MSPmentor » Partner Program

StorageCraft Adds Incentives to European Partner Program

Nicholas Mukhar — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:00:59 +0000

StorageCraft, the backup and disaster recovery (BDR) software provider, has decided to update its European partner program to include new training tools and more opportunities for partners earn bonuses. Here’s the scoop on the development that StorageCraft’s European partners should welcome with open arms, as the company says its 2012 Partner Program is designed to help boost all partners’ profits this year.

To begin with, the new partner program is broken down into the following four levels, beginning with the lowest level partnership:

Standard StorageCraft Resellers (Entry Level)
StorageCraft STAR Certified Reseller
StorageCraft Engineer Certified Reseller
StorageCraft Advanced Engineer Certified Reseller

Standard resellers will be able to develop relationships with new business customers, activate storage licenses, manage customers and process renewals, all through the StorageCraft Business Class Portal. Second level partners — STAR Certified Resellers — essentially have the sample capabilities. The difference is, STAR Certified Partners have undergone a half day StorageCraft technical training course and pass an online test. The top two partners conduct on and off site BDR as a service. Level two partners and above have their own StorageCraft Account Managers, free telephone support, free NFR software and bonuses for reaching a customer turnover target.

Keep in mind, no partner is stuck at any one level. Standard resellers can move up by passing a technical test, and STAR resellers can move up by meeting profit margins. The company’s goal with its new European partner structure is the same goal it had in mind when it restructured its storage partner program into three tiers back in August, 2011: reward its best-performing partners, increase sales, and expand the use of its BDR software solution.

Level Platforms Managed Workplace 2012: RMM Meets MDM

Nicholas Mukhar — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:46:25 +0000

Competition among remote monitoring and management (RMM) software providers is beginning to heat up in 2012. And as is usually the case, intense competition is leading to rapid software solution innovation. The latest example? The RMM provider Level Platforms has introduced its signature Managed Workplace 2012 edition with one of the hottest new business management software features on the market today — mobile device management (MDM) software.

Level Platforms’ new MDM feature will make its debut in mid-February when the RMM software company embarks upon its 2012 Global Road Show. And when it does, the MDM solution will allow the software provider’s customers to monitor and manage business networks from Apple, Google, Microsoft and RIM smartphones and tablets. Level Platforms managed service provider customers will be able to access this new MDM feature through their existing RMM dashboards via the new Level Platforms Mobile Service Manager that will be pre-packaged in Managed Workplace 2012.

Once a customer installs the new MDM software on a mobile device, they will be able to use that device to collect asset information, remotely configure devices, track location and restrict user access to business networks upon request. And if a device is lost or stolen, MSPs can remotely wipe, lock, or completely reset the device. In the end, Level Platforms hopes its MDM solution will give its MSP customers a complete RMM solution to add to their existing managed services offerings that will help them accelerate their revenue growth.

The news of Level Platforms’ new MDM capabilities comes about two weeks after the RMM software provider introduced its new NOC and help desk services. Shortly thereafter, N-able Technologies, another major RMM software provider, partnered with NTRglobal to offer a cloud-based help desk service. Then N-able made a regional expansion move by partnering with Hartco Distribution in order to target MSPs and SMBs in Canada. Now comes new of Level Platforms new MDM software offering included in Managed Workplace 2012. It’s a major RMM development, but it definitely won’t be the last we hear from Level Platforms, N-able or other RMM providers.

Join Us: Top 100 Managed Services Providers List Revealed

Joe Panettieri — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 06:00:54 +0000

We will reveal the fifth-annual MSPmentor 100 list during our next Channel Expert Hour webcast on Wednesday, Feb. 15. Here are four reasons to register now and join us for the unveiling and conversation.

1. The Data: During the webcast, we’ll reveal growth numbers, sales milestones and business strategies used by the MSPmentor 100 companies.

2. The List: Who exactly are the world’s top 100 managed services providers? We’ll display the entire list and applaud many of the members during the webcast.

3. The Experts: Our confirmed guest speakers includes these three experts:

Zack Schuler, President and CEO of Calnet Technology Group — an MSPmentor 100 company that has introduced cloud management services.
Tommy Wald, CEO, White Glove Technologies — an MSPmentor 100 company that has mastered mergers and acquisitions.
Jeannine Edwards, Director of Community, ConnectWise — providing perspectives from ConnectWise user groups worldwide.

Schuler, Wald and Edwards will answer your questions throughout the webcast. Note: ConnectWise is the webcast sponsor but the MSPmentor 100 report is vendor-independent research.

