Help Desk

Managed Services

ServiceNow looks to continue channel momentum in Canada as company business surges

February 1, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on ServiceNow looks to continue channel momentum in Canada as company business surges
ServiceNow’s Canadian general manager Marc LeCuyer talked with ChannelBuzz about the company’s momentum in Canada, broadening its offerings to digitize workflows and enhance customer experience, with the growth in their channel business playing a critical role.

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Managed Services

Toronto’s GMS Live Expert partners with UK-based Inbay to provide MSPs with more specialized resources

September 18, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Toronto’s GMS Live Expert partners with UK-based Inbay to provide MSPs with more specialized resources
GMS Live Expert and Inbay each provide outsourced services to MSPs on different sides of the Atlantic, and have partnered to provide a ‘hands across the sea’ set of enhanced services available to partners of both companies.

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Artificial Intelligence

CrushBank seeing good results in early post-launch days of IT Help-Desk application built on IBM Watson

August 2, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on CrushBank seeing good results in early post-launch days of IT Help-Desk application built on IBM Watson
CrushBank, which came to ChannelCon a year ago to evangelize their product before it came to market, is finding the job easier this year, with customer references in tow and AI hotter than ever. Interestingly, Canadian MSPs have been particularly receptive.

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Managed Services

Atera introduces live chat to strengthen MSP-customer connections

June 13, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Atera introduces live chat to strengthen MSP-customer connections
The new live chat capability in the Atera joint RMM-PSA solution provides a faster and more efficient way than email to resolve customer issues in real time.

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Cloud

Salesforce unveils Service Cloud Essentials for small business, enhances Sales Cloud Essentials

March 14, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Salesforce unveils Service Cloud Essentials for small business, enhances Sales Cloud Essentials
Salesforce adds a second Essentials cloud, and improves the original introduced last fall, although at this point in time, Essentials is still a marginal channel play, since the focus has been on improving the offering rather than broadening the go-to-market.

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Cloud

ITaaS software maker Nerdio enhances Nerdio for Azure with Cost Estimator

November 20, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on ITaaS software maker Nerdio enhances Nerdio for Azure with Cost Estimator
The Cost Estimator, which addresses the problem that Azure itself makes it difficult for MSPs to easily estimate costs because it is consumption-based, joins white-labelling as recent enhancements to the Nerdio offering.

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Backup

Study shows startlingly slim penetration rates in security and backup managed services

August 4, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on Study shows startlingly slim penetration rates in security and backup managed services
A new study that looks at managed services business by the channel generally – not just self identified MSPs – finds quite low rates of adoption. A significant number to plan to move into security however.

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Managed Services

CrushBank prepares for launch of first IT Help-Desk application built on IBM Watson

August 2, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on CrushBank prepares for launch of first IT Help-Desk application built on IBM Watson
CrushBank has early customers moving into production now, and has been taking orders. They are working the IT trade show circuit, to introduce their product to MSPs.

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Channel Programs

Agiloft channel investment produces its first Platinum partners

July 31, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on Agiloft channel investment produces its first Platinum partners
Agiloft still has no partners in Canada, but they are hoping that their just-announced capacity to offer Canada-based hosting of their business process automation offerings will change that.

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Managed Services

GMS Live Expert partners with Kaseya to provide exclusive help desk services

May 15, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on GMS Live Expert partners with Kaseya to provide exclusive help desk services
GMS Live Expert will provide Kaseya’s MSPs access to their help desk services, in a deal that covers Kaseya’s main VSA platform, as well as their BMS PSA offering and NOC operations.

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Managed Services

Atera fills void with addition of Apple support to joint RMM/PSA platform

May 2, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on Atera fills void with addition of Apple support to joint RMM/PSA platform
Lack of support for Apple had been hurting Atera among MSPs who did business in those verticals where Mac use is significant.

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Software

Plantronics upgrades analytics in Plantronics Manager Pro 3.9 monitoring service

January 25, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on Plantronics upgrades analytics in Plantronics Manager Pro 3.9 monitoring service
While Plantronics Manager Pro originally had only an Asset Analysis analytics capability, the new version adds Usage Analysis, Conversation Analysis and Acoustic Analysis.

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Channel Programs

Business process software vendor Agiloft expands partner program

August 16, 2016 Mark Cox Comments Off on Business process software vendor Agiloft expands partner program
Agiloft sold direct until a couple of years ago, but has been expanding its channel, and is looking to its new partner program to attract some quality partners, including ones in Canada, where they presently have none.

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Channel Communities

GMS Live Expert seeks to expand MSP channel for outsourced help desk

August 8, 2016 Mark Cox Comments Off on GMS Live Expert seeks to expand MSP channel for outsourced help desk
GMS Live Expert offers MSPs boutique services around their help desk support offering. The Toronto-based company has ramped up its recruitment efforts, which included exhibiting at last week’s CompTIA ChannelCon.

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Channel Communities

Changing business models keeping vendors up at night

August 3, 2016 Mark Cox Comments Off on Changing business models keeping vendors up at night
A highlight of the second day at the CompTIA ChannelCon event was a panel discussion of vendors on changes in the industry, and how to best adapt to them.

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Managed Services

BitTitan, Dropbox see enormous opportunities in new go-to-market alliance

July 13, 2016 Mark Cox Comments Off on BitTitan, Dropbox see enormous opportunities in new go-to-market alliance
BitTitan and DropBox will collaborate on an integrated go-to-market strategy where the services of each will be bundled together and available to both channels.

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Managed Services

There’s a gap in your MSP software stack

November 3, 2015 Guest Poster Comments Off on There’s a gap in your MSP software stack
Alex Hoff of Auvik Networks on why MSPs need to add software to help them up their networking game to meet changing customer needs.

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Cloud

HEAT sees major tech, business benefits in acquiring Absolute Manage, Service businesses

September 22, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on HEAT sees major tech, business benefits in acquiring Absolute Manage, Service businesses
The strategic acquisition of assets Absolute wanted to divest to focus on its core business continues HEAT’s transition from FrontRange’s old SMB business to an integrated endpoint management platform that increasingly appeals to enterprises

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Computers

Security heart of theme HP wants partners to sell around Windows 10

July 23, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on Security heart of theme HP wants partners to sell around Windows 10
In addition to a host of new Windows 10 products, HP is launching an aggressive campaign to help partners sell them, especially into 10-100 person organizations.

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Managed Services

OnX adds two IT Service Management offerings to its Managed Services division

March 27, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on OnX adds two IT Service Management offerings to its Managed Services division
OnX Managed Services is a fast-growing part of the solution provider’s business, which now accounts for almost 40 per cent of its earnings.

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