Gateway, Level Platforms: Partnering On European Managed Services?
Multiple hardware and software companies are partnering up and choosing sides in a bid to expand the European managed services market. The moves apparently include a new relationship between Level Platforms and Gateway (the PC maker), plus an ongoing relationship between Intel and N-able.
Gateway back in February 2009 vowed to launch a managed services initiative to support its European channel partners. Now comes word that Gateway has quietly partnered with Level Platforms on the MSP strategy, according to The Inquirer, an IT media site in the United Kingdom.
If true, this is the second major MSP move Level Platforms has announced in less than a week. The company last week unveiled a strategy to help MSPs monitor cloud applications — including the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). I’ve reached out to Level Platforms CEO Peter Sandiford seeking confirmation and comment about the potential Gateway-Level Platforms relationship in Europe.
Also Chipping In…
Meanwhile, Intel — with an assist from N-able — is building a managed services cloud that will eventually blanket all of Europe. That project involves Intel’s Multi-Site Director platform. Apparently, Multi-Site director is based on N-able’s core code but contains Intel-developed enhancements.
Not by coincidence, N-able VP of Sales Mike Cullen was in Europe last week for a series of roundtable and targeted events that evangelize managed services to European VARs and MSPs.
Generally speaking, MSP software providers consider the European market to be a major area of opportunity. Nearly a dozen MSPs from across Europe landed on our 2008-2009 MSPmentor 100, and my best guess is that figure will grow as more European VARs embrace managed services.
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Joe,
It will be great to see an organization with Gateway’s brand and global reach provide a channel-friendly alternative to Dell’s direct-to-customer model. It looks like a smart move to me and a big step forward for the adoption of managed services by IT service organizations across Europe.
I am looking forward to additional announcements this week to coincide with the opening of Channel Expo 2009, the biggest channel event in Europe. With your great interest in Europe you should get over there to feel the pulse directly :). It starts May 20.
I agree with you that managed services is ready for rapid adoption in Europe. I believe that organizations with a strong commitment to the success of the local solution provider along with the sales and support infrastructure in the different countries will have an important advantage.
Peter
http://www.levelplatforms.com
Hey Peter: Thanks for the perspectives. I can’t make it to Europe because of pending deadlines here in the states. But we’ll be watching Channel Expo from afar.
On the Dell front, I continue to defend Dell’s right to sell both direct and indirect in the MSP space, and believe all major IT companies will use a blended direct and indirect strategy as they move into SaaS and managed services. It’s going to be a crazy time for VARs and MSPs. Fun. Frustrating. Cooperation. Competition.
Curious to see how the MSP move potentially helps Gateway… and waiting for similar moves from Lenovo and HP…
Congrats on the Gateway deal. It certainly caught my attention.
-jp
Joe,
I think VARs and MSPs need to do what they have always done – help their customers use IT to run their businesses in the best way possible. They will have a lot of opportunities and choices as organizations like Ingram Micro, Gateway, Dell and others enter the market with powerful new services support tools.
In my view the winners will be the ones that recognize that IT services and IT itself is going through a massive transformation. The recent comments here by the PSA vendors on “collaboration” is a small part of what will become a driving imperative for all service providers as remote monitoring and management allows increasing technical and process specialization located anywhere in the world to benefit even the smallest customer.
We are building Level Platforms Managed Workplace to support the standalone MSP model of yesterday as well as the very different highly collaborative product and services ecosystem of the near future. Everything we have done and will do is designed to position our partners to succeed in this future, which in my view is just around the corner.
Fun. Frustrating. Cooperation. Competition. And for those MSPs that pull all this together for their customer’s benefit, tremendous success.
Peter
http://www.levelplatforms.com