Demand Generator: Terrence Chalk and Stacey Spencer, Compulinx

And few of the vendors that actually have come to this realization have constructed channel programs specifically tailored to meet the needs of channel players with a business model based on managed services.

Compulinx, a 14-year-old company, leapt into managed services more than six years ago and today provides IT services to more than 140 customers using more than 250 servers running in four different data-center locations.

Most recently, Compulinx began providing IP telephony services to Creative Lifestyles, a Bronx, N.Y.-based nonprofit agency with 138 employees that serves developmentally disabled people. Because the group homes that Creative Lifestyles supports are run as satellite locations in different neighborhoods, Compulinx suggested that the organization adopt IP telephony as a way to reduce internal telephone costs, and Creative Lifestyles is now deploying the service.

"We have one person here who is IT-savvy, so we generally take our lead from Compulinx," said Ann Hill, executive director of the agency. "We don't have an IT department--they are our IT department."

Creative Lifestyles also relies on Compulinx to provide it with help-desk and backup-and-recovery services. Based on the service provider's advice, it even adopted an IP surveillance system that allows office workers to see who they are allowing into the organization's headquarters.

Citing just one example of how Compulinx has responded to its deeper business needs and not just to IT challenges, Hill notes that the savings associated with eliminating all the faxing between the group's disparate offices alone justifies the cost of the services provided by Compulinx.

The service provider's data-center operations are based on IBM e-Series servers running Windows, network hardware and infrastructure software from Nortel Networks. Compulinx's management platform is based around custom extensions it has made to tools from IBM and Sun Microsystems, and it relies on WatchGuard Technologies' appliances for security.

"One of the most challenging things for us is that most of the vendors don't know how to deal with us as an MSP. They have no incentives for MSPs in their channel programs to make us want to use their products," said Terrence Chalk, CEO of Compulinx.

Beyond that, most vendors don't even seem to comprehend that the products underlying the services are chosen by Compulinx rather than the company's 140 MSP customers, said Stacey Spencer, Compulinx's senior vice president for channel and business development.

"When I go to a lot of industry events, the vendors really don't get it," Spencer said. "Some of them are starting to get it--the ones that do understand that MSPs are actually buying the technology themselves and using it. Once guys start to realize that we are their customer, then we have a beautiful relationship."

Compulinx is taking its managed services offering to the next level by creating its own channel program that allows other solution providers to resell its services. "A lot of companies don't want to manage their IT. They want to deal with their core competency and their core business," Spencer said. "And that's what we bring to the table."