MSPmentor

Autotask made an intriguing move this week with its product branding. Solutions providers and software companies should take note. As Autotask prepared to launch an entry-level MSP solution, the company must have been tempted to call it “Autotask Lite.” In my humble opinion that would have been a mistake. Here’s why. Read More >

I just got off the phone with Autotask CEO Bob Godgart. He’s out at the SMB Nation conference in Seattle to share his managed services vision and make a few strategic announcements.

Godgart has a habit of sharing interesting factoids that a lot of people may otherwise overlook. A case in point: He’s extremely upbeat about managed service platforms converging with the mobile market. Surely, field technicians and mobile executives want to access their MSP dashboards from handhelds, smart phones and other devices.

Skeptical? Don’t be. The number of people leveraging Autotask’s LiveMobile software has doubled in the past 45 days, according to Godgart. The software’s CRM (customer relationship management) component is particularly popular, Godgart adds.

Check this site again on September 28 for more perspectives from Godgart. If you do, you’ll learn why Godgart had such a strong motivation to “go” to the SMB Nation event.

Okay, I was a little bit off with my dates. Last week, I suggested that a few low-cost managed service provider solutions would debut this week at the MSP Alliance conference in San Jose. I was half-right.

Untangle, an open source network security company, unveiled an MSP program with no up-front costs for solutions providers. But there’s more news coming. I hear that at least one — or two — MSP platform providers will use the SMB Nation event in Redmond, Wash., to unveil extremely targeted solutions for very small businesses. I’ll share more details later this week.

The buzz is loud here at the MSP Alliance conference in San Jose. Up-and-coming MSP platform providers are inking partnerships with each other, and networking with more than 200 VARs and integrators. Clearly, the MSP ecosystem is maturing rapidly. Still, big vendors like Cisco Systems and Symantec are noticeably absent from this small but growing event. Looking ahead, those big players would be wise to follow the leads of Dell and Intel into the MSP market. Read More >

This just in: Do IT Smarter has selected LPI Level Platforms’ Collaborative Ecosystem MSP Platform to “drive the growth of their full service offering for solution providers,” according to press release that just hit the wires. The move reinforces several points raised by Do IT Smarter at today’s MSP Alliance conference in San Jose.

Do IT Smarter offers a an outsourced hosting center, remote help desk and sales and marketing support to VARs that are embracing managed services. In contrast, Level Platforms specializes in remote monitoring and management software for solution providers offering managed services to their small and midsize customers. Level Platforms is the latest in a growing list of relationships for Do IT Smarter.

As a general rule, our team holds a lot of business meetings at Starbucks. But today the business chatter started in Kinkos — when I bumped into Todd McKendrick, VP of sales at Do IT Smarter. McKendrick shared several pieces of news about the company, which is working closely with Xerox, MXLogic, SonicWall, Silverback and other MSP platform providers. Read More >

Will Dell be your friend or foe in the managed services market? Instead of asking me, you can ask Dell representatives directly during the MSP Alliance summit in San Jose on Sept. 24-25. Dell acquired Silverback Technologies (an MSP platform provider) in July. Silverback’s Web site now carries both a Dell and VARBusiness logo. How’s that for Ironic. This event marks one of the first appearances of Silverback since the Dell deal was announced.

Sometimes I just can’t let go of a hunch. For a few weeks now, I’ve been asking MSP platform providers if they would ever open source their software. The open source approach, as you likely know, would allow customers and VARs to add incremental value to MSP software components.

Neat, but most MSP companies told me they haven’t considered such a strategy. That will change next week, when Untangle launches an MSP Partner Program focused on open source network security. Read More >