MSPmentor

LPI Level Platforms Inc. says it has enhanced and simplified its partner program to help managed service providers (MSPs) go to market more quickly and effectively.

In some ways, I think Level Platforms’ announcement represents an inflection point for the managed services industry. The early mover stage is over, with many solutions providers succeeding (check out our MSPmentor 100 list) but others failing to cash in on managed services. Going forward, the challenge is to make sure new MSPs don’t repeat the mistakes of first-generation MSPs.

With that thought in mind, Level Platforms is documenting information from its most successful MSPs, and then sharing that content with aspiring managed service providers. Here’s a bit more on the strategy.
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There’s nothing like healthy competition to keep a market growing globally. In recent days, managed service platform providers have been busy leapfrogging each other with new announcements about their international efforts and milestones.

Here’s a sampling of the blow-by-blow involving Kaseya, Level Platforms and N-able. Read More >

N-able, the managed service platform provider, is looking to make a splash in Australia. Smart move. A few weeks ago, MSPmentor described how the managed services market is growing more than 20 percent annually in Australia. And N-able CEO Gavin Garbutt (pictured) estimates that there are nearly 2 million small and midsize businesses in Australia, providing fertile ground for managed service providers. Here’s how N-able — and some of its rivals — hope to grow that market.

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It wasn’t long ago that adopting managed services was a considered to be a pretty scary proposition. You had to build a NOC (whatever a NOC is – but we will leave that to another discussion), spend $50,000 (U.S. dollars) or more on software, turn your business upside down (or go out of business in case you missed the point!), move from low-risk time and materials to high-risk fixed price billing, replace most of your sales team and technicians and of course obey the obligatory command to “fire your customers” that enjoyed the old way of doing business with you.

Fortunately the meaning of “managed services” has changed, and changed for the better. Here’s how. Read More >

The managed services ecosystem continues to mature rapidly, as platform providers and software-as-a-service (SaaS) specialists ink new partnerships that extend their respective offerings. The latest case in point: Online backup specialist CompuVault Inc. is now a certified vendor for Level Platforms’ MSP offering. Here’s how the deal fits into the larger MSP picture. Read More >

There’s good news for MSPmentor’s growing readership in Australia. Demand for managed security services in that country will grow 20 percent annually through 2013, predicts Frost & Sullivan, a market research firm. Much like Frost & Sullivan, we’re watching the Australia market closely. And for good reason. Read More >

While the mainstream media focuses on Microsoft-Yahoo today, I’d like to drill down into a rather interesting trend involving Microsoft, managed services and SaaS (software as a service). Seems like Microsoft Dynamics, the company’s ERP offering, is emerging as a platform for managed service providers to potentially host and offer to customers. Here’s why. 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 >