As managed service providers mature, add more services to their portfolios, manage more devices and more aspects of their customers’ IT environments and begin to prepare customers for more of a cloud-based environment, here are some emerging MSPs to consider.

All of these companies are helping to pave the way for the future of the service provider space by providing more integrated and more complex solutions to partners.

 

CentraStage has been voted #3 in the emerging managed service providers you need to know by CRN.com.

See the other tools you should keep an eye one here.

by James Fletcher l November 25, 2011 l No Comments »

In September 2011, Autotask Corporation announced major global expansion starting with offices in Richmond, London led by Mark Banfield. I caught up with some of the new Autotask UK team at CompTIA EMEA members conference and they really are a great bunch of people.

Tomorrow is the Autotask Community On Tour: London meeting  at the Grand Connaught Rooms (which our friend Richard Tubb states to be a great venue so we’ll take his word for it!). The event has gathered huge momentum as MSPs and Service Providers flock to see what Autotask and their partner vendors can offer.

If you’re coming along tomorrow to the event – why not pop by the CentraStage table and say “Hi!”

See you then!

by James Fletcher l November 17, 2011 l No Comments »

What is the value to a software company like CentraStage of vertical markets? Niche sectors, or even sectors within sectors, where your product has a particularly good fit, a resonance, a compelling advantage for the customer.

Last month I was fortunate enough to be invited to an event at the beautiful Heythrop Park estate in Oxfordshire run by Panasonic Computer Products Europe, the team behind their range of Toughbook rugged computers. Not to excessively tip my hat to my hosts, but what a brilliant event – great venue; seamlessly organised; the attendees were senior players from across the various rugged device verticals (utilities, engineering, TV etc); the product updates were informative and targeted (plus we were gifted an advance preview of the recently launched FZ-A1 rugged tablet which is a very cool device and a tablet that has a fighting chance surviving in the dog-, child- and horse-riddled Nagele household); the session on ‘futures’ was very relevant to the user base, it seemed. However the main attraction for all who attended – the team from Panasonic, Toughbook customers, partners like us – was the chance to network over the course of a day long event, and evening. This is what I found refreshing. The event was not a thinly veiled attempt by Panasonic to shift more hardware, but a genuine effort to engage their customer base, broach conversations on challenges facing the rugged device user market, encourage dialogue, feedback and debate.

Such events are rare in today’s economic climate, but from what I could see at Heythrop Park it proved hugely valuable for all concerned. To be clear, it was not all work that was discussed; but the value of being able to network with industry peers in an informal and relaxed climate is not to be underestimated, and the attendance and atmosphere at the event went a long way to underlining why Panasonic are the clear market leader in this space. 65% market share in the rugged laptop space speaks for itself.

Clearly I am angling for an invite to the next event, but back to my original point. The attraction of vertical markets. As our understanding of the rugged device market grows, not only can we tailor our proposition to resonate with the challenges faced by people supporting rugged devices, but more importantly we can tailor our technology to these challenges. The advantages of doing this – and we have seen it already from our work in the education sector, and are starting to see it in our work in the NHS and the support of IT in GPs surgeries – is that often our sales effort is limited to a) understanding the challenges faced by our prospects around supporting distributed/mobile devices and delivering their IT service level agreement, b) ascertaining whether our technology is a good fit for them, and c) then referring them to an existing CentraStage user in that vertical market. As we expend every effort at CentraStage to keep our business lean and invest every penny into development and operations, this approach means we can limit what we spend on sales and marketing resources. It also means that we need to be doing a great job for our existing customers, as they in essence become something of a virtual sales force. What’s in it for them? The more of their peers in their vertical market that use our technology, the more of their particular market requirements make it into the product and the more focussed we become on that market. Is there a place for CentraStage in the rugged device market, absolutely there is, a fact already borne out by our recent win with Large Gass Supplier.

My musings on vertical markets might not be rocket science, but the excellent event put on by the Panasonic Toughbook crew reminded me of how enjoyable and rewarding it can be working in a well-defined vertical market, and I am looking forward to exploring it further.

by Christian Nagele l November 16, 2011 l No Comments »

-ASCII Community Receives Additional Benefits -

Bathesday, Maryland – October 16th, 2011 — The ASCII Group, Inc. (ASCII), the nation’s oldest and most established community of independent managed service providers, system integrators and solution providers welcomes a new edition to their growing Solution Alliance network – CentraStage. This alliance will provide additional benefits and education for the ASCII membership in targeting the growing CentraStage market.

“We continue to add more benefits for the ASCII community at large. CentraStage recognizes the market value of the ASCII community and we are proud to have them join the Solution Alliance network.” said Alan D.Weinberger, Founder, Chairman and CEO of ASCII.

With CentraStage’s remote monitoring and management software, The Solution Alliance network can now exploit the ability to carry out IT audits, PC and system monitoring, remote support, script and software deployment, device management and configuration, licensing and reporting – through one intuitive easy-to-use web interface.

Commenting on the partnership, Christian Nagele, CEO at CentraStage said: “We believe our partnership with The ASCII Group will be a very successful development for CentraStage and a great endorsement of the value and benefits of our services. Our technology is built and priced for IT support companies who want to offer remote monitoring and management, without the need to reinvent their business model. We are looking forward to working with The ASCII Group and enabling them to further support The Solution Alliance.”

The partnership indicates continuous development of the ASCII Group’s focus of providing solution providers with the tools necessary to survive and grow in the competitive technology market.

About the ASCII Group, Inc. (ASCII)
The ASCII Group, Inc., headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, was established in 1984, with additional offices in Canada, India, and the UK. ASCII is the largest paying community of independent computer resellers in the world with more than 2,00 members and systems wide end-user sales of approximately $10.5 billion. ASCII provides technology tools, products and services to assist independent information technology resellers increase profits, reduce costs, and grow their respective businesses. The company can be reached at (800) 394 – 2724, or at www.ASCII.com.

About CentraStage
CentraStage is the leading provider of cloud based remote monitoring, management and IT automation tools for IT Professionals. Designed and built to scale to thousands of users and millions of devices CentraStage provides an affordable platform for IT professionals from all industries and verticals to benefit from powerful IT Automation, dramatically improving productivity at a fraction of the cost of traditional IT Management tools. For more information please visit http://www.centrastage.com

by James Fletcher l November 16, 2011 l No Comments »

One of the best parts of working with your customers, is when they get recognition for what they are doing for their organisation, and importantly for their industry. Last week we had two very exciting pieces of news hit our desks at CentraStage HQ.

Dave Newman of Best Buy Europe / The Carphone Warehouse has won Systems Professional of the Year at the BCS Individual Excellence Awards. This is one of the most prestigious awards in the IT industry and we congratulate Dave on his award.

Dave is our primary point of contact at Best Buy Europe / The Carphone Warehouse, and has driven the successful implementation of CentraStage across their UK and Europe stores. Read more about Best Buy Europe / The Carphone Warehouse’s use of CentraStage.

East Sussex County Council have been short-listed for the BETT (British Educational Training and Technology) Award for ICT Service and Support. East Sussex will find out if they have won the award on 11th January 2012 at the awards ceremony at Hilton Park Lane.

East Sussex County Council have transformed IT Service Delivery to Schools by using the power of CentraStage – read more here.

by James Fletcher l November 14, 2011 l No Comments »