MSPmentor

An economic crisis can be scary. But silent leadership can compound employees’ fears. Savvy managed service providers (MSPs) like masterIT, ranked No. 6 on our MSPmentor 100 list, are working overtime to communicate with their employees during these stressful times.

Without sugar coating the financial meltdown, masterIT CEO J. Michael Drake sent a reassuring memo to his staff on Sept. 28. In it, Drake conceded that the US economy faces some real challenges. But he also provided considerable positive reinforcement to his staff, describing why masterIT remains well-positioned for growth.

Here’s a look at portions of Drake’s memo to team members: Read More >

Dell Channel Chief Greg Davis continues to maintain an open door policy with managed service providers. In a September 26 blog post, Davis describes Dell’s strategy for:

• Registering partner deals
• Pricing
• Maintaining transparency with partners Read More >

The market for hosted Exchange Server services is getting pretty darn crowded. The latest entrant is Tech Data Corp., which has signed a partnership with USA.NET to offer hosted Exchange Server, SharePoint and BlackBerry services to VARs and solutions providers.

Tech Data follows rival distributor Ingram Micro — and a growing list of managed service providers — into the hosted Microsoft applications market. Plus, Microsoft itself is expected to launch its Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) within the next few weeks.

Here’s how the competitive landscape for hosted Microsoft applications is shaping up.

Read More >

Assuming Congress really does approve a Wall Street bailout in the next few hours, Software as a Service stocks (and other stocks) could get a lift when US markets open on September 29. However, there’s no denying that SaaS stocks have had a miserable year so far.

For the week ended Sept. 26, MSPmentor’s SaaS 20 Stock Index fell 4.53 percent. And for the year, our index is now down nearly 17 percent. Read More >

In order to keep employees loyal, some managed service providers offer company cars to their field support staff. But continuing that company perk over the long haul could become more difficult during the credit crunch.

Fact is, lenders increasingly reject applications from people with good credit scores. Across the US, fewer than two-thirds — 63.7 percent — of car buyers who applied for loans are receiving approvals, accoring to a story in today’s Newsday, a major newspaper on Long Island.  For “subprime” applicants, barely one in five of all car loan applications are getting approved.

Read More >

Evolve IP, a managed service provider in Wayne, Pa., just made my “watch” list. Evolve says it has lined up more than 100 new customers since launching its managed technology services operations  roughly 180 days ago. Read More >

D-day is nearly here. Microsoft is expected to launch a range of Software as a Service (SaaS) applications — known as the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) — in October. The BPOS offering could wind up competing head-on against some managed service providers. Here’s why. Read More >

Hosted Solutions, a data center provider and managed services provider, has won an far-reaching business deal with the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.

Hosted Solutions says it will provide the Falcons with a fully managed backend infrastructure, which includes bandwidth, security, network, dedicated servers, Microsoft licenses and backups.

Ironically, during the ConnectWise Partner Summit in Orlando, Florida, last week, several attendees mentioned to us that MSPs in the Atlanta area have experienced more local and regional competition from each other in recent months.

MSPmentor is updated multiple times daily. Don’t miss a single post. Subscribe to our Enewsletter and RSS feed.