MSPmentor

During the past few years, it has become fashionable for marketing experts to highlight how the legendary psychedelic rock band The Grateful Dead can teach many lessons about effective branding and loyalty-building. And yes, the Dead also has a few learnings to offer MSPs. In honor of Grateful Dead spinoff band Furthur (featuring surviving members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh) launching its fall 2011 tour, I would like to present three important lessons the Dead can share with MSPs.

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Small business owners apparently are spending more time reading up on cloud services, according to some anecdotal data from SkillSoft. I wonder: As small business owners gain cloud computing knowledge, will MSPs polish their own consulting skills to answer more cloud questions?

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When the Channel Transformation Alliance surfaced this week, it signaled that big technology companies — including HP, Microsoft, CA Technologies and Symantec — are finally ready to help VARs and MSPs to develop recurring revenue business models. In some ways, the Channel Transformation Alliance reminds MSPmentor of the old MSP Partners initiative, where vendors helped channel partners to shift from break-fix business models to managed services and now cloud services business models.

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True Influence, an email marketing company, has launched LeadPAC — which seeks to help customers promote the “the right message, to the right people, at the right time.” But will LeadPAC catch on with IT service providers that want to engage more small business customers?

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A new SonicWALL MSP Advantage Program seeks to help partners drive IT security sales and monthly recurring revenues. The effort includes FlexSpend, the SonicWALL Global Management System (GMS) and the potential to create multiple revenue streams. Here’s how.

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When the Alert Logic Cloud Acceleration Partner Program (CAPP) launched a few days ago, we wanted to take a closer look. Who exactly would the cloud security partner program potentially help MSPs and VARs? Alert Logic VP of Marketing Urvish Vashi offered me some insights.

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Geeks On Call apparently has overhauled its IT services franchising model. At its height in 2007, Geeks on Call claims it had more than 300 IT services franchises across the United States. But by 2009, the company fell off a cliff and SEC filings revealed deep financial problems. But by late 2010, there were signs that new owner Glenn Davis was overhauling Geeks on Call. Fast forward to the present and Geeks On Call is introducing a new IT services franchising model. Will VARs and MSPs give it a look?

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Averiware and GreenAppX are partnering to promote a range of SaaS and cloud applications to service providers. The move could allow VARs and MSPs to more effectively promote SaaS-based business applications to end-customers. Here’s the background.

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Ventana New Media, a marketing, branding and lead generation solution provider, has officially released the Ventana New Media Engine. The big question: Can Ventana help VARs and MSPs to generate more sales leads?

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How are small and midsize businesses (SMBs) spending their marketing and advertising dollars? BIA/Kelsey has some answers. The Company says the typical SMB now uses nearly 5 different forms of media for advertising and marketing, nearly double from 2009. And yes: MSPs may be able to help SMB customers with this changing advertising and marketing landscape. Here’s how.

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Treehouse Interactive has updated its SaaS-based Partner Relationship Management (PRM) platform, which helps to build closer channel relationships through coordinated marketing campaigns. Treehouse Interactive Director of Sales Reagan Wilson described some of the updates to me…

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True Influence, which claims to be the the largest business-to-business (B2B) lead generation and email marketing firm in the world, wants to lend a helping hand in the SMB market. The company recently reported some key milestones stemming from the launch of the True Influence Relevance Engine roughly one year ago. But can True Influence help managed services providers (MSPs) to track down new customers?

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N-able Technologies is trying to ease the sales process for managed service providers (MSPs). Specifically, the company has introduced a new MSP Sales and Marketing Digital Binder, which is free for N-able MSP partners for a limited time only.

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After a string of stunning announcements yesterday, it’s fair to say Hewlett-Packard is undergoing the most dramatic changes in the company’s history. So, what can small MSPs and IT service providers learn from a $120 billion technology company’s missteps? Plenty. Here are five lessons involving distractions, focus, vision, execution and differentiation.

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N-Able Technologies VP of Marketing and Business Development Derik Belair , an MSPmentor 250 member, has spent over a decade interacting with MSPs and learning their businesses. He’s worked in and around the channel for two decades but most folks know him as one of N-able’s original employees since April, 2000. N-able has since grown to become one of the best-known providers of RMM (remote monitoring and management) software to MSPs. So what’s on Belair’s mind right now? Here are some perspectives.

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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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It’s been about two months since Technology Services Group Ltd. (TSG), an open source software and consulting firm, acquired Concentrix in an effort to market its cloud computing solutions in the UK. Since the April acquisition, TSG has decided to make more of an effort to brand itself. The proof: TSG has hired Carole Beverly — a consumer branding expert — as group marketing and communications director.

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Generally speaking, I think most MSPmentor readers have been building their managed services businesses for five to 10 years. But what if you were building that business from scratch right now? Here are 10 steps to consider for startup MSPs — though the steps certainly apply to established MSPs that are looking to rethink their strategies for the second half of 2011.

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Bob Vogel, most recently executive director of demand generation at Autotask, has left the company to launch B2 Marketing, which offers “specialized marketing products and strategic marketing consulting, exclusively for MSPs, VARs, IT Solution Providers, Systems Integrators and IT consultants.” Vogel’s departure is the latest change at Autotask since the company hired CEO Mark Cattini in December 2010. Here’s the update.

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During an interview at mindSHIFT‘s Long Island offices yesterday, CEO Paul Chisholm revealed his top priorities for the rest of 2011. More managed services acquisitions? More cloud marketing? Instead of guessing simply read on for a recap of my conversation with Chisholm.

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At the CharTec Academy conference, CEO Alex Rogers updated me on the HaaS specialist’s new partner sales and marketing strategies. In a nutshell — if you don’t have the expertise or time to hire a dedicated sales rep or run a marketing campaign, CharTec wants to do it for you. Why? Because MSPs have the technical expertise to thrive — but not always the business acumen. Here are some highlights of our discussion.

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According to AMI Partners, U.S. SMBs with fewer than 100 employees are expected to spend $36 billion on marketing in 2012, up 4 percent from 2011. Now here’s the big question: Are managed services providers (MSPs) also increasing their marketing dollars? And if so, where should MSPs focus their marketing efforts? Here are some educated guesses.

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At TruMethods Schnizzfest, top managed services providers are on stage describing how they grew their businesses, developed their pricing philosophies and stay energized. The session, moderated by TruMethods CEO Gary Pica, includes MSPmentor 100 companies and leaders such as White Glove Technologies CEO Tommy Wald; EndSight CEO Mike Chaput; and IT Solutions CEO Ted Swanson (pictured left to right). Here’s the recap.

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