ASPs, MSPs Target The Enterprise

A sluggish economy is not delaying the launch of new products by ASPs and MSPs or diminishing these companies' need for the channel.

This month ASPs UpShot and MindShare Design and MSP InteQ introduced offerings targeting enterprise customers.

ASPs UpShot and MindShare and MSP InteQ introduce offerings.

A new enterprise edition of MindShare's Web-based e-mail list management and delivery service now includes click-through tracking on e-mail links and automated campaign management. New features also track what people buy and generates ads based on the information. The product, called Post Master General, targets large companies with massive e-mail campaigns.

As part of the product launch, MindShare, San Francisco, is tapping the channel. Affiliate partners receive 20 percent of recurring monthly revenue for the first year of a customer's contract. Agent partners receive a 10 percent discount on MindShare products and services and can private-label marketing services, executives said.

UpShot, Mountain View, Calif., also targets the enterprise, but its XRM feature extends relationship management to customers' partners.

"In this uncertain economy it is important for customers to be able to track and forecast partners' sales pipelines and how they are doing in realtime," said Keith Raffel, founder and chairman of UpShot. "Companies sell through so many different channels these days, but until now it's been hard to track partner sales."

Raffel said costly CRM falls short because it is inwardly focused, and PRM doesn't integrate the channel with direct-sales teams or provide a consolidated view of process or forecast. UpShot's product accomplishes this for $65 per month, per user, he said.

The product also includes functions to manage the recruiting process, research potential partners, create mass mailings to channels, distribute leads to partners, track partners' role in a deal and show which partners deliver the highest returns.

Proxima Technology, Respec, eLabor.com, Advance Technology Ventures, 2ndWave, Atkins Benham and BE BusinessEngine beta-tested the hosted service, Raffel said. UpShot also sells through VARs, systems integrators and ASP aggregators such as Jamcracker.

For its part, MSP InteQ introduced a service that remotely manages corporate data center enterprise applications such as PeopleSoft, SAP, Baan and Oracle.

InteQ's InfraSolve is a managed service that remotely diagnoses and resolves information technology application infrastructure problems. InteQ is relying on solution providers to help resolve application infrastructure issues.

"There is not much consulting work for solution providers in this market, but there is an opportunity for them to plug in to us to generate more revenue," said Santana Krishnan, co-founder, chairman and CEO of InteQ, Bedford, Mass.