Your sales team knows how to sell IT solutions. But they’ve never evangelized managed services to your existing and target customers. Further complicating matters, your sales team is worried about their compensation under a managed services model. Get Started: Register to enter our Resource Center, where you’ll be able to download numerous guides to building and running your managed services business. And check back often. We post new guides in the MSPmentor Resource Center every week.
The managed services market is never without its intrigue. Vendors, application developers, tool providers, platform aggregators, managed service providers, solution providers, and end customers all swimming about in the fragmented, highly competitive, primordial soup that is a growing market. Now, for the challenge…
With retail sales continuing to suffer in the recession, that vertical may seem like the last place a managed service provider would want to hunt for business. But contrary to conventional wisdom, market researchers say there’s MSP life in the retail vertical.
Autotask and Taylor Business Group, as expected, have launched peer networking groups for managed service providers and IT service providers that use Autotask’s professional services automation (PSA) software. But I continue to see a bigger-picture story emerging. It involves MSP peer groups, user groups and IT services franchises. Simply put, Autotask and ConnectWise are locked in a PSA battle for the hearts and minds of those various groups. And those audiences potentially are the huge winners. Here’s why.
Roughly 60 managed service providers are beta testing Kutenda, an Internet marketing program that allows MSPs to offer Web site design, email marketing, search engine optimization and other marketing services to their end-customers. Kutenda co-founders Mike Cooch (CEO, Everon Technology Services) and Akash Saraf (CEO, Zenith Infotech) have updated me on their efforts. Here’s some perspective.
Recently, our company was brainstorming new and creative ways to get a foot in the door with SMBs to sell Managed Services. Times are tight, so it takes a little ingenuity to nail down an initial chat with business owners. You need something that will get them excited, and Managed Services doesn’t always do that by itself.
In the small business I own, I’ve noticed an ebb and flow through the years — periods when I am really “on it” and other times when I am either coasting or not as engaged as I need to be. I bet that managed service providers or anyone with a small business goes through the same cycles. Maybe if you read this you’ll snap out of a down cycle and get back on your game. So here goes: 6 Things Small Business Owners Do To Undermine Their Own Success.
Another sleeping giant is waking up to the managed services opportunity. Microsoft has launched a managed services landing page on its partner web site, and is beginning to connect the dots between managed services, software as a service (SaaS) and the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).
I’m not suggesting the recession is over. I realize Detroit and the auto industry are just getting started with thousands of layoffs. But I see at least five signs that the economy is improving.
Face it: People love data. They love statistics. And they embrace research. One of the fastest ways for managed service providers (MSP) to generate marketing buzz is to publish a research report that’s full of key statistics. The report can also serve as a key sales tool. Consider, for instance, a recent research effort by The Planet, a major hosting provider.
This isn’t managed services news, but here’s a heads up about some fireworks occurring this morning at the Cisco Partner Summit in Boston. Within a few hours, Cisco is expected to officially announce its servers. But the louder buzz involves Cisco attacking Hewlett-Packard’s new unified communications relationship with Microsoft. The upshot: Cisco says the HP-Microsoft deal bypasses VARs and managed service providers. HP dismissed a similar, earlier claim by Cisco. You’ll find the debate on TheVARguy.com.
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