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One positive aspect of Best Buy is that the company might raise awareness for the managed services market to a broader set of customers, Sorensen said.
"The danger is it's awareness for the wrong reason. I don't know what they're going to do with it. It's sort of like when Dell bought Silverback [Technologies]. They never really did anything with it, at least it didn't seem like it," Sorensen said. "I'm not afraid of what's happening. It could be a good awareness and most small businesses don't go to Best Buy to learn how to run their technology."
Arnie Bellini, CEO of ConnectWise, the PSA platform used by many MSPs, said he doesn't give the Best Buy-mindShift strategy much hope.
"I haven't seen it work yet. When you have a culture of a large company like Best Buy and try to merge that with a relatively small company like mindShift, the cultures clash and the innovation is crushed," he said, adding that he doesn't think small MSPs need be concerned about Best Buy entering the managed services market. "What effect did Staples have when it bought Thrive [Networks in 2007]? They've had success but they've not affected [MSPs]. Thrive is a ConnectWise partner and they're great. But they're not affecting the rest of the IT nation."
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