Shockey Monkey 2.0 — also dubbed Shockey Monkey Reloaded — debuted this week. It’s a free PSA (professional services automation) software platform for managed services providers and their end-customers. The man behind Shockey Monkey is Vlad Mazek — the executive who also built the ExchangeDefender business. So what makes Shockey Monkey unique in a fiercely competitive software market segment? Mazek offered some insights.
According to the official announcement:
“Shockey Monkey Reloaded is a free technology business automation platform with over 20 technology vendor integration partners that enables solution providers and MSPs to grow their businesses for free.”
Free Strategy?
When I saw the word “free,” I wondered if Shockey Monkey 2.0 was trying to emulate Spiceworks‘ free, advertising-based business model for IT management. I also wondered how Shockey Monkey would attempt to differentiate from the usual PSA names in the market — ConnectWise, Autotask and Tigerpaw Software, among others.
Mazek’s perspective: “With Shockey Monkey we’re not looking to give the IT business a PSA, they can buy that from [ConnectWise CEO] Arnie [Bellini] or Autotask. We’re looking to give the IT business a portal and THEIR customers a PSA through which they can manage their cloud, their files, their devices, etc.”
Mazek sees three areas where Shockey Monkey can connect with users and sponsors. Specifically, he says Shockey Monkey offers:
- The connected and consolidated management of the cloud offerings (stuff sponsors want to sell and deliver through Shockey Monkey)
- The management of end-point devices (think inventory, warranties, passwords, RMM functionality); and
- Business knowledge (tracking clients, relationships, vendors, invoices, payments, etc). “That’s where the money is,” asserted Mazek.
Money Matters
But can free be profitable? Mazek says “I can afford to give away Shockey Monkey for free forever because it translates into sales of our email solutions, our data solutions, our web solutions, all the cloud stuff ExchangeDefender does on both the security and business management fronts. The sponsorships will just raise awareness for Shockey Monkey and give it a larger platform.”
Mazek says Shockey Monkey has 7,000 users. More than 80 percent of the system’s portals are active “on a daily basis,” he adds. Longer term, Mazek wants to take Shockey Monkey beyond VARs and MSPs that need PSA. He ultimately sees Shockey Monkey as “a business platform on the level of Google Apps and Office 365.”
Those are extremely lofty words. Some critics note that Shockey Monkey has been a work in progress since at least 2008. But Mazek’s other efforts — such as ExchangeDefender — have also gained critical mass with channel partners.
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Posted In: Partner Program | Professional Services Automation (PSA)
Tags: ExchangeDefender | Professional Services Automation Software | PSA software | Shockey Monkey 2.0 | Spiceworks | Vlad Mazek
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Nice take. The “work in progress since 2008″ is fair well, it’s actually been a project ever since 2006 with quite a few of those initial users still on it. Like you’ve hinted, we’ve been building this business since 1997 and when the MSP movement started none of my partners had a PSA and the infrastructure needed to build one was out of the reach of many of my partners. I’ve always recognized the need that in order for my business to grow, scale and mature I needed to have a more accountable partner base – Shockey Monkey was a necessity that I now not only get to give to my partners but also the sponsors that work with us closely.
You spend a great deal of time and on Talkin’ Cloud discussing the challenges of building a cloud business. The biggest – and most painful one – has and always will be billing. Average million dollar MSP considers it a pain point chasing down a few clients for a few hundred dollars – imagine the world where you’re chasing hundreds of clients for a few dollars — that’s the reality of the cloud and both solution providers and vendors have a stake in having that managed.
-Vlad
Vlad,
Thanks for the briefing. I know our market views don’t always align but that’s what makes this industry great. Plus, I respect entrepreneurs, and I appreciate the deeper background you shared.
Re: The billing challenge in cloud computing… On Talkin’ Cloud we’ve been watching distributors pretty closely (Ingram Micro Cloud, Tech Data, Synnex) to see if their cloud aggregation strategies will solve the billing problem for VARs and MSPs. But we’ll also watch your efforts, too.
-jp
Is there or will there be an option to use Shockey Monkey on-Premise?
I do not like the idea of all our Clients data being hosted on third-party servers as they will include sensitive data such as Server passwords etc…
We Primarily use Kaseya and need another package to integrate CRM etc…with Shockey Monkey’s seamless integration with this, it appeared to be a good solution.
Simon,
I will alert Vlad to see if he has a reply to your question.
Best
-jp
@Simon,
Yes, we will be offering the on-premise appliance that will run Shockey Monkey in your own data center but the pricing for it has not yet been sorted out and there are far too many things on the roadmap to take care before that step.
I showed off the appliance at one of the webinars in December.
While the security concern is legitimate, we have not found many MSPs objecting to the cloud model.
In the meantime, I would recommend taking a look at ConnectWise, they offer an on-premise full featured PSA.
-Vlad