Kaseya offers new tools for managed service providers

Stuart Corner
Monday, 12 March 2007 13:46

IT Industry - Strategy

Kaseya International, a global provider of IT managed service automation software for solution providers and corporate IT organisations, has opened office in Australia, headed by Tim Dickinson.

The company is positioning its technology as a means for these organisations that serve SMEs to shift their business models from provision of 'break/fix' services to their clients to more pro-active management and monitoring services that are able to generate more predictable revenue streams with less resources. Kaseya already has about 50 customers in Australia. It operates a direct sales model: interested MSPs can download and use its software at no charge for a 30 day evaluation period.

"The traditional break/fix model, the core of SMB IT services, is making way for new and improved proactive, automated managed service delivery," Dickinson claimed. "It is a global shift. The drivers are the significant profit improvements for the service provider and much greater end-customer satisfaction from the services offered."

Kaseya founder and CEO, Gerald Blackie, said the model was being strongly supported by IT system integrators who need to reduce complexity and increase productivity by delivering IT services to their customers at a lower cost than the traditional model offered.

Kaseya claims that its technology enables MSPs "to proactively manage distributed IT infrastructure easily and efficiently with one integrated Web based platform...Kaseya's technology enables a single framework for the implementation of IT policies, procedures and methods across highly distributed WANs."

It contrasts its approach with technologies designed for deployment across a corporate network which often require VPNs or dedicated connections, and a heavy upfront investment in the management software. The Kaseya system instead relies on lightweight "agents' on end PC devices that form "their own persistent, secure TCP connection with the [Kaseya] server" and is charged on a price per month for each device monitored.