Seven Managed Services Moves Worth Noting at Synnex Varnex

I’ve spent the past 24 hours at Synnex Varnex, a channel partner gathering in Boston. Much of the talk here has focused on a Synnex managed services push for VARs and MSPs. But if you look around and listen closely, you’ll hear where Synnex and key technology partners — potentially Autotask , for one — could be heading next. Here’s the update.

7. Missed Opportunity: A Hewlett-Packard guest speaker spent a lot of time describing HP’s growing storage, server and networking businesses — taking a few jabs at IBM, Oracle-Sun and Cisco Systems along the way. But much of the Synnex conference focused on managed services opportunities. It would have been far wiser for HP to talk about managed print and managed mobile device management opportunities. The HP war with Cisco is old news.

6. More Pieces Coming?: Officially, Autotask‘s PSA (professional services automation) software was not part of the Synnex Managed Services announcement here. Also, Synnex supports integration with both Autotask and ConnectWise. But I suspect Synnex will leverage both Autotask and VARStreet as part of a so-called Synnex One IT back office system. Some Synnex Varnex sources say they are taking a closer look at Autotask-VARstreet integration as part of the Synnex One IT effort. Autotask acquired VARstreet in 2010.

5. Thinking Smaller: The new Synnex Managed Services push focuses mainly on midmarket MSPs that pursue 100-seat or more engagements. But keep an eye on Synnex at the Autotask Community Live event in May. A potential small business Synnex MSP push could emerge there…

4. Coopetition: Speaking of Autotask Community Live… has anybody else noticed that both Quosal and QuoteWerks are scheduled to sponsor? That’s particularly interesting, considering Autotask’s VARStreet competes in some ways with the Quosal and QuoteWerks sales quoting tools.

3. Apple Small Business Update: Yes, our team even stumbled onto a huge Apple story here. It involves Apple’s effort to transform Apple Stores into SMB customer support and deployment centers. And yes, the channel is involved — though not necessarily Synnex. Here are details.

2. Mobile Apps: Synnex has launched a mobile Apps software development team that’s writing Apps for VARs and MSPs — and the channel partners’ end-customers. The Apps can be designed to support HP WebOS, Apple iPhone, Google Android, Blackberry and Windows 7 devices. More thoughts soon on this….

1. Triple Play: Synnex CEO Kevin Murai sees managed services, mobile computing and cloud computing as three close cousins. Synnex spent most of Monday describing the managed services and mobile opportunities. Can you guest an area of focus for Tuesday’s keynote?

Sign up for MSPmentor’s Weekly Enewsletter, Webcasts and Resource Center. Follow us via RSS, Facebook and Twitter. Check out more MSP voices at www.MSPtweet.com. Read our editorial disclosure here.