MSPmentor

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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As you may guess from the name, CharTec Academy isn’t exactly your traditional partner summit. Rather than share key milestones and promote their HaaS and BDR solutions directly to partners, CharTec CEO Alex Rogers — along with a healthy number of event sponsors and guest speakers — are aiming to promote better business practices for MSPs. And the top tip Rogers had for MSPs in his introductory presentation: Refine your offering and be exactly what your customer needs.

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I just got back to my hotel room from hardware-as-a-service specialist CharTec’s party in honor of the opening of their new MSP training facility in Bakersfield, Calif. It’s a 10,000-square-foot extension, bringing the total blueprint to 20,000 square feet. The company knows how to throw a party — there were fire dancers, juggling bartenders, and big-screen TVs airing last night’s big Bruins vs. Canucks Stanley Cup final. But I’m more interested to get a few questions answered over the next two days here at CharTec Academy.

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BT — the European service provider — and Xerox have scored a managed print services contract with Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, which represents the Sandwell municipality in the United Kingdom. The win is an important reminder that Xerox continues to work with channel partners on managed print services engagements.

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Google Chromebooks officially debut today (June 15). Google is preparing some sort of partner program to help promote Chromebooks for Business into the channel. But in the meantime, MSPmentor sees at least four potential ways MSPs can indirectly profit from Chromebooks. Here they are…

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Google Chromebooks remain set for launch on June 15. The low-cost notebook and netbook devices run Google’s Chrome OS, working closely with Google Apps. But here’s the really interesting part: Google is also preparing to launch Chromebook for Business — which essentially is a hardware as a service (HaaS) plan for enterprise customers. Here are the details, plus the potential implications for managed services providers (MSPs).

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A strategic MSP-related conference is set to start later this week (June 9-11, Philadelphia, Pa.). But there’s no mention of managed services in the conference name. And you’ve got to work closely with TruMethods, an MSP-centric consulting firm, to get your foot in the door. The event’s name: Schnizzfest. Here’s what to expect.

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After 14 days on the road, it’s time to dig through my email inbox for news we’ve yet to cover. As I shake off some jet lag I notice: Equus Managed Services Solutions, which claims to be North America’s largest system builder to the channel, is launching a so-called Complete Managed Service offering to the channel. There’s an interesting twist that involves  key MSP industry players: Equus, Autotask, CharTec, ConnectWise… and a whole lot more. Here’s why.

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Initially, the Google Chromebooks for Business announcement from earlier today sounded like Google was set to alienate some channel partners. But now, updated statements suggest Google will allow partners to play a role in the new Chromebooks for Business strategy — which marries hardware, cloud software and support into a flat monthly fee. The big remaining question: Will managed services providers (MSPs) be able to remotely manage Chromebooks for Business devices? Here’s some analysis and speculation.

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Google on June 15 will launch Chromebook for Business, a complete hardware and software as a service that will cost users $28 per device per month. Google announced the Chromebook for Business strategy this morning at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco. If the service works as advertised, Chromebook for Business could be a potential landmark move that disrupts traditional PC and notebook markets. Here are the potential implications for managed services providers (MSPs) and VARs.

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At the recent Managed Print Services Conference in Orlando, Fla., I had a quick chat with Tim Brien, director of MPS at OKI Data Americas. Brien said VARs and managed services providers (MSPs) need infrastructure tools to succeed in the managed print services market. Not by coincidence, OKI is standing by to assist channel partners moving into the MPS market.

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At the Managed Print Services Conference in Orlando, Fla., this week, GreenPrint promoted three core pieces of software that may allow VARs and managed services providers to more effectively offer managed print services. Here’s the background.

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The Xerox Partner Summit, known as Fusion 2011, is set to start April 27 in San Antonio, Texas. For Xerox and the broader printer industry, the next few days provide multiple opportunities to shift managed print services (MPS) from a niche discussion to a mainstream channel opportunity. Here’s why.

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Vu Telepresence, a sister company to Zenith Infotech, says it has sold roughly 5,000 telepresence units worldwide since the products launched in October 2010. Some of the Vu Telepresence sales involve managed services providers (MSPs), but Co-founder Akash Saraf offers a refreshing reality check on where telepresence is succeeding in the IT channel — and where there’s still room for improvement. Here’s the update.

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This was a painful but necessary day at Cisco Systems, which shut down its Flip video camera business and apparently repositioned the Umi consumer telepresence solution for the SMB market. It sounds like Umi will now compete with Vu TelePresence, LifeSize and other SMB-type telepresence solutions for MSPs. We never like to hear about job losses in the IT industry, but here’s why Cisco’s moves made sense.

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It has been roughly a year since ConnectWise Capital invested in CharTec, the hardware as a service (HaaS) specialist. Since that time, CharTec has pushed deeper into additional markets like backup and disaster recovery (BDR). The latest example: CharTec has now integrated its backup and disaster recovery (BDR) appliance with ConnectWise‘s PSA (professional services automation) software, according to Corporate Administration Director Monique Rogers (pictured). Here’s the update.

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First, let’s state the obvious: Some managed services providers (MSPs) & VARs face branding challenges. Sometimes, corporate names don’t stand the test of time. Examples include legacy resellers that used “PC” or “Microcomputer” in their names, only to see the market shift to client-server, the Internet, and now managed cloud services. In some cases, MSPs break with the past and embrace a new corporate name. That’s the case at SSI Solutions, which is now F12 Networks Inc. Here’s what drove the branding change.

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Life’s good for Computer Service Partners, an MSPmentor 100 organization. The nearly 20-year-old custom IT solutions company based in Raleigh, N.C., has grown into a roughly 50-person company targeting small and midsized business (SMB) throughout the United States focused on data center initiatives, virtualization, unified communications and ruggedized computing. So what’s new? Here’s some perspective from CSP Director of Managed Services John Kilgore (pictured).

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Office Depot has introduced Xerox Managed Print Services to customers in Germany, with a European MPS rollout scheduled to take place throughout the remainder of the year, according to the two companies. The move is a mixed blessing for European managed services providers. On the one hand, the Office Depot-Xerox relationship further legitimizes managed print services. But on the other hand it means small MSPs could wind up competing with a big retailer for recurring print revenues.

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Whether you call it telepresence or video conferencing one thing is clear: Video continues to gain momentum in the managed services market. The latest example involves InterCall, a conferencing and collaboration services provider, partnering with Informata, a video network operations center (VNOC) provider. Together, InterCall and Informata plan to offer global VNOC services to customers. It sounds promising but I keep coming back to the same question: Can MSPs carve out a profitable telepresence niche as free and low-cost consumer video services like Skype continue to proliferate?

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Frequent MSPmentor readers already know set-up: We never have quite enough time to transform every content idea we have into a blog. So, instead of abandoning ideas we share the brainstorm here each Friday. Indeed, here are seven managed services blog entries MSPmentor didn’t have time to write for the week ending February 4, 2011.

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It has been roughly a year since Arnie Bellini (pictured) and David Bellini launched ConnectWise Capital, an investment fund that seeks to incubate channel-centric IT solutions for managed services providers (MSPs) and VARs. So, how are the first two investments — CharTec and LabTech Software performing? And can we expect ConnectWise Capital to make new investments? Both Arnie Bellini and David Bellini share some insights in an MSPmentor FastChat Video.

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It has been a busy week for the managed print services industry, with three major pieces of news to track. The latest involves Field Solutions, which has a network of 17,000 field technicians that can provide on-premise break-fix support. Looking ahead, Field Solutions plans to increase its focus on managed print services.

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