Five Questions for Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie

Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie is set to kick off the Kaseya Connect User Conference in Las Vegas around 11:30 a.m. eastern today. A few hundred MSPs and some VARs are attending. So what’s on tap for Kaseya here at the conference? Here are five questions I hope to pose to Blackie and other Kaseya leaders over the next two days.

1. State of MSP Relations: I sense that Kaseya and some of its MSP partners had strained relations during portions of 2010. It felt like some MSPs were frustrated with Kaseya product delays, R&D issues and pricing debates. But sometime in early 2011, I sensed that Kaseya was working overtime to address those concerns.

Of course, plenty of MSPs remain loyal to Kaseya. And generally speaking, I think the company’s remote management software may have the largest installed base among the major MSP software providers. And certainly, a few MSPs that departed to other platforms have returned to Kaseya in recent months. But overall, how would Blackie describe Kaseya’s relationships with MSPs?

2. State of SaaS and Cloud: Kaseya has been building SaaS tools and a SaaS partner program. But what’s the mix between SaaS and on-premise revenues so far? And at what rate are MSPs adopting the cloud tools? Are some partners mixing and matching the SaaS and on-premise offerings?

3. State of Financial Software: Kaseya last month unveiled Service Billing 1.0 and Service Desk 1.3 modules. But Kaseya isn’t done with its Kaseya financial software moves. Kaseya last year acquired ObjAcct… which will pave the wave for some more surprises. But what are they? I’m searching for answers.

4. State of PSA Relations: To the industry’s credit, major PSA players Autotask, ConnectWise and Tigerpaw Software each are attending the Kaseya conference. Also, there’s extensive partner conference content planned around the PSA (professional services automation) topic. A few weeks before the conference, ConnectWise announced new integrations to Kaseya. Generally speaking it sounds like Kaseya and its PSA partners are working to meet joint customer demands.

5. The March to $1 Billion: Blackie has previously state that Kaseya is roughly a $100 million company, with a growth opportunity of $1 billion. Blackie has also previously stated that he doesn’t intend to march Kaseya toward and IPO. But I always re-ask that question each time I meet with him… just to see if his mindset remains the same.

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