Global MSP Network To Consolidate Outsourced Managed ServicesGlobal MSP Network To Consolidate Outsourced Managed Services

Most service providers and their customers agree that the managed services market is like buried treasure without an "x" to mark the spot. Although the merits of outsourcing infrastructure, applications, and security monitoring and management include cost savings and higher system availability, the market for these service providers has been segmented and ill-defined.

When it launches Friday, the Global MSP Network believes it can help clear up this confusion by acting as a consolidated resource for companies needing a spectrum of outsourced managed services. Founded by several managed service providers and systems-management software developers, the Global MSP Network's stated goal is to help its service provider members develop service-delivery methodologies and define standards for integrating their technologies.

Intel, for example, joined the network as a charter member to gain a better understanding of how service providers use the company's desktop support applications, such as the LANDesk Management Suite, to manage desktops for small and midsize businesses, says Steve Daly, an Intel business unit manager and president of the Global MSP Network's Vendor Advisory Council. To better meet the demand for remote managed services, Intel redesigned LANDesk so it could be used across firewalls rather than contained and managed by a client's IT department, Daly says, adding that Intel will continue to work with Global MSP Network members to develop products that services providers can deploy remotely.

Group Telecom, a Canadian local exchange carrier, outsources its help desk for desktops and notebooks to Global MSP Network member Voyus Canada Inc. By the end of the month, the service provider is scheduled to roll out a remote-monitoring platform based upon Intel's LANDesk. The new platform will enable Voyus to remotely manage and monitor Group Telecom's desktop applications. By September, Voyus will roll out a remote software distribution system that will enable Group Telecom to remotely implement and upgrade software across all areas of its Canadian operations.

Sandy Forbes, Global Telecom's director of national workstation services, is responsible for providing technical support to his company's 1,600 desktops and notebooks. Although the Global MSP Network will be more of a service-provider-to-service-provider network, Forbes says he hopes the new organization will promote awareness of the managed services available to his company. "I'm always looking for services that support my business initiatives like help desk, software deployment, and technology updates," he says. "It would be helpful to have a centralized contact to find answers to questions as quickly as possible."

The Global MSP Network has a long way to go to prove its usefulness to managed services customers. The MSP Association, comprised of managed service providers and management software vendors such as Hewlett-Packard and Tivoli, was formed last summer primarily as a support group for MSP customers, but has largely left promotion of the managed services market to individual service providers. The world's largest service provider, IBM Global Services, is taking on a lot of this work as well, partnering with various MSPs and offering their services under the IBM umbrella.

The MSP Association's message has been that clients can find a range of managed services from a variety of service providers. The Global MSP Network, however, believes that a network of service providers can handle all of their clients' IT outsourcing and management needs.

One analyst questions the thinking that small and midsize companies want to outsource all of their operations. All companies, regardless of size, are instead looking to augment specific areas of their IT operations because they don't want to lose control of their business processes, says Corey Ferengul, a Meta Group senior program director. The Global MSP Network, he says, "thinks they'll be able to package their services for full outsourcing in the small-to-medium business market. I believe selective outsourcing of specific managed services will win."