7. Managed Application Services: ManageEngine, which develops IT management software for MSPs and corporate IT managers, continues to enhance its Applications Manager. Among the improvements: enhance monitoring support for Java transactions.

6. MSP Expert On the Move: Zetta.net, which provides online backup and disaster recovery solutions, has named Jill Cooper as vice president of sales. Cooper formerly was worldwide VP of inside sales at Nimsoft, the MSP-centric software company that CA Technologies now owns. C00per essentially becomes Zetta.net’s channel chief.

5. Expanding Down Under: OS33, which develops a cloud services platform for MSPs, has expanded into Australia. I saw a demo of OS33′s cloud platform a few months ago, and quite a few MSPs have embraced OS33′s offering since that time.

4. Managed Services Experts: VAR Dynamics, which offers private-label SaaS and cloud business apps through VARs and MSPs, has earned the CompTIA MSP Partners Trustmark, a designation that helps customers find trusted managed services partners.

3. Massive Windows 8 Tablets: Apparently, Steve Ballmer has an 80-inch Windows 8 tablet in his office. Okay, so perhaps it’s better termed a touch-screen TV or touch-screen telepresence system. Either way, it sounds like massive executive touch-screens running Windows 8 are on the way. And I have a hunch InFocus, promoter of the Mondopad, will be involved.

2. IPv6 Launch Day: I hear June 6, 2012, is World IPv6 Launch Day, June 6. It sounds like ISPs and cloud services providers (CSPs) are preparing to permanently enable IPv6. Is World IPv6 launch day a marketing gimmick or a date that MSPs should circle?

1. Top 250 Managed Services Experts: Our fifth-annual MSPmentor 250 survey is now open. Nominate your favorite managed services experts, entrepreneurs, executives, coaches and community leaders. Submit your nominees here: http://www.mspmentor.net/nominations. A few notes:

• Yes, you can nominate yourself.
• No need to stuff the ballot box. One nomination is all it takes for a person to be considered.
• Survey closes July 27, 2012.
• The fifth-annual MSPmentor 250 results will debut in August 2012.
• You’re the first to know about the survey. We’ll make a more formal announcement on Tuesday, May 29.

That’s all for now. Enjoy the weekend and thank you for reading MSPmentor.

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Chatter about Dell’s potential buyout of Quest Software surfaced yesterday from BloombergBusinessWeek. Although no deal has been announced, Dell’s interest in Quest Software is easily explained.

Quest Software’s Focus

Quest Software offers a range of IT management, data management, security, virtualization and managed services software. Quest Software also has extensive expertise migrating on-premises customers to new versions of Microsoft applications, and to cloud versions of Microsoft’s offerings — including Office 365.

Quest Software has been transitioning from a publicly held company to a privately held company. Quest Software, represented by Morgan Stanley, has also pursued buyers for the company as part of a 60-day “go shop” effort. Even if Dell doesn’t emerge as Quest Software’s buyer, it’s clear that Quest Software has been considering multiple offers for the company.

For managed services providers, a potential Dell-Quest Software deal would definitely trigger chatter about Quest’s PacketTrap business. The PacketTrap MSP and PacketTrap PSA solutions are positioned for managed services providers (MSPs) that want to remotely manage customer networks while automating internal MSP operations. While Dell has improving relationships with many MSPs, a potential Dell-Quest deal is likely to trigger a range of reactions from MSPs — some of which likely would not want their PacketTrap customer data moved into Dell-owned clouds.

But again, I’m getting ahead of myself: No deal has been announced. If a deal does surface, we’ll be sure to ask how the PacketTrap business will be managed.

Dell Mergers and Acquisitions

Dell, meanwhile, has been busy buying up networking, security, storage and software companies in a quest to push beyond PC sales. Dell’s latest financial results disappointed Wall Street, but Dell’s purchases EqualLogic and Compellent, have performed well. Dell has also made some moves in the managed services market over the years, but buyouts like Silverback Technologies never really caught on with next-generation  MSPs.

Dell’s merger and acquisition strategy, however, has triggered some concern in the IT channel. Dell’s recent buyout of SonicWall sent some security channel partners looking for alternative vendor relationships. Some of those SonicWall channel partners attended last week’s Sophos partner summit, where Astaro unified threat management (UTM) solutions attracted strong interest from some SonicWall partners.