4. The Report: Everyone who attends the MSPmentor 100 webcast will automatically receive our complete MSPmentor 100 report PDF — a 22 page document that highlights all of the key companies and trends within the managed services market.

Want more information? Register now for the Webcast. I look forward to unveiling this year’s top 100 managed services providers list on February 15.

Zendesk Debuts 4th European Partner Program for Customer Referrals

Nicholas Mukhar — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:15:35 +0000

Zendesk has launched a European partner program to help help accelerate demand for the company’s customer service and help desk solutions.

Currently, Zendesk offers the following three types of European partner programs:

Zendesk Solution Partners who help businesses implement Zendesk software.
Zendesk Integration Partners who integrate Zendesk’s customer service software into their own managed services offerings.
Zendesk Incubator Partners who offer Zendesk Plus+ for free for one year to qualifying European start-up companies.

This newest Zendesk partner program — called Zendesk Ambassadors — gives a referral cash bonus to customers who bring additional business to Zendesk. They will also gain access to private Zendesk discussion forums and meet-ups with the Zendesk team. Zendesk Ambassador Program partners also have the chance to become Zendesk Authorized Partners and have access to even more benefits through the invite-only Authorized Partner program.

But Zendesk Ambassadors have to do more than bring repeated business through referrals to become Zendesk Authorized Partners. They have to provide Zendesk software end-users with professional services and training in order to help them use their customer service software in the most efficient way possible. Authorized partners will continue to receive cash bonuses for customer referrals just like regular Zendesk ambassadors. The difference is, Authorized partners will also get leads from Zendesk customers who are searching for professional services. So in the end, both Zendesk and the Authorized partner will gain new customers.

The software provider’s 4th European partner program comes six months after the company launched a new version of its customer service software — Zendesk Enterprise Plan — for enterprise businesses. This newest partner program based on customer referral is likely aimed at driving more enterprise business customers throughout Europe.

Echoworx Secure Cloud Manages Encryption Services

Nicholas Mukhar — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:00:41 +0000

Echoworx, which offers encryption services, has opened up its secure cloud to third-party partners and customers, including mobile device management providers (MDMs), mobile enterprise application platforms (MEAPs) and cloud services providers. According to Echoworx CEO Michael Ginsberg, customers are asking for a mobile or enterprise application that they can use to push credentials through without going through the work of setting-up and managing a PKI infrastructure.

In response, Echoworx is now delivering an Echoworx Developer Kit. It is designed to save customers time and money because they won’t have to develop their own credential management and encryption solutions. That Developer Kit includes sample source code and documentation needed to put a credential management and encryption services into place. If all goes according to plan, the Echoworx cloud environment will be strictly for credential management.

It looks as though Echoworx has been steadily moving toward opening up its cloud environment. Remember, Echoworx already offers its own encryption solution for mobile devices – the Echoworx mobilEncrypt ENDPOINT. And earlier this year, Echoworx partnered with Mformation, an MDM software provider, to include Echoworx’s mobile encryption solution in Mformation’s MDM software solution.

Echoworx is striking while the iron — or in this case, the market — is hot, particularly when it comes to MDM. There is certainly no shortage of MDM software consumer and providers, many of which Echoworx says have been itching for this type of solution.

EMC VP Talks Flash Storage Strategy Following VFCache Announcement

Nicholas Mukhar — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:53:43 +0000

Hours after officially releasing its new VFCache Flash storage solution, EMC Corp. on Feb. 6 held a press conference in San Francisco, Calif., to discuss its enterprise Flash strategy. Mark Sorensen, senior VP of EMC’s Flash Business Unit , described how VFCache will work with EMC FAST and other products, and how the company’s international channel partners will help EMC push to the forefront of enterprise Flash solution development.

“EMC FAST moves data across storage tiers based on how hot it is,” Sorenson explained. “VFCache accelerates the reads from the server.” So by reading data more quickly, VFCache allows EMC FAST users to moved data around to different storage tiers much faster, EMC asserts.

Disk Drives Still Alive

Even though Flash storage innovation will be a large part of EMC’s 2012 plan, both Sorenson and President and CEO of EMC Information Products Pat Gelsinger said Flash won’t make traditional disk storage drives completely obsolete.

“Flash storage can be as much as 30x more expensive than disk storage,” Gelsinger said. So EMC has focused on Flash storage for performance applications. That is, VFCache is designed to hold data that is being used regularly.

