Quick, name a company in the managed services market that successfully competes against Google Apps, Salesforce.com and Microsoft — all at the same time. Before you answer, consider this name: AdventNet — which owns Zoho (SaaS applications) and ManageEngine (managed services software). Take a closer look, and you’ll discover Zoho and ManageEngine are cross-leveraging their technologies. Here’s how.

I’ve been a vocal advocate of Zoho, and I’ve used a few of their SaaS applications for about two years. Now, sister company ManageEngine is getting into the SaaS game.

According to a Zoho blog entry:

Converging Customer Bases

Zoho already has millions — yes, millions — of SaaS users. And roughly 35,000 companies leverage ManageEngine. Connecting the dots between Zoho and ManageEngine could be a win-win for both AdventNet divisions, and a potential win for MSPs that are sorting out their tools and on-demand applications strategies.

Or as Zoho puts it:

So let’s look at the competitive landscape:

I think the company best positioned to compete against AdventNet is Ingram Micro Seismic, which is pushing beyond MSP tools to offer hosted Microsoft applications.

Of course, the convergence of managed services and SaaS applications remains in its infancy. But the folks at AdventNet seem to be onto something — assuming they don’t take ManageEngine direct to IT departments, and assuming they aren’t biting off more than they chew.

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