No Sign of Letup for MSP Platform Round Robin - Switching Around
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Now SL Powers primarily uses the Zenith platform. The Kaseya product, Sanchez adds, comes in handy for project work. "Any time we are doing a project, we deploy Kaseya seats to that client during the project so that our engineers can work or address issues remotely. We've actually been able to project manage or even complete out-of-state projects with minimal travel or on-site time."

SL Powers was one of the early adopters of the managed services model, having first used the N-able platform to deliver the services.

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"When we first went with N-able they were about the only game in town, and shortly thereafter, Kaseya hit the market," Sanchez recalls. "N-able only did server and infrastructure monitoring, and Kaseya mainly played on the desktop; however, they both knew that they needed to do both. Eventually, both companies were providing the whole enchilada."

Even though Sanchez loved working with the people at N-able, he decided to switch to Kaseya, he says. "At the time, their technology was a little more stable."

Gatewood says at least 52 percent of the partners that Zenith recruits every month come from the competition. "I suspect the number, but not all new partners disclose exactly what application they are utilizing."

Partners coming from the competition, Gatewood adds, are more than welcome because they already know the challenges of delivering managed services. The partners, in turn, like Zenith, he says, because the vendor gives them a turnkey solution.

"Not only can the provider quickly offer managed services, but he can provide and sell the end client a good base of services while understanding the risk, costs and margins associated with the services sold," Gatewood says.

Sandiford, for his part, is confident that Level Platforms' technology, which is based on open architecture and promotes collaboration between partners, vendors and customers, will keep partners signing up.

About 10 percent of Level Platforms' new partners each month, he says, are conversions from other vendors.

"We have also been the victim of switches over the past year due to some product issues we had, but people are loving the new release and I expect this, that we will never lose a partner from here on," Sandiford says.

Despite the switches SL Powers has made, says Sanchez, he believes most of the platform vendors these days doing a decent job. "Most of these guys are pretty good at delivering their releases on time and without bugs."

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