Distributor MSP Programs: Will VARs Take The Managed Services Plunge?

Several solution providers now sitting on the managed services sidelines said brand-new distribution initiatives that promise robust offerings, competitive prices and minimal investment will lead them to answer yes.

In particular, members of Ingram Micro's VentureTech Network pointed to that distributor's exclusive alliance with MSP platform vendor LPI Level Platforms, announced last week at the VentureTech Fall Invitational in Palm Desert, Calif.

To date, most MSP practices have required financial investments of up to $100,000, but a two-tier model through distribution could be a magnet for VARs that have not entered the managed services space, said Greg Starr, COO of IT Works, a Houston-based Ingram Micro VentureTech member.

"[Ingram-LPI] takes away a lot of the fear, uncertainty and doubt of moving into managed services," Starr said. "One of the biggest problems is the entry-point cost to get into this thing and all the headaches that come with it. There are so many tools out there nowadays, and you have to go out and find best-of-breed, put it together and then there is an enormous learning curve. What Ingram is doing for VARs that are not early adopters is huge. Ingram is taking away a lot of headaches."

Ingram's MSP offering—the Seismic Platform and Virtual Services Warehouse—is truly aimed at bringing managed services to the masses and could have the widest ramifications, solution providers said.

But Ingram Micro is not alone. Also last week, Bell Microproducts unveiled a partnership with LPI rival SilverBack Technologies. And there's more: Arrow Electronics' MOCA division this week plans to take the wraps off a partnership with Sun Microsystems to sell managed services. Access Distribution, Synnex and Tech Data also have managed service initiatives under way.

Ingram Micro's MSP initiative will be more than just an exclusive deal to resell LPI's Managed Workplace remote monitoring and management (RMM) software to its VAR partners as a hosted Software-as-a-Service, said Justin Crotty, vice president of services for Ingram's North American Services Division, Santa Ana, Calif. To help partners succeed, a comprehensive database of MSP best practices will also be part of the program.

The Seismic Platform and Virtual Services Warehouse will become "a robust services offering that VARs can provision and deliver to their end-user customers," Crotty said.

Ingram plans to partner with other vendors over the next few years to add more hosted, resalable managed services such as antivirus and spam filtering, remote storage backup and recovery, and e-mail messaging management, he said.

The expansion of all these services will complement Ingram's existing field IT services programs such as IMOnsite. Launched in August, IMOnsite is a hosted professional services automation (PSA) offering from Ingram delivered through an exclusive agreement with PSA vendor Autotask, Rensselaer, N.Y. IMOnsite gives solution providers a portal to help them locate and hire IT field-service subcontractors from the 750-member-strong Ingram Micro Service Network.

NEXT: Can distributors add value as managed services middlemen?