I am just getting back from a fantastic and productive week in Australia. We had a great launch event in Sydney and the combination of Lan 1 (our Australian distribution partner) and N-able has certainly caught the attention of Australia’s channel partners. The only thing I could possibly complain about is that I couldn’t stay longer. Not only are the people great, but so is the IT services and MSP market opportunity. The Australian Bureau of Statistics states that “OVER 92% OF AUSTRALIAN BUSINESSES DEPEND ON INNOVATION TO MOVE THEIR BUSINESSES FORWARD.” http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/A9D27392C59618E0CA257397007C850A?opendocument
IDC’s top 5 predictions for Australian Small and Medium-Sized Business in 2008 are:
1. Core IT functions will be increasingly hosted by service providers
2. Managed services providers will offer adequate IT outsourcing services
3. Consolidation and virtualization will simplify the server room, which will tend to host relatively basic storage and remote access services
4. Voice communications will be IP based, increasingly driven by software towards an ubiquitous Unified Communications model. The traditional PBX is doomed.
5. Software as a Service (SaaS) will become mainstream
I have to say after what I saw last week at our event in Sydney, these predictions are spot on. Every one of the 48 IT service providers that I met with in Australia sincerely wants to align their IT services with their customers’ business goals. Much like our partners in North America, these forward-thinking solution providers and aspiring MSPs want to have their profits aligned with customer uptime, as opposed to the traditional IT service model of only making money when the customers IT is down.
The Australian market is hot for innovation. After seeing N-central in action, these partners learned firsthand the productivity gains and profit value of using N-able’s RMM solution to help automate their IT services and empower a technician to proactively manage 400 to 600 devices, rather than running around doing break fix. It was a great business trip and I personally can’t wait to get back to Sydney and visit with more partners and enjoy some more of that great beer and hospitality. Until next time…