More than 300 IT executives and dozens of vendors met to talk about midmarket solutions at the Midsize Enterprise Summit.
ChannelWeb picked 15 common beliefs about Microsoft and gave channel partners the opportunity to explain why they're more fiction than fact.
ChannelWeb visited Tech Data's headquarters for a strategy update and was given a behind-the-scenes tour of how the distributor operates.
This is why CRN Test Center engineers were surprised to discover that in a Windows-dominated world, a popular sampling of MSP platform products revealed a lack of integration with certain critical Windows technologies.
Test Center engineers popped the hood on an expensive MSP platform from SilverBack Technologies, medium-priced products from vendors LPI Level Platforms and N-Able Technologies, and a low-cost product from vendor AdventNet.
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Because it is a Windows-dominated world, the Test Center invited Microsoft's System Center Essentials platform to participate. Many MSPs said Microsoft might own the MSP platform market with System Center Essentials, but the software giant declined to take part.
Because a successful MSP business is a proactive one, the Test Center determined that a well-structured resource workflow is a prerequisite to a quality MSP platform. Many MSP vendors, however, have architected their products to be reactive, and these types of products, which lack high-level workflow support sequences, can easily overwhelm small service providers with limited resources.
Equally important to success is quick access to support. Tracing faults should be direct and simple. When an alert has been identified, service providers should be able to know how to solve it right on the screen.
Linking a knowledge base to alert types is also a must-have feature. Moreover, service providers should be able to click on alert links that send them directly to a device interface at a customer site. Most MSP vendors in the review lacked this feature. But most demonstrated key strengths such as automated report generation.
The following pages reveal the details on each platform.