MSP Partners, ASCII Group Will Collaborate
ASCII's 3,000 solution provider members can now enjoy a free membership in MSP Partners, while MSP Partners members will get a discount, to be determined, on ASCII's annual fee, according to the organizations. In addition, executives from both parties hope their agreement can foster more business partnerships and collaboration between members. Each group has about 3,000 members and there is little overlap between members, both organizations said.
"We're doing a lot of cross collaboration on our forum now. If the two forums connect, we'll have a bigger group, bigger numbers, more friendly collaboration together," said Alan Weinberger, chairman and CEO of ASCII, Bethesda, Md. "We will go to their activities, they can come to ours."
Members of MSP Partners, an alliance between Cisco Systems, Ingram Micro, Intel, Level Platforms and Microsoft, can reach out to ASCII members for help outside their core competencies, said Jim Hamilton, executive director of MSP Partners.
"ASCII is a great organization. They have a great offering and we saw a nice complement with MSP Partners. It's good for both of our members. It makes two great organizations even better," Hamilton said.