Dell declined to comment to BloombergBusinessWeek. A Quest Software spokeswoman told MSPmentor the company had no comment about the speculation.

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Through the use of Open Kernel’s High Assurance Framework (HAF) and Fixmo’s mobile risk management platform, users are provided with a complete virtualized operating environment for mobile devices with fully integrated services for policy management, device integrity, application containment, and information assurance. Control mechanism for policy and capability assignment are integrated with this software through these solutions:

• Fixmo SafeZone secure workspace and enterprise server;
• Enterprise App Store, which distributes commercial and custom applications to managed mobile devices within an organization’s IT environment;
• Monitoring through Fixmo Sentinel.

More information about partnering with Fixmo is available here.

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Against that backdrop, Chilmark Research reports a shift in the HIE market — from state and large public HIEs to exchanges that serve healthcare organizations of all sizes. Chilmark Research, in its 2012 HIE Market Report released earlier this month, describes this broader customer set as the enterprise market.

That market encompasses a range of HIE types. An exchange could be a localized linkup among a couple of hospitals and affiliated physicians. Or it could be a group of hospitals and doctors in a somewhat larger geographic area. The upshot for MSPs: smaller-scale HIEs could make the market more accessible to smaller service and solution providers.

“Smaller vendors have an opportunity in this market,” said John Moore, founder and managing partner at Chilmark Research. “The barriers to entry are much lower than was the case with state and large public HIEs.”

Private Healthcare Information Exchanges Growing Fast

An earlier report from KLAS, a research firm focusing on healthcare vendors, reinforces this notion. KLAS reported the the number of private HIEs more than tripled from 2010 to 2011. Public HIEs continued to grow, according to KLAS, but at a lower rate.

So, while large, regional HIEs were once the expected pattern, their more diminutive counterparts find themselves on the faster growth track.

Jordan Battani, managing director for CSC Global Healthcare Group, said she has encountered more variety in HIEs’ organizational models. She said the smaller regional variations are trying to put together a mechanism that ensures interoperability across the continuum of care — from the primary care physician on one end to rehabilitation services and skilled nursing on the other.

“That is where information exchange is a critical enabler for linking together the information systems and the knowledge across all those disparate entities and different systems,” Battani said.

The emergence of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), networks of doctors and hospitals that provide care coordination for a group of Medicare patients, has helped propel the rise of private HIEs.

Moore said the move to value-based models — such as ACOs and Patient-Centered Medical Homes — force healthcare organizations to adopt HIEs. He said exchanges provide the only way to manage transitions in care when the local market is characterized by heterogenous electronic health record (EHR) system deployments.

The Challenge of Integration

Hospitals and physicians typically run a mix of different systems. And Battani pointed out that even healthcare organizations using the same EHR vendor, may each deploy the software in a different way. EHR applications and associated tools are highly configurable, she noted.

Beyond ACOs, the second stage of the federal government’s meaningful use EHR adoption program also contributes to the increase in localized HIEs. Stage 2 criteria call for hospital and physicians to electronically distribute patient care summaries to other providers and across other EHRs.

Healthcare organizations dealing with ACOs and meaningful use as drivers may seek to quickly establish local exchanges, rather than count on a statewide or large regional HIE.

In such an environment, healthcare MSPs have a shot at building and/or managing HIEs that help healthcare entities coordinate care. They may also find the much sought after trusted advisor role as they help healthcare customers determine the best path to an exchange.

In addition, service providers could be in a position to help the smaller, localized HIEs join forces down the road.

“In the end, the value of information exchange is the ability to create a seamless utility-like service for passing information back and forth … across a wide continuum,” Battani explained. “If we have a whole bunch of small ones, it suggests to me that there would need to be some next wave of consolidation at some point in the future.”

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During a recent meeting, an MSP told me he believes all the major RMM (remote monitoring and management) software providers will need to integrate Office 365 management into their dashboards to remain relevant. I’m not sure I fully agree… but the comment caught my ear. And I relayed it onto Level Platforms CEO Peter Sandiford, a proponent of Office 365 management and cloud management solutions for MSPs.

Expanding Market?

Sandiford conceded that cloud monitoring and management has been a pet project of his for a few years now. “I understand that this is not the top priority for all MSPs right now, which is likely the reason we are the only company providing this capability in a serious way,” Sandiford asserted. “However it is clear to me that cloud monitoring and management will soon be a basic requirement for all MSPs as the business shifts from monitoring and managing traditional devices to the much more valuable focus on the end user experience. I see this shift as absolutely inevitable.”

