MSPmentor

Economic concerns continue in the US, but some clear IT spending trends are beginning to surface. If you look at recent financial results from networking companies, PC companies, software specialists and service providers, you can get a better feel for how to shape your managed services practice for the rest of 2008. Read More >

Logicworks, a managed service provider in New York, has made a rather interesting move that other MSPs should note: The company claims it is the first authorized MySQL Platinum Hosting Partner in the U.S.

Smart move. MySQL is the open source database recently acquired by Sun Microsystems for $1 billion. It is, in my estimation, one of the top 10 open source technologies VARs should be watching — or embracing — this year. Read More >

If I was managed service provider, I’d target a market niche real fast and dig real deep. Or I’d go broad really fast by offering a lengthly list of managed services. The reason: Big technology companies are realizing that can no longer afford to ignore the MSP and software-as-a-service (SaaS) markets.

EMC and SAP, for instance, are discussing a potential relationship that could allow EMC to host SAP applications for small businesses. The discussions have surfaced only a few weeks after EMC unveiled a SaaS-based storage service.

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Some pundits say managed services will become a commodity. I disagree. Managed services are not a single technology. Rather, managed service provider (MSP) platforms are a way to continually deliver new solutions to customers.

Think of it this way: As one managed service matures (for instance, managed storage) a new managed service will emerge (for instance, video surveillance). In order to show this visually, let’s take a look at Gartner’s famed Hype Cycle chart.

Now stick with me, and I’l quickly explain how I see the MSP market evolving.

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Michael Dell is making another managed services move, this time in the voice-over-IP space. Dell has quietly inked a partnership with an open source voice-over-IP company. The deal potentially pushes Dell into several new markets, including managed voice services and unified communications. The move may also complement Dell’s recent MSP acquisitions (Silverback Technologies and Everdream). Here’s the inside scoop. Read More >

Even amid a questionable economy, John Roberts (pictured) sounds upbeat. As CEO of SugarCRM, Roberts leads one of Silicon Valley’s fastest-growing open source software providers. But that’s not all. SugarCRM also offers its software as a service (SaaS).

Smart move. As this site has pointed out before, the worlds of open source, managed services and SaaS are converging. And for good reason: Customers and their solutions providers increasingly want open options with predictable pricing and low acquisition costs. “The new rules of the industry are no proprietary code and no lock-in techniques,” said Roberts during a phone chat with me on January 16. Those trends and SugarCRM’s market opportunities should allow the company to launch an initial public offering within two years, he added. Read More >

Business intelligence. Yawn. A lot of VARs don’t have much interest in the BI market — and even fewer offer BI as a managed service or software as a service (SaaS). Until recently, BI was mostly an opportunity for large integrators targeting big enterprises. But that’s changing.

Yesterday, I mentioned a hosted BI solution from Daptiv, a Seattle-based solutions provider that works closely with Cognos. Today, I spotted a similar offering from Blink Logic Inc., which specializes in on-demand BI solutions. The rise of on-demand BI could be an interesting niche for solutions providers who already have experience with database and CRM-type software.

Blink Logic recently landed a deal to provide hosted BI solutions to Fieldpoint Service Applications Inc. It’s an interesting relationship, because Fieldpoint specializes in help desk, field service, contracts and project management software. If you apply the Blink Logic-Fieldpoint relationship to the VAR market, one could imagine a VAR extending its managed help desk services with BI capabilities.

For many managed service providers, hosted email represents a first foray into software as a service (SaaS). But email is a commodity these days — a nice, basic offering that pays decent dividends but won’t make you rich. If you’re looking for growing SaaS opportunities, it might be time to embrace hosted CRM (customer relationship management) or business intelligence. Here’s why.

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