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5 Channel Partner Updates: Friday 18 May 2018

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Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Friday, May 18, 2018.

Actually, there are eight timely updates designed for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), independent software vendors (ISVs), telco master agents and telco agents to sip on. Take a look…

Ulistic CEO Stuart Crawford
Ulistic CEO Stuart Crawford

8. Momentum - MSP Marketing Services: Ulistic, a strategic marketing firm for MSPs, has grown to more than 50 employees across locations in the United States, Canada, the Philippines and Nepal. The company recently expanded its Kathmandu, Nepal development center with new website engineers. Also, the firm's Sebring, Florida, headquarters recently gained five new hires. New offerings include 24/7 website chat services fully staffed by Ulistic; along with a Google Business and Facebook Messenger Live chat services that foster communications with MSP customer prospects. An Online Reputation Management solution has also launched, according to CEO and Creative Director Stuart Crawford.

7. Helpdesk Suite: A new Zendesk Suite integrates email, live chat, phone, self-service help centers, and any other channel connected into the platform—including social media, the company claims.

6. Integration - ServiceNow and NetBackup: Biomni has partnered with TeamUltra to integrate ServiceNow with Veritas NetBackup. Biomni is a Veritas Technologies OEM partner, a Microsoft Gold Application Development partner and an Elite status VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP).  TeamUltra, a Computacenter company, is the EMEA’s leading ServiceNow Gold Services partner.

Neil Arsenault
Peter Sandiford

5. Encore: Former Level Platforms CEO and MSP software industry pioneer Peter Sandiford is back in the market. His latest startup, Zerotek, develops a unified SaaS management platform for MSPs. Chief Software Architect Neil Arsenault also is a Level Platforms veteran. AVG (now owned by Avast) acquired Level Platforms' Managed Workplace platform in 2013, and the RMM offering is now a niche player amid larger rivals. Still, several of today's MSP market influencers -- including Datto's Rob Rae, Passportal's Dan Wensley, and SolarWinds MSP's Dave Sobel -- are Level Platforms veterans.

4. Professional Services Automation (PSA) for Google Apps: Vogsy is quietly building a PSA (professional services automation) software platform that integrates tightly with Google Apps... Hmmm...

3. M&A - Private Equity: Access, the largest privately-held records and information management (RIM) services provider in the United States, has acquired six Canadian records management companies. Access is backed by Berkshire Partners and GI Partners.

2. M&A - Salesforce Partners: Another M&A deal in the Salesforce partner ecosystem just surfaced. Simplus has acquired San Francisco–based CirrusOne, which specializes in consulting services for CPQ, CLM, billing and customer success solutions. We'll share more details soon.

1. Don't Miss It: This should be a heck of a conversation.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.