Along with that shift, Sandiford believes, MSPs will need a single dashboard for managing on-premises devices and applications, and cloud applications.  “The wide adoption of Office 365 has really driven the recognition of this requirement,” he said.

As a result, Level Platforms’ software can monitor and manage Office 365 directly from inside the Managed Workplace dashboard. The capability has been around since Managed Workplace 2011 R3 debuted in November 2011.

Office 365 Monitoring: Potential Upside?

Still, I’m sometimes skeptical of cloud monitoring. In my mind a cloud application is either online or offline… alive or dead. And only the cloud service provider (such as Microsoft with Office 365) can truly manage and optimize the SaaS service.

Sandiford addressed my skepticism with some examples of how cloud monitoring can benefit MSPs and their end-customers. He noted:

• MSPs can monitor the health of Office 365, provide proactive customer and vendor management in the event of problems, report on SLAs to support a past decision or justify a change, and help determine the cause of a performance issue when it occurs.
• In Level Platforms’ case, the company can track up/down status, response time, transaction duration, text search and more.

Also, Level Platforms offers prepackaged scripts to help MSPs with Office 365 moves, adds and changes. The scripts include:

• Create New User
• List Company Domains
• List Company SKUs
• List Company Subscriptions
• Remove User
• Reset User Password

“Our partners monetize this by bundling it into a managed email service, pushing the decision of on premise or cloud and which cloud provider into the background,” Sandiford noted.

Small Business Server In the Cloud?

Meanwhile, that MSP who is looking for a single dashboard for on-premise and cloud applications told me the following: Even when he shifts customers from an on-premises solution (typically Microsoft Small Business Server) to Office 365, he continues to charge a monthly fee (about $200 to $250) for “managing” the service.

The MSP’s key point: It doesn’t matter whether the server is physical, virtual, on-premises or in the cloud. His customers are willing to pay for peace of mind.

I don’t know if all customers will embrace that thesis. But it made for an interesting discussion and it triggered this blog post.

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In the PSA market, MSPmentor has focused most of its attention on Autotask, ConnectWise and Tigerpaw Software and emerging options like PacketTrap PSA. But Promys addresses the PSA industry from a different angle — offering deep expertise in the Cisco market. The company’s software, originally developed in 1998, essentially emerged from a Cisco channel partner that was looking to gain more visibility and control of its business. Promys spun out of the Cisco channel partner in 2003, and has since attracted numerous Cisco partners onto its PSA platform.

A recent example involves ignite Collaboration Services Group (igniteCSG), a Cisco partner that’s leveraging Promys’s software as part of a march toward Cisco Gold and Master partner status.

On the Cisco audit front, Promys says its scorecard can help IT solutions providers with three core tasks:

• Assess a company’s ability to pass your Cisco Audit
• Provide insight into Cisco Audit areas that need improvement
• Provide next steps to make it easier to pass your Cisco Audit

Promys offers several other scorecards including the:

• Mid-Project Profitability Scorecard, which identifies gaps in mid-project profitability
• Labor Utilization Scorecard, which offers an additional layer of insight and labor metrics

I don’t have a feel for Promys’s overall installed base, but I’ll be poking around the Cisco channel to get a feel for how VARs and MSPs view the company’s technology and market positioning.

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CFO Cathie Lesjak told Bloomberg that the enterprise services division, the former EDS that HP acquired for $13.2 billion in 2008, would take the biggest hit when it came to job cuts, although she did not quantify the cuts there. However, Bloomberg reported that sources “familiar with the matter said the company plans to reduce its services workforce by 10,000 to 15,000 people.”

Services revenues for the second quarter fell by 1 percent year over year. Sales of printers and ink fell by 10 percent, and sales of servers, storage devices and networking equipment fell by 6 percent.  PC sales remained about the same.

So while services revenues fell by just 1 percent for the quarter, HP plans to make most of the job cuts in that division of the company. And much of the cost savings will go to reinvestment in HP’s R&D and other areas.

