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Hot Career Path: VP of Managed Services
Posted January 16th, 2008 by Joe Panettieri
Hot markets often lead to hot job titles. Editors who leap from print to online want to become chief content officers or chief bloggers. In the channel, the hottest title right now seems to be VP of managed services — someone who is responsible for driving an organization’s go-to-market strategy in the managed service provider sector.
Big Partner Embraces Cisco Managed Services
Posted November 9th, 2007 by Joe Panettieri
Well, that didn’t take long. Only days after Cisco announced its managed services strategy, a major solutions provider says it has achieved the premium Cisco Powered Managed Service designations in Managed Unified Communications and Managed Security. The company, Getronics, has about 24,000 employees across 25 countries.
Cisco Unveils Managed Services Strategy
Posted October 31st, 2007 by Joe Panettieri
I hope you don’t mind if I brag for a few paragraphs. Back in September, I predicted Cisco would soon unveil a managed services strategy that included new pricing models for partners. The official announcement came today, in the form of the new Cisco Managed Services Channel Program.
The program currently includes AT&T, CDW Berbee, Bell Canada, BT, Calence, Dimension Data, Getronics, NetStar, Sprint, TELUS, Verizon Business and VSNL. The program includes three managed service program levels, Cisco Powered Managed Service, Strategic Managed Service, and Legacy Managed Service. The premium Cisco Powered Managed Service level currently includes designations for Connectivity, Unified Communications, Security, Mobility and Data Center Services. The program’s entry criterion is based on the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework of best practices.
By the way, I’ve stated multiple times that ITIL will grow in importance for MSPs. If you’re not familiar with ITIL, it’s time to get up to speed on the standard.
When I first heard about Cisco’s managed services strategy back in September, I wondered if the company planned to launch an MSP platform to compete with Autotask, Kaseya, Level Platforms, N-able and other business process automation companies. However, Cisco insiders repeatedly told me the company did not plan to move into the MSP platform market. Rather, Cisco’s goal is to ensure its product pricing and support models reflect the needs of MSPs.
ITIL: Little Acronym, Big Opportunity
Posted October 1st, 2007 by Joe Panettieri
Over the past few days, visitors to this site have been searching the term “ITIL” quite frequently. So I figured it was time to share some basic info about Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), and its importance to the managed services movement.
Do IT Smarter VP Says “Partner or Perish”
Posted September 24th, 2007 by Joe Panettieri
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.
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