The VAR Guy

We at The VAR Guy are hearing it more and more: Companies can no longer afford to scrap their hardware every two years and start fresh. This is bad news if you’re purely a reseller, but it’s a potential gold mine if you deal in maintenance. ServiceKey, the a so-called Master Independent Services Maintenance Organization (ISMO), aims to help VARs tap this potential by taking care of all their maintenance obligations for them. Here’s their story.

How’s this for a tongue twister: IT hosting specialist The Planet has launched a new Planet Partner Plus program. Here are some quick details for VARs and managed service providers (MSPs).

Sometime before 2009 ends, old pals Intel and Microsoft will likely market the benefits of Intel vPro PCs and laptops running Windows 7, The VAR Guy hears. The target market: Established and aspiring managed service providers seeking to remotely maintain customer systems — for a profit. Here’s the scoop.

Our sister site, MSPmentor, will host its next webcast on Aug. 19 at 2:00 p.m. eastern. During the discussion, we’ll cover six ways for MSPs (managed service providers) and VARs  find and win new business. The format will be interactive. We’ll spend roughly 10 minutes on each business and sales tip.

And you thought The VAR Guy was dangerous with a keyboard. Now, he’s armed with a video camera. Is he the next Steven Spielberg? Hardly. But here’s a preview of things to come… The VAR Guy’s new FastChat video center is open, and plenty of new video content will flow into the site during CompTIA Breakaway 2009 (Aug. 3-6, Las Vegas). What happens in Vegas… gets broadcast on TheVARguy.com.

Whether you’re a managed service provider or VAR, Cisco Systems CIO Rebecca Jacoby (pictured) is offering up some tips to help channel partners sell into CIOs. Sure, the following video with Jacoby has a few self-serving Cisco statements. But The VAR Guy also heard some valuable nuggets of Info.

Here’s a look at the top 10 managed services stories making headlines on MSPmentor (The VAR Guy’s sister site) this week.

1. MSPAlliance Launches SAS 70 Audits for Managed Service Providers
2. MSPs Introduce Service Level Refunds
3. Will the Managed Services Bubble Burst?
4. MSP and SAS 70 Certifications Gain Momentum
5. VirtualAdministrator Expands Master MSP Staff
6. Nimsoft Reaches Out to Cisco Partners
7. Open Source vs. Closed Source: The Managed Services Debate
8. Would You Guarantee Your MSP Prices — for a Lifetime?
9. SunGard Managed Services Offers Financial Incentives
10. Why Some MSPs Are About to Lose Customers

Keep hanging out with The VAR Guy (he loves the company). But our resident blogger won’t be insulted if you occasionally stop by MSPmentor as well.

At first glance, Google Apps and Microsoft are the horses to beat in the online software suite race. But The VAR Guy remains preoccupied with a dark horse called Zoho, which just launched Writer 2.0 and continues to gain moment across multiple software as a service (SaaS) fronts.

Here’s a look at the top 10 stories managed services stories making headlines on MSPmentor (The VAR Guy’s sister site) this week.

1. Level Platforms, Managed Services Head for Home
2. Join Us: Meet the World’s Top 100 Managed Service Providers
3. Intel Europe Confirms Managed Services, SaaS Deal With N-able
4. The Utility Company’s Franchise Model Catches On
5. Facebook: Don’t Mix Business With Pleasure?
6. Managed Services Growth Rates: Mixed Views
7. Transform Data Protection Policies Into Deeper Customer Relationships
8. Intel: Building Two Managed Services Empires?
9. N-able’s European MSP Push
10. Managed Cloud Services: Build vs. Rent

Keep hanging out with The VAR Guy (he loves the company). But our resident blogger won’t be insulted if you occasionally stop by MSPmentor as well.

The VAR Guy’s sister site — MSPmentor — offers non-stop coverage of the managed services market, where more and more VARs are generating recurring monthly revenue from customers. Here’s a look at the top 10 stories making headlines on MSPmentor this week.

The VAR Guy’s sister site — MSPmentor — offers non-stop coverage of the managed services market, where more and more VARs are generating recurring monthly revenue from customers. Here’s a look at the top 10 stories making headlines on MSPmentor this week.

The VAR Guy’s sister site — MSPmentor — offers non-stop coverage of the managed services market, where more and more VARs are generating recurring monthly revenue from customers. Here’s a look at the top 10 stories making headlines on MSPmentor this week.

Talk about a market disruption. In some scenarios, GroundWork Open Source says the company’s IT monitoring software costs 82-percent less than Hewlett-Packard Operations Manager and Network Node Manager. Apparently, Hewlett-Packard is fuming mad over the price comparison.

Quick, describe ADTRAN CEO Tom Stanton (pictured). Chances are you’re silent. The VAR Guy has spent nearly two decades covering the networking industry. He knows quite a bit about ADTRAN and its SMB networking strategy. But our resident blogger must concede: He’s never met Stanton — until today. Here’s the scoop from Stanton, and his vision for ADTRAN partners.

Dell has revamped its channel blog with more community features, including familiar Web 2.0 capabilities that allow you to see who else is logged into the site. Of course, The VAR Guy was pleased to see MSPmentor — his sister site — mentioned in a post about the managed services industry.

The next MSPmentor Live: CEO Exchange — a managed services webcast — is today (November 6) at 2:00 p.m. Eastern. Register now to hear how Gary Pica (general manager of mindSHIFT Technologies, a top managed service provider) and William MacLeod (CIO of Accu-Sort Systems, a top mindSHIFT customer) are strengthening their business relationship during these turbulent economic times.

The next MSPmentor Live: CEO Exchange — a managed services webcast — is November 6, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern. Register now to hear how Gary Pica (general manager of mindSHIFT Technologies, a top managed service provider) and William MacLeod (CIO of Accu-Sort Systems, a top mindSHIFT customer) are strengthening their business relationship during these turbulent economic times.

As The VAR Guy continues his tour of Australia, he’s hearing solutions providers express more and more concern about the global economy. However, our resident blogger was pleased to hear some upbeat channel news from the States. Specifically, one of the world’s top managed service providers — DirectPointe — disclosed record third quarter sales results. In this economy, every victory counts.

Roughly seven weeks after Dell launched its PartnerDirect channel program in Australia, The VAR Guy has landed in the land down under. During his trip, our resident blogger interviewed Rob Makin,  director of channel strategy and acquisition for Dell Australia. Here’s the scoop.

Last call: Register now for today’s MSPmentor Live: CEO Exchange webcast. It’s scheduled for Thursday, October 2 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern. During the event, hosted by MSPmentor.net (The VAR Guy’s sister site) you will have the opportunity to ask top managed service providers about their NOC (network operation center) strategies.

Millions of iPhone users download applications from Apple’s App Store. Now, Cisco Systems is considering a similar online App Store approach in the corporate market. Eventually, the networking giant may launch an online service or central repository to help you find Unified Communications applications and Widgets, The VAR Guy has learned. Here’s the scoop.

It’s official. Even CNBC says the Wall Street meltdown has spilled over into Main Street USA. Credit is getting tighter. It’s going to be difficult for entrepreneurs to make deeper investments in their own business. But don’t panic, folks. Here are five steps every VAR and managed service provider should take — right now — to generate more recurring revenue during the economic turmoil.

Perhaps Zoho, the SaaS (software as a service) alternative to Google Apps, isn’t such a market underdog. Zoho now has 250 employees, expects to be profitable in 2009, and is embarking on an open source middleware strategy, The VAR Guy has learned. Our resident blogger spoke with Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho parent AdventNet, for more details.