seven blogs

7. Sales Quotes and the Cloud: Quosal CEO Kent McNall says the company is working on Quosal Web (final name to be determined). The platform, expected to debut around Q1 2012, will allow VARs and MSPs to develop sales quotes for customers using a web browser and Quosal running on Windows Azure. I’ll be sharing some more thoughts about Quosal, QuoteWerks and the broader sales quoting software market in a few days.

6. Big Growth: Gross revenues at Reflexion, a cloud-based provider of email security and compliance solutions, will be up roughly 47 percent in 2011 vs. 2010. But what’s the big-picture story at Reflexion? CEO David Hughes and VP of Sales Scott Barlow shared numerous details during ConnectWise IT Nation. I’m still organizing my thoughts into a deeper blog.

5. Partner Education Kits: ConnectWise has developed partner kits to help VARs and MSPs master Help Desk, Sales, Human Resources, and The Modern Offic. The kits are available to ConnectWise partners via the “ConnectWise University” site at http://www.connectwise.com/PartnerKits.

4. Mobile Device Management: IBM has launched a Hosted Mobile Device Security Management Service. Meanwhile, HTG Peer Groups leader Arlin Sorensen on Friday told me MSPs and VARs should “forget the cloud and focus on the client experience.” Sorensen certainly sees cloud opportunities and challenges, but he was using a dramatic statement to make a concise point: Customers need help managing tablets, smartphones and other emerging devices.

3. Spinning Out: LabTech Software’s Automation Nation conference, help in conjunction with IT Nation in 2010 and 2011, will spin out into its own conference in 2012 (June 3-5, Orlando, Fla). But LabTech will also have a heavy presence at IT Nation 2012.

2. New Offer: When Kaseya acquired Intellipool in May 2011, the move signaled a new direction for Kaseya’s network monitoring strategy. The effort accelerated a few days ago when the Kaseya Network Monitor (KNM) 4.1 module surfaced. Kaseya claims KNM 4.1 will help MSPs to monitor network devices from Cisco, Juniper, HP and others. It also monitors Windows, Linux, Mac and Unix. Kaseya is offering KNM 4.1 for free this quarter to MSPs that have current maintenance contracts.

1. Getting Even Cozier?: In recent weeks, a few people have asked me whether GFI Software will acquire Autotask. My answer: I heavily doubt it. I think Autotask CEO Mark Cattini wants to grow Autotask as an independent company. Meanwhile, I think GFI typically acquires smaller software and SaaS companies. Some sources even suggested that MSPmentor started a rumor GFI planned to buy Autotask. Not true; we simply reported that Autotask has been speaking at GFI conferences in Europe and North America. We never suggested — publicly or privately — that an M&A deal would surface. If anyone knows otherwise please let MSPmentor know…

That’s all for now. MSPmentor will be back soon with deeper interviews culled from ConnectWise IT Nation last week. In the meantime, thanks for visiting MSPmentor and joining in the conversation.