“Some of our competitors only sell Flash storage,” Sorenson said. “But only about five percent of a businesses’ data is hot, meaning it’s being used regularly. And that five percent changes all the time. So EMC FAST can change the data across storage tiers depending on when it’s being used and not used, and VFCache speeds up that application performance by 2-3x.”

Focus on the Channel

Sorenson also said that EMC plans to focus on its channel business throughout 2012, which ties in well with its VFCache solution development.

“VFCache is interesting to the channel because those who supply servers and system integrators can integrate VFCache into their service offerings,” Sorenson said. EMC plans to heavily market VFCache in London City, New York City and along the U.S. West Coast. The company also plans to sell VFCache to the mid-market, along with its more traditional enterprise base.

For service providers, VFCache could help to speed the performance of on-demand and SaaS applications.

EMC VFCache Boosts Oracle, SAP Application Performance

Nicholas Mukhar — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:15:52 +0000

EMC Corp. kicked off February 2012 be releasing VFCache — a new Flash caching solution that EMC business customers can combine with EMC’s Flash storage systems in order to “dramatically improve application performance,” EMC claims.

Indeed, EMC says the VFCache solution to an EMC Flash storage solution can reduce latency by 60 percent. The VFCache development also means that EMC is extending its Flash technology beyond what it calls “edge case social media and Internet,” and into support for Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and other mainstream applications.

“EMC identified very early on that Flash would technology would change the industry forever,” EMC President and COO of Information Infrastructure Pat Gelsinger said in a prepared stateement. “With today’s announcement, EMC also becomes the first to implement PCIe Flash in a way that ensures mission critical applications reach new levels of performance, at the right cost, and with the level of protection and intelligence that customers demand.”

EMC FAST Update

The VFCache solution allows the EMC FAST architecture to facilitate end-to-end data tiering and caching from the storage space straight to the server, EMC claims. On a related note, EMC FAST is one of the company’s fastest growing storage products.

This week I’ll be attending an EMC event in San Francisco to gather more insights and to chat with EMC President Gelsinger about EMC’s channel partner strategy.

PC Helps: Help Desk Extension for MSPs, Enterprise Customers

Nicholas Mukhar — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:10:10 +0000

For nearly two decades, PC Helps, a desktop application support provider, has worked behind the scenes for help desk service providers and enterprise end-users. Indeed, PC Helps offers 24×7 live support and vows to answer calls in two rings or less. The company supports 160 different business applications for roughly 160 commercial enterprise businesses with at least five hundred employees.So what’s next? PC Helps CEO Brian Madocks (pictured) offered some insights.

“Primarily, we are an extension of existing help desks,” Madocks said. ”Clients have approached us about being a full help desk and not just an extension, and that’s growing nicely within our base. But we want to continue to deliver a highly repeatable service.” Here’s how that highly repeatable help desk extension service works.

PC Helps give each customer a toll-free support line that integrates into their main help desk phone menu. Then, PC Helps Certified Computer Consultants answer each of these calls in two rings or less. These consultants help customers with application problems, migrations, resolutions and more. PC Helps can also use a customer’s information to re-create a user scenario to show that user how they can fix their problem. The company then sends that replica environment to end-users complete with step-by-step instructions of how to solve their network problems.

“We tend to focus on solutions and applications that are very standard and are very highly deployed,” Madocks said. According to Madocks, PC Helps’ services give help desk providers a number of added benefits.

Help desks using PC Helps services have reported high satisfaction from their customers.
PC Helps has taken all of the application support burden away from help desks.
Help Desks with PC Helps services are seeing a higher demand for their services.

BYOD Drives Accelerating Business for PC Helps

Most recently, the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) movement in the workplace has help accelerate demand for PC Helps’ services among traditional help desks. Remember, PC Helps focuses on the enterprise, which is where BYOD is seen most heavily.

“In our business, we are providing iPad and/or mixed mobile support for a number of large and mid-size enterprises, and we are handling their help desk calls specific to these devices, and we’ve seen the volume and types of support calls coming in. These companies needed additional resources to support the volume of calls to the help desk. If they decline to support those calls, the help desk risks becoming a resource of declining value in the organization.”

Madocks said that many businesses think BYOD and consumerization means end users need less support because they are choosing their own device. But PC Helps believes the opposite. According to Madocks, the company has seen help desk calls increase since the emergence of BYOD, and that many of the calls have been BYOD and/or consumerization-related.

PC Helps and the Channel

PC Helps plans to extend its number of end-users during 2012 by developing a channel partner program. Madocks said he plans to use the channel to make PC Helps services more accessible to enterprise companies that want self-help, and to other who have general troubleshooting questions. The company also plans to target more managed service providers.

