The VAR Guy

Software as a service (SaaS) and cloud stocks continue to show some strength. For the week ending March 12, The VAR Guy’s SaaS 20 Stock Index — which tracks 20 SaaS and cloud stocks — rose 4.19%, and the index is now up a healthy 5.57% so far in 2010. Weekly winners included Kenexa Corp. (KNXA), Vocus Inc. (VOCS) and NetSuite (N). Here’s a closer look at the weekly leaders and laggards.

For the second consecutive quarter, Wall Street wasn’t impressed with Dell’s financial performance, but the hardware giant seems to be making continued progress with channel partners. Dell Channel Chief Greg Davis and other team members gave The VAR Guy a few updates today. Take a look.

The VAR Guy is scratching his head and climbing up on his soap box. The reason: Our resident blogger can’t understand why most PC makers continue to ignore the managed services market, and the emerging MSP channel. Here’s where PC makers are stumbling with managed services — plus a few examples of PC makers that are getting it right.

Join MSPmentor Live: Hot Seat edition on Wednesday, March 18 at 2:00 p.m. eastern. During the webcast, Dell will answer at least 30 attendee questions about the company’s managed services strategy. Feel free to pose questions about MSP certifications, training, sales, go-to-market strategies, and so on. Dell will also provide some clues about the company’s forthcoming managed print services initiative. Register now. Full disclosure: Dell is sponsoring the event but taking attendee questions throughout.

At first glance, IBM has won a massive $873 million outsourcing contract with the State of Georgia. But The VAR Guy took a closer look and discovered Dell Managed Services will also cash in on the engagement. A trusted source says the contract ranks as one of Dell’s largest managed services and Software as a Service (SaaS) deals to date.