Tech Giants Jump into Services

When HP acquired EDS, it was widely viewed as a play to get into the more profitable services business as the hardware business continued to become commoditized.  Indeed, the move mirrored that of tech giant IBM (NYSE:IBM) which ended up selling its PC division and putting a greater focus on services. And other companies have since followed HP’s lead with Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) acquiring Perot Systems and Xerox (NYSE:XRX) acquiring ACS. (Dell also announced quarterly earnings this week, and they were disappointing. Lenovo’s announced quarterly earnings painted a brighter picture for PC sales.) What did all these deals have in common? Tech giants with a legacy in hardware looking to get into the higher-margin services business.

Is HP giving up on that, or is it moving more of that opportunity out to the channel and MSPs?  How HP’s go-to-market strategy will change following the job cuts remains to be seen.

In a conference call with analysts, HP executives were careful to cast the planned re-engineering in a positive light. Meg Whitman told analysts:

“Our restructuring is really about three things — we’ve got to better align HP’s cost structure with our revenue portfolio, we’ve got to position the company to take advantage of some of the biggest shifts that I’ve seen in technology in my 30-year career in business, and then we’ve got to streamline our operating model.”

Changes to Go-To-Market Strategy

Whitman also talked about changes to the company’s go-to-market strategy and about combining the sales operations from the enterprise and consumer businesses. That’s a move that could mean more opportunity for the reseller channel as HP looks to gain efficiencies through sales force job reductions.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on HP to see how these job cuts materialize and what it will mean for HP partners and MSP opportunities.  Stay tuned.

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Three-day weekends didn’t exist when we (Amy Katz and I… not Amy Katz and me) started Nine Lives Media in January 2008. There was always something new or urgent to work on around here.

In many ways that’s still the case. Late evenings and early mornings are still the norm. But you may have noticed we’ve got some talented folks — Kim Daniels, Jessica Davis, Charlene O’Hanlon, James Pastuf, Amy Schuler, Traci Verbaarschott, and many more — contributing here at Nine Lives these days. Our parent company, Penton Media, has also empowered us with their marketing wizard Tara Schlameuss. Hocus Pocus: Our databases are now managed.

Exit, Stage Left

Armed with a growing talent pool, we’ve reached a point where the holidays and most weekends are real again. I haven’t achieved life-work balance… but the pursuit is finally real for a great many reasons. And I suspect Amy would say the same.

May 28, 2012, is Memorial Day here in the U.S.; a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service. Businesses and schools will be closed. As will Nine Lives Media and Penton Media.

I plan to disappear as well. Perhaps I’ll rally my wife and kids for a last-minute trip to Six Flags Great Adventure. Or Hershey Park. Or Dorney Park. (See the pattern?) Either way, I won’t be here.

I really value your readership and the web traffic, but I hope you’re not here either on May 28.

Three-day weekends are far too rare. Life is short. Disappear. Your business will still be there when you return on May 29. And I’ll be here awaiting you… your comments… and your business updates.

And once we’re all back, perhaps you can help me plan my next road trip. It’s a biggie.

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According to the Best Buy earnings call transcript, Mikan said:

“The strength of our employee base sets Best Buy apart from its competitors. A great example of where we are already asserting relevance can be seen in the new store model we are in the process of unveiling. We expect the Blue Shirts and Geek Squad agents who will staff those stores will speak with authority about technology. Their mandate will be to shift the customer expectation from repair, our traditional Geek Squad offering, to one of relationship.”

Already, Best Buy is striving to ensure Geek Squad builds relationships with key market segments. And the segments can vary widely — ranging from senior citizens to channel partners.

Indeed, Best Buy has launched a program that lets millions of AARP (American Association of Retired People) members access Geek Squad services. The subscription model (translation: recurring revenues for Best Buy) allows AARP members to get IT support via phone, on-line and in-store service.

Meanwhile, Geek Squad has also signed its first four channel partners — Network Solutions Provider, Carrier Access Inc., Access Media 3, and MACH 4. The Geek Squad Partner Program launched earlier this year. It’s designed to give channel partners 24×7 support services for end customers.

Elsewhere, Best Buy did not mention mindSHIFT — a managed services provider and cloud services provider — during the May 22, 2012, earnings call. mindSHIFT, acquired last year, could be a key piece of Best Buy’s business overhaul strategy. The big box retailer has faced competitive pressures and executive changes in recent months.

For the three-months ended May 5, 2012, Best Buy said GAAP net earnings were $161 million, down from $255 million in the corresponding quarter last year. The company has hired executive search firm Spencer Stuart to identify internal and external CEO candidates. Mikan shifted into the interim CEO post after former Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn resigned in April amid “personal conduct” issues.

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