“Regarding the relevance of PC Helps to MSPs, we believe our service offering can extend and compliment the offerings of certain MSPs, particularly those in the mobile device management (MDM) arena, or related,” Madocks said. “We can provide the added service of specialized, expert support for end-users in environments where MSPs are providing tech support and management.”

Webcast: Partner the Right Way on Cloud Backup

Joe Panettieri — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:23:56 +0000

Two top MSPs — Data Storage Corp. and Bumi (Backup My Info!) — and Asigra are set to share their secrets to cloud backup. Their guidance will surface during our Channel Expert Hour webcast on Wednesday, Feb. 8. Join in to learn how you can set your own cloud storage pricing, margins and service level agreements.

Indeed, our guests will describe how they set their own pricing, margins and service level agreements. Both Data Storage Corp. and BUMI partnered with Asigra to build the cloud storage businesses. Now you can learn from each of them. Our confirmed guest speakers include:

Matthew P. Grosso, executive VP, Data Storage Corp.
Jennifer Walzer, CEO, BUMI (Backup My Info! Inc.)
Eran Farajun, Executive VP, Asigra

Datto: Profitable, Growing and Partnering on BDR Storage

Joe Panettieri — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:24:48 +0000

Datto, the backup and disaster recovery (BDR) storage specialist, has a concise message for managed services providers (MSPs). Specifically, Datto is profitable, growing and in hiring mode. But what potentially sets Datto apart in the fiercely competitive BDR market? CEO Austin McChord offered MSPmentor some insights.

McChord has a degree in bioinformatics — which marries super computers and DNA-type research. But when McChord became disenfranchised with the big pharmaceutical industry, he shifted attention to an entrepreneurial itch. The result: McChord launched Datto in a Connecticut basement in 2007.

Working the Phones

During Datto’s early years, Datto focused on consumer storage. McChord personally reached out to consumer tech websites and blogs like Engadget, hoping they’d review Datto’s storage products to create viral buzz about the company. Gradually, bloggers started responding to McChord’s outreach, and chatter about the small company started to spread across the web.

By 2009, Datto shifted its attention to the business market with Viridian, a storage solution that countered Zenith Infotech. “That’s when the channel really started to pay attention to us,” said McChord. “MSPs weren’t part of our original vision. But over time, MSPs discovered us and they convinced us to get into the channel.”

Moving Forward

Fast forward to the present and the storage company remains self-funded, profitable, debt free and growing. “We’ve funded our growth organically and we only answer to our customers,” said McChord.

In fact, Datto now employs 80 people and the company manages 5.7 petabytes of data. McChord expects to hit 6 petabytes (6,000 terabytes) of managed storage within the next few weeks — thanks to the company’s growing base of MSP partners.

Still, McChord sees some more opportunities to further refine the BDR market, through simplified pricing. A prime example: The company does not require long-term contract engagements with MSPs. Instead, “we re-win that business every month,” said McChord. “If we don’t win your business every month you’re free to walk away. That reality helps us to set our priorities internally.” As a result, McChord asserts, Datto has a 97 percent satisfaction rate on customer support.

Fierce Competition

Admittedly, competition looms around every corner for Datto. Clear rivals include Axcient, eFolder and Zenith Infotech — among many others. But Datto is hoping a recent partnership with Continuum — the RMM spin-off from Zenith Infotech — will further accelerate the company’s growth. The first fruit of the Continuum-Datto relationship, called Continuum Vault, officially launched earlier this week. The new BDR system is reaching initial MSPs now.

McChord is upbeat about the Continuum relationship, but he notes that Datto continues to partner elsewhere in the RMM (remote monitoring and management) software market. In fact, Datto will be on hand for Level Platforms‘ upcoming road show…

MSPmentor » Partner Program

StorageCraft Adds Incentives to European Partner Program

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Level Platforms Managed Workplace 2012: RMM Meets MDM

Read More About This Topic

Join Us: Top 100 Managed Services Providers List Revealed

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Zendesk Debuts 4th European Partner Program for Customer Referrals

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Echoworx Secure Cloud Manages Encryption Services

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EMC VP Talks Flash Storage Strategy Following VFCache Announcement

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EMC VFCache Boosts Oracle, SAP Application Performance

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PC Helps: Help Desk Extension for MSPs, Enterprise Customers

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Webcast: Partner the Right Way on Cloud Backup

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Datto: Profitable, Growing and Partnering on BDR Storage

Working the Phones

Moving Forward

Fierce Competition

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