Intel Transitions European MSPs to N-able

Intel no longer plans to build a managed services cloud across Europe. Instead, the chip giant has transitioned Intel Multi-Site Director SaaS customers (roughly 400 to 425 of them) to N-able. Here’s the scoop.

First, a little background: Back in January 2009, Intel confirmed the company was leveraging N-able’s managed services platform to build a customized SaaS system for MSPs across Europe.

Fast forward to July 14, 2009, when an MSPmentor reader noticed the Intel Multi-Site Director web destination was offline. I reached out to Intel for comment. Intel’s Jonathan Campbell, formerly product marketing manager for Multi-Site Director, offered this reply:

To answer your question directly, Intel(r) Multi-Site Director as a branded product has been withdrawn from the market as of June 2009. All customers have been successfully transferred to our software supplier N-able Technologies. We invested a great deal of time to ensure there was zero impact to any customers during the transition period.

We have taken this much deliberated action primarily in response to customer requirements. Customers wanted greater choice in terms of related products, deployment options and payment plans – this was beyond the scope of the existing Intel(r) Multi-Site Director offering. As you know, any IT service provider looking to become a true MSP requires the right support and investment during their business transformation period, and this is a core competency for RMM tool vendors like N-Able Technologies.

Intel entered this market in EMEA 12 to 18 months ago to help our own customers make the transition to managed services, and stimulate the IT Managed Services market in general by offering a widely available product with a low barrier to entry. The market has advanced, the motivation for contracted revenue is widespread within the industry (partly accelerated by the economic climate) and overall there is much greater awareness of managed services and related tools.

Intel is still committed to developing the managed services market within EMEA, and will continue working with ecosystem vendors, our customers and industry experts such as yourself.

Keeping Score

Is Intel still committed to the MSP market? I’d say yes… but in a different capacity. Ultimately, Intel wants vPro PCs and mobile devices to be the preferred endpoints for managed service providers. With the vPro goals in mind, I believe Intel remains firmly committed to managed service providers.

But building a multi-country, SaaS-centric managed services platform is quite a different undertaking. I think once Intel realized the complexity of today’s MSP environments and needs, Intel transitioned the SaaS system to N-able.

Derik Belair, VP of marketing and business development at N-able, says roughly 400 to 425 Multi-Site Director users have transitioned to N-able in Europe. But rather than a software migration, the transition was more of a rebranding exercise — because Multi-Site Director was built upon N-able’s remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform, notes Belair.

Also, Belair says Intel continues to do joint marketing, email and webinar programs with N-able. Plus, Intel worked with N-able for about three months to ensure Multi-Site Director customers were comfortable with the transition to N-able branded SaaS services, he adds.

Eye on Europe

Most of the major MSP software providers have developed go-to-market strategies in Europe.

Among the more recent moves: Dell in late June/early July 2009 extended its ProManage Managed Services Brand into Europe; and Gateway recently partnered with Level Platforms to introduce Gateway Managed Services — which will serve Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Check MSPmentor’s European Center for compete coverage of the European MSP market.

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