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.
At first glance, managed services platforms represent the perfect business opportunity for VARs. But take a closer look — and talk to companies like Kaseya and Nimsoft — and you’ll discover a completely different target customer for MSP-centric systems. Here’s the scoop.
Even as some managed service providers begin to feel pressure from the economic slowdown, there are hints that the MSP market continues to generate healthy growth. A key example: Nimsoft, which develops IT performance and availability monitoring solutions, says it generated record Q1 results — including 83 percent recurring revenue growth.
Nimsoft announced the results on May 14, but I sensed another upbeat quarter from the company when I interviewed CEO Gary Read on April 7. Here’s a bit more on Nimsoft’s results, and its meaning to the broader MSP market.
Tech Data, the big IT distributor, is particularly active today. The company is hitting the wires with three VAR- and MSP-related announcements. I hear more news related to managed service providers could be coming in the next few days.
In the meantime, Tech Data is promoting several partner-centric milestones, including the fact that the company’s lead generation tool — MyOpportunityTracker–has funneled more than 240,000 sales leads to partners. Here’s a closer look at some of the Tech Data news, and its implications for managed service providers. Read More >
Evidence is mounting that the software as a service (SaaS) industry is doing well — but not quite as well as financial analysts had expected. The latest anecdote comes from Blackboard Inc., a company that offers hosted applications to colleges and universities.
I’ve tracked Blackboard for numerous years while working at a college and also contributing to University Business magazine. Blackboard was among the first niche, vertical market software companies to truly master the SaaS business model. So, how are things at Blackboard, and what does the data mean to managed service providers (MSPs)? Here’s a look.
First, let me clarify the headline: I’m not pressing a panic button. Cisco’s overall profits and revenues, announced May 6, were impressive. But if you’re a managed service provider, there’s a note of caution: Cisco’s sales to big U.S. service providers were weak this quarter. Here’s why managed service providers should care.
What’s the single biggest threat to managed service providers:
Actually, I think it’s something else. Read More >
Talk about role reversal. A few months ago, RightNow was plummeting and NetSuite was skyrocketing. But the two software as a service (SaaS) companies appear to have traded places. Only a day after RightNow announced financial progress, NetSuite delivered growth projections that disappointed Wall Street.
The bottom line for SaaS — and the people who follow the SaaS industry — is pretty clear.
A recent LogicBay study within a managed services channel revealed some startling findings. Basically, there’s a critical link between managed services and a manufacturer’s hardware sales.
Here are four highlights from the study, along with their implications for managed service providers.
