Tom Wojcinski runs the SAS-70 practice at Baker Tilly. We have SAS-70 history. Tom auditor. Me “victim”. After several of those, I still like the guy.
I Skyped Tom to find out more about the shift from SAS-70 to SSAE 16 Reporting on Controls at Service Organizations. The standards guys can get pretty arcane so watch the video first and then hit this more detailed preso.
Hint: Get ready to replace all those pretty SAS-70 emblems in your NOC and your website.
Channel bellwethers like IngramMicro, CDW, Dell, Insight and PCMall are mailing in record business results. Not just better than 2009 – better than ever. Odd’s are local and regional VARs are seeing a similar uptick in box sales. If so, are they losing the passion, the compelling reason to transform to the MSP business model? I hope not. Some of the guys listed above want to eat your lunch.
Maintain the VAR to MSP momentum. Transform the business now from a position of strength economic winds at your back. Differentiate or die.
Last March I preached caution to MSPs (getting preachy = blogging) about the downside of reselling someone elses cloud vs. rolling your own. Watch this MSPZone Chat with Jason Caras Co-CEO, IT Authorities in Tampa. Jason discusses the reasons they chose to build instead of reselling. Hint: its all about company valuation. Jason also challenges the notion that small to mid-size guys can’t compete with the big guys on cloud pricing and still make money.
Direct from the MSPZone. What value can a paid third-party consultant add to the tool selection process at an MSP? Well for one, they can be the neutral party that keeps your project strongly aligned with business requirements while your team fragments around technology preferences. Listen to Clint Harder, Principal at The Corvid Group talk about his experiences inside various MSPs making technology switches.
I caught up with Bill Hood, Founder and CEO of Network Partners – a Nimsoft Powered MSP – to learn about a cool new addition to their Service Catalog that provides better, faster, cheaper “last mile” connectivity for their customers. We talked via Skype. Check out the comments around the six-minute mark where Bill describes how Nimsoft helps Network Partners create new service offerings in response to customer needs.
Why transform your mature, “safe” VAR business to the MSP business model? The effort is disruptive to customers and employees. It often times requires additional capital for tools, data centers and 24X7 support staff. Even when you find new customers, you will agree to SLAs that puts revenue at risk. All that, and there are numerous competitors ready to steal your lunch money daily.
Is the MSP transformation risk worth the potential reward? Listen to Steve Lee, Managing Director at The Bank Street Group talk about how Wall Street values VARs vs. MSPs. Bank Street is very actively involved in the MSP segment. We talk via Skype.
Right around the 3:00 minute mark Steve addresses the valuation differences between a $100MM VAR and a $10MM MSP…interesting…
Can high stakes business applications be run in the cloud? Some big companies are saying YES. They are controlling security and regulatory risks by classifying cloud applications inside their service catalog. I spoke with Brooke Guthrie, ITIL Expert and Senior Product Manager at CDW Hosting and Managed Services via Skype. She tells us what CDW’s customers are doing to enable the business ready cloud inside the enterprise.
Just had coffee with an investment banker who puts money into the MSP space. He wanted to find out more about the monitoring software that most of his customers use.
Check out MSPmentor for some fun end-of-year MSP market prognostications…
No other software company understands the MSP market like Nimsoft. We are adding quality people daily to keep up with the growth curve and many of them are coming to us with loaded with MSP experience. Between the product and the people, our MSP IQ is off the charts.
