MSPmentor

When Kaseya named a new CFO and a new executive VP earlier today, I wondered if the moves signaled a shift in the company’s financial and business strategy. CEO Gerald Blackie (pictured) offered up a concise answer: “These personnel moves signal no change in strategy for Kaseya” — and the company continues to march forward with a global growth plan. Here’s a bit more background.

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Kaseya, which specializes in IT automation software, has made two updates to its executive ranks. The company has named Anne Huemme CFO and Monica Hoppe executive VP, global human resources. In a prepared statement, Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie said the moves are designed to help Kaseya scale globally.

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In recent weeks, some MSPs have called on Kaseya to spend more time developing and enhancing its core software platform and existing modules — rather than building out more add-on modules. In an online forum, Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie has responded to MSPs by saying that the company continues to march forward on its R&D and software quality efforts. Here’s a summary of the dialog.

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Dell KACE, a systems management appliance, is taking aim at Kaseya. But can Dell actually hit the target this time around? The background: Dell is positioning KACE as an “affordable alternative” to Kaseya in an online marketing campaign spotted by MSPmentor. Generally speaking, it sounds like Dell KACE is targeting Kaseya’s midmarket and enterprise accounts. But MSPmentor is watching to see if Dell begins to position KACE against Kaseya for managed services providers.

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During an hour-long discussion last night, Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie was soft-spoken but focused. Among the key takeaways: Kaseya now has 500 employees. The company’s cloud platform is now one year old. And a targeted acquisition from earlier this year will pay big dividends in the network monitoring market, Blackie predicted. Here’s a recap.

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My next business trip is CompTIA Breakaway 2011 (Aug. 1-4, Washington, D.C.). Predictably, the worlds of cloud services and managed services will converge at Breakaway. But I expect several other trends to emerge at the conference. Here’s a preview, along with seven trends that I hope to track at CompTIA Breakaway.

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Kaseya and Ingram Micro, which already work together in Australia, are set to expand their managed services partnership into North America sometime in Q4, a spokeswoman for the distributor confirms. Here are the potential implications for managed services providers.

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It’s been roughly six months since MSPmentor pinpointed South Africa as the next managed services battleground. Fast forward to the present and it’s quite clear that MSP software companies — particularly Kaseya and N-able — are focusing more and more attention on MSPs in the South Africa area. Here’s the update.

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It was a busy week at the Kaseya Connect User Conference (Las Vegas), the Managed Print Services Conference (Orlando, Fla.) and HTG Peer Groups Spring Conference (Dallas). There were numerous managed services stories and news tips that we have yet to cover. In fact, here are seven managed services blogs and news leads for the week ending May 6, 2011.

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Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie is set to kick off the Kaseya Connect User Conference in Las Vegas around 11:30 a.m. eastern today. A few hundred MSPs and some VARs are attending. So what’s on tap for Kaseya here at the conference? Here are five questions I hope to pose to Blackie and other Kaseya leaders over the next two days.

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Three major managed services conferences are set to kick off next week. They include the Kaseya Connect User Conference (May 1-3, Las Vegas), HTG Dallas (May 2-5) and the Global Managed Print Services Conference (May 2-4, Orlando, Fla). MSPmentor will be on hand for all three gatherings. What do we expect to see and hear? Glad you asked. Here are 15 trends and themes we’ll be exploring at each MSP conference.

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Kaseya earlier this week unveiled two new automation tools for managed services providers. But if you dig a little deeper you’ll see how Kaseya is evolving its PSA (professional services automation) strategy and the company’s overall financial software strategy. Here’s the update.

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ConnectWise and Kaseya appear to be fulfilling their promise to cooperate even if they compete in some sectors of the managed services software market. The two companies have issued a short-but-sweet announcement, disclosing that ConnectWise 2011.2 now integrates with Kaseya 2.

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MSPmentor stirred up some debate back in February when I suggested a market share war was brewing between LabTech Software and Kaseya in the remote monitoring and management market. MSPmentor stands by that original report. But I’m always open to additional perspectives. Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie has since weighed in with some views. Meanwhile, LabTech Software CEO Matt Nachtrab has shared some deeper background about LabTech’s growth. Here’s the update.

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Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie sounds optimistic as the Kaseya Connect User Conference approaches (May 1-3, Las Vegas). On the one hand, I believe 2010 was a challenging transition year for Kaseya — amid the shift to the Kaseya 2 platform and growing competition from a range of established rivals and industry upstarts. But on the other hand, Blackie says Kaseya remains in growth mode, working more closely with managed services providers (MSPs) and corporate IT departments. Here’s the update.

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I’m running a bit late with quite a few things — including this blog entry. After last week’s Parallels Summit in Orlando, I’m heading out later today to Cisco Partner Summit in New Orleans. But before I catch my flight here are seven managed services blog entries MSPmentor didn’t have a chance to write for the week ending February 25, 2011.

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The MSPmentor team plans to unplug for a full three days as the U.S. celebrates Presidents’ Day Weekend. (Of course, we may surface if any big, breaking news happens over the extended weekend.) In the meantime, here are seven managed services blogs MSPmentor didn’t find time to write for the week ending Feb. 18.

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I’m multi-tasking as usual at the moment. My five-year-old son is watching the original Star Wars for the first time this evening… But before I unplug to spend some time with the Skywalkers (and my own family), here are seven managed services blog entries the MSPmentor team didn’t have time to write for the week ending February 11, 2011.

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Publicly, ConnectWise and Kaseya continue to cooperate in the managed services market. But privately, a war between LabTech Software (funded by ConnectWise Capital) and Kaseya has started to intensify, according to MSPs who are witnessing the action first-hand. To understand the high-stakes managed services showdown, turn your attention to a recent HTG CEO Forum meeting in Tampa, Fla. Here’s the scoop.

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As the managed services industry prepares for 2011, some software companies are striving to become more transparent — offering more frequent disclosures about product roadmaps and cloud system status updates. The most recent example involves Kaseya, which has published a near-term product schedule. What prompted the disclosure? Here are some thoughts.

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Call it the latest shot in the emerging MSP software wars. Autotask — in an apparent bid to counter ConnectWise, LabTech Software and maybe even Kaseya — has reached out to several RMM (remote monitoring and management) software companies with a free Autotask Go offer. Level Platforms and PacketTrap embraced the offer, but not all RMM players are joining the Autotask Go freemium effort. Here’s the update … plus the potential implications for VARs and MSPs.

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Kaseya, which specializes in IT systems management software, has acquired ObjAcct Inc., a developer of XML-based accounting software. The deal, expected to be announced November 4, could arm MSPs and corporate IT managers with an emerging type of financial management software. Here’s the scoop.

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Maybe it’s time for me to eat some crow (again). About a week ago, readers on the MSPmentor LinkedIn group asked me if the ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) standard had gone mainstream in the managed services market. I downplayed ITIL a bit in my remarks. Fast forward a few days, and ConnectWise is describing several enhancements to its PSA (professional services automation) platform — including beta cross-platform browser support and better ITIL support. Here are the updates.

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