MSPmentor

Earlier this year, Fujitsu and Ingram Micro partnered to offer North American MSPs and VARs the Ingram Micro Service Desk. Now, Fujitsu is showing some managed services momentum of its own. Specifically, Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand has signed a three-year managed services contract with Horizon Power. Horizon is Western Australia’s state government-owned utility company, which provides electricity for over 4,200 customers throughout Western Australia.

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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.

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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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Kaseya and Ingram Micro, which already work together in Australia, are set to expand their managed services partnership into North America sometime in Q4, a spokeswoman for the distributor confirms. Here are the potential implications for managed services providers.

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Ingram Micro is expanding its partner portfolio in the managed services software market. The distributor already offers Level Platforms and Nimsoft as line card items to MSPs. This morning, Ingram Micro North America confirmed a new managed services relationship with N-able Technologies, and there are clues that Ingram and Kaseya are discussing a new partnership. Here’s the update.

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Managed services providers in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) are starting to gain momentum in the cloud computing market. The latest example: Maclean, which was Kaseya‘s 2010 MSP of the Year for ANZ, has inked a deal with IBM to help midsize customers embrace cloud computing. Here are the details.

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Quosal, the product quoting tool for VARs and MSPs, has surfaced in Apple’s App Store for the iPad. The touch-enabled mobile app debuts two weeks after ConnectWise Capital invested in Quosal. Among those who are impressed: Tim Brewer,  general manager for Western Australia at Anittel, a major managed services provider in the land down under.

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Roughly 500 MSPs, IT service providers and technology companies are gathered this week for the HTG Peer Groups Spring 2011 meeting in Dallas, Texas. So what’s the chatter so far? I’ve just arrived at the event but here are five quick pieces of information worth noting so far.

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Over the past two or three years, most of the major managed services software providers have made the leap from North America to Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). But if you take a closer look at the story, Kaseya was one of the companies that enjoyed first-mover advantage in the ANZ market, thanks to executives like Martin Ashby and Tim Dickinson. Now, IBM veteran Dermot McCann is joining the Kaseya team to drive further expansion in ANZ.

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Ulistic is best-known for North American consulting services that assist MSPs with marketing and search engine optimization. But now, Ulistic President Stuart Crawford is expanding his company’s focus to Australia — which is a familiar theme in the managed services market.

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Managed services and cloud computing have a wonderful upside: They generate recurring monthly revenues that can flow directly into an MSP’s corporate bank account. But a timely reminder to MSPs: Watch your bank accounts closely because SaaS and cloud commission glitches — though rare — can potentially short-change your business. One recent example involves Microsoft BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite), Telstra (the big service provider) and a few resellers in Australia.

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We’re set to unveil the fourth-annual MSPmentor 100 list and research report during a webcast this Wednesday, February 16, at 2:00 p.m. eastern. During the webcast we’ll also explore the Top 20 European MSPs, Top 20 Australian MSPs and Top 10 African MSPs. Also, two surprise guests from MSPmentor 100 companies will describe their smartest business moves of 2010 and key initiatives for 2011. Jeannine Edwards, director of community for ConnectWise, will be on hand to share perspectives from ConnectWise User Groups worldwide. (Note: ConnectWise is the webcast’s sponsor but the MSPmentor 100 research is not sponsored.) I look forward to your questions throughout the MSPmentor 100 webcast this Wednesday, February 16.

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For the first time, the world’s top 100 managed services providers (MSPs) now generate more than $1 billion in annual recurring revenues, a 27 percent jump from 2009 to 2010, according to the fourth-annual MSPmentor 100 report, which will debut during February 16. Here are five other key trends from the report.

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As managed services providers (MSPs) consider outsourced help desk options, here’s a new spin on the conversation: There’s a new 24 x 7 help desk for service providers that focuses on Asterisk — the increasingly popular IP PBX platform. Here’s the background for MSPs that are pushing into VoIP and unified communications, but may need some extra support.

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I spent most of January 20 at ConnectWise’s headquarters in Tampa, Fla. Frequent MSPmentor readers know the basics — how CEO Arnie Bellini and President David Bellini pushed beyond local IT services to build a PSA (professional services automation) software company. And the more recent IT Nation channel community efforts. But what’s going on behind the curtains down at ConnectWise? Here are six clues that may indicate where the company is heading next…

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N-able Technologies is the latest managed services software company to promote a 2011 road show. But the item that caught my attention has to do with the growing reach of N-able’s managed services partners. Specifically, N-able’s global MSP partner base now manages more than 40,000 SMBs — up from about 23,600 roughly a year ago. What drove the growth?

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When we launched MSPmentor back in 2008, a lot of managed services providers (MSPs) ask me for guidance on such topics as search engine optimization (SEO), Google Adwords, pay-per-click advertising campaigns and online marketing. Some of that chatter died down over the past year or two. (Maybe readers realized I was clueless.) But the SEO and online marketing chatter is starting up again — especially as MSP marketing budgets somewhat improve. Still, I wonder: Are MSPs really ready to master online marketing?

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MSPmentor will host two timely webcasts for established and aspiring managed services providers over the next few weeks. On January 26, MSPmentor Live will explore the key questions MSPs must ask before upgrading their RMM (remote monitoring and management) software platforms and before purchasing new platforms. And on February 16, MSPmentor Live will unveil the annual MSPmentor 100 list and survey results. Here’s some more background on each webcast.

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Our next MSPmentor Live webcast is set for January 26 at 2:00 p.m. eastern. The topic: Six questions MSPs must ask before upgrading or selecting an RMM (remote monitoring and management) tool. Here’s a bit more about the webcast and our guest speakers.

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On the job for about two months, Kaseya Chief Marketing Officer Robert Davis sure sounds familiar with the managed services market and the channel. How’s that possible? Turns out Davis was a Kaseya co-founder who left the company in 2001 before returning in late 2010. Also, Davis has extensive channel experience from his days at Novell and CA Technologies, where he ran CA’s $500 million storage business. Looking ahead, Davis says the managed services market is maturing… which means it’s time for more “coopetition” (cooperation and competition). Here’s the update.

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Our next MSPmentor Live webcast is set for January 26 at 2:00 p.m. eastern. The topic: Six questions MSPs must ask before selecting an RMM (remote monitoring and management) tool. Here’s a bit more about the webcast and our guest speakers.

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Confession: Even as the holidays kick in, the Nine Lives Media Inc. team is working overtime to deliver some MSPmentor site enhancements in early January 2011. So, here are seven managed services blog entries the MSPmentor team didn’t have time to write for the week ending December 24, 2010.

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