows desktop management and virtualization software, is gaining momentum in several target markets. Indeed, the company says license sales over the past year have grown 185 percent in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Nordics regions. Next up, the company is investing to further accelerate momentum in New York,  Atlanta,  San Francisco, Chicago and Dallas, the company says.

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ProVal Technologies, an international IT services provider for SMBs and the enterprise, is taking a new approach to meeting its clients’ networking monitoring and server support needs with its Remote Engineer service. Here are the details.

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Whaleback Systems, Inc. is pushing beyond its new cloud-based managed services to expand its market reach. The company, best known for its managed VoIP service, will introduce its contact center and redesigned website at the end of August 2011, according to Karil Reibold, CEO of Whaleback Systems.

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A managed services community is finally taking shape with CompTIA — the Computing Technology Industry Association. I don’t have exact numbers, but I hear 80 to 90 people attended an MSP Partners session yesterday at the CompTIA Breakaway conference in Washington, D.C. And a large number of the attendees were resellers and VARs who are exploring recurring revenue business models.

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During an hour-long discussion last night, Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie was soft-spoken but focused. Among the key takeaways: Kaseya now has 500 employees. The company’s cloud platform is now one year old. And a targeted acquisition from earlier this year will pay big dividends in the network monitoring market, Blackie predicted. Here’s a recap.

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We’re rolling out the fourth annual MSPmentor 250 list this week. The ENTIRE list is now live in our MSPmentor 250 center. The list is designed to help you rapidly build a Rolodex of managed services experts, entrepreneurs and executives. So what’s different about this fourth-annual MSPmentor 250 project compared to previous research we’ve produced? Plenty. Here’s an overview of our 2011 approach vs. previous years.

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Mformation Technology, Inc. has another MSP hooked on its Mformation Enterprise Manager. This time it’s ISEC7, a managed mobility service provider, that’s using the Mformation Service Manager to enhance its cloud-based mobile device manager (MDM).

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BBH Solutions Inc., a managed service provider in New York, has started to shift customers’ call centers in a cloud computing environment. BBH doesn’t mention customers by name, but the latest project involved moved a national call center’s voice and data applications into the BBH cloud environment. The move is part of BBH’s effort to position itself as a top provider of cloud hosted voice, data, and video applications in the region.

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Hewlett-Packard continues to march forward with HP Service Manager 9.3 — an IT service management (ITSM) and service desk platform that’s available in a SaaS configuration. It’s designed to service customers with 1,000 or more end-users. Version 9.3 has four key areas of enhancement, according to Chuck Darst, head of HP ITSM product marketing.

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StorageCraft, which specializes in backup and disaster recovery software, is adjusting its reseller partner program to reward its best-performing channel partners, the company says. Specifically, StorageCraft is shifting to a three-tiered program – siliver, gold and platinum – in an effort to better classify partners and reward those that are producing more revenue. StorageCraft is also preparing an MSP rebate program that’s set to debut in September 2011.

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