Todd Clayton, vice president of marketing at TriActive, an Austin, Texas-based MSP, was elected to a one-year term as president of the 80-member consortium. He succeeds Michael Coffield, senior vice president of channel marketing at Nuclio, an MSP based in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.

The association, founded in June 2000, also elected Linda Shannon-Hills, worldwide service provider program manager for Hewlett-Packard OpenView, to a second consecutive term as chairman.

Over the next year, the group plans to continue educating customers on the benefits of the MSP delivery model, said Clayton. The consortium also plans to help members present the return on investment made possible by managed services to clients, especially in light of the current economic downturn, he said.

"IT [departments] now have to justify their expenses. They haven't had a whole lot of need to do that in past years," Clayton said.

Other companies winning seats on the board include Agilent Technologies, Folsom, Calif.; SiteLite, Irvine, Calif.; Coradiant, Boston; and LoudCloud, Sunnyvale, Calif.