March 13, 2000, Issue: 885
Section: News
ASP enters SMB ring via partnering
Christina Torode
Bedford, N.H. - ASP ManagedOps.com Inc. is making a nationwide push
into the small- and midsize-business market with the help of 50 partners.
ManagedOps.com, formerly known as The Taylor Group, is investing $4
million in a marketing campaign designed to create leads for its service
partners and has developed a co-delivery model that relies heavily on the
integration expertise of its partners.
A $50 million investment from Great Hill LLC, an investment firm in Boston, is
expected to fuel ManagedOps.com's marketing, research and development
and staffing efforts. The ASP plans to hire 200 additional employees this year.
Partners are responsible for all implementation services including application
integration, consulting, training, change management and ongoing support.
ManagedOps.com's role is to manage the back-end operations for customers
in its two data centers and back up partners with its staff and help desk.
"We are fully prepared to put our money where our mouth is through
investments in partners and a series of workshops that will help partners make
the transition to an ASP, teach them how to market and position our offerings
and implement those offerings," said Dan Taylor, chief executive of
ManagedOps.com, Bedford.
Based on certification levels achieved through ManagedOps.com's training
programs, partners will receive an annuity stream of between 5 percent and 8
percent for the life of the customer relationship.
The ASP will deliver services directly to customers in the Northeast under the
name the Taylor Group but will rely on its partners to cover the rest of the
United States.
The company already enlisted 50 partners and is seeking new partnerships to
help reach customers with revenue of between $10 million and $250 million,
said Taylor.
"We are interested in helping partners build their business by teaching them
how to implement new services, such as in the case of one partner that had
never done a Siebel [Systems Inc.] implementation before," said Taylor.
ManagedOps.com specializes in applications from Great Plains Software Inc.,
Siebel and Microsoft Corp.
Founded as the Taylor Group 13 years ago, ManagedOps.com has become
one of Great Plains' largest service partners with its integration management
technology being licensed to Great Plains and resold through the software
vendor's partners. It also has been providing Great Plains and Microsoft
partners with executive, consulting and business development workshops for
years, said Taylor.
On the hardware side, the ASP's data center network is built end to end on
Cisco Systems Inc. technology, AT&T Corp. bandwidth and Compaq
Computer Corp. servers. ManagedOps.com is building a new
93,000-square-foot center adjacent to its existing center in Bedford.
The company plans to introduce new applications in areas such as supply
chain management and e-business over time, said Taylor.
crn.com
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