MSPmentor

Led by Blackboard Inc., Salesforce.com and several other strong showings, the SaaS 20 Stock Index climbed 3.64% for the week ended July 18. The index’s one-week performance slightly beat the Dow (+3.57%) and easily outpaced the Nasdaq (+1.95%). Read More >

Who’s your top rival? Dell Silverback? A local managed service provider? Actually, it’s somebody you know far better. Here’s how to compete with them — and beat them in the market. Read More >

Is software as a service (SaaS) killing Microsoft? Hardly. Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division, is expected to discuss SaaS during his July 8 keynote at the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston. But even before Elop takes the stage, here are five reasons why Microsoft won’t lose the SaaS wars. Read More >

So, you want to launch a small business or reposition your company as a managed service provider (MSP). What steps can you take to maximize your chances for success? I’ve written a four-part blog to cover that very question. Tune in each day this week for the next chapter. Here’s part 1: Finding the right partner to co-launch your business.

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Software as a service (SaaS) may represent the future of IT, but MSPmentor’s SaaS 20 Stock Index continues to slide downward like the rest of Wall Street. While the Dow is approaching bear market territory — down nearly 20% from its October 2007 high — the SaaS 20 Stock Index has slid 16.38% in 2008 and 3.63% for the week ended June 27.

By comparison, the Dow gave up 4.19 percent, the S&P shed 3 percent and the Nasdaq fell 3.76 percent, according to the Associated Press.

For the week, only three of our 20 index members (Athenahealth, +0.20%; Blackboard, +1.94%; and Kenexa, +5.80%) posted gains. The index’s biggest one-week losers were EMC (-10.43%), Omniture (-10.15%) and Amazon.com (-7.94%).

Here’s more about our weekly winners and losers.

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I hear it all the time: When VARs transition to a managed services business model, they often turn over some (or all) of their sales staff. So where can you find new sales talent that eagerly embraces change and new challenges? Here are five suggestions:

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Here’s the final portion of our Top 30 Highlights from the Kaseya User Conference in Las Vegas.

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During a conversation yesterday with Ken Vanderweel, director of product marketing for Nimsoft, we discussed the flood of Wintel (Windows on Intel) VARs moving into the managed services market. In my opinion that’s a good thing — and a bad thing.

I worry that many MSPs will repeat some of the mistakes they made during their days as break-fix specialists for Microsoft Windows. Don’t get me wrong: Microsoft has done a lot of good for the IT market. Windows NT, Exchange Server, SQL Server and other Microsoft platforms freed customers from expensive software that was locked to proprietary hardware. And those platforms created opportunities for VARs and independent software developers.

But I wonder if enough MSPs will push beyond their Microsoft roots, to develop simple, elegant and powerful online services. Or, stated more directly: Can MSPs apply Apple-like quality and polish to their online services?

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