Did LANDesk Miss the Managed Services Boat?

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No doubt, LANDesk has suffered a bit from multiple owner syndrome; the business has been purchased, sold, spun off and handed off more times than I can remember. Each time LANDesk changes owners, it triggers an inflection point — forcing customers and partners to decide whether they want to continue investing in the platform.

Despite the repeated M&A activity, LANDesk still has a following among some VARs and MSPs. One recent example involves En Pointe Technologies, a national provider of IT products and services.

On March 31, En Pointe announced a systems management practice that involves LANDesk. En Pointe certainly sounds like it has plenty of managed services experience and hardware as a service (HaaS) experience. The company offers (1)  traditional premise-based installations, (2) field and service desk to manage systems for customers, and (3) by supplying the hardware+service through a monthly subscription model.

Still, I don’t hear from many MSPs that are leveraging LANDesk. The company’s current owner, Emerson Network Power, isn’t exactly a household name within the managed services market. But Emerson expects to sell off LANDesk by August 2010. I wonder if anyone within the MSP software industry will be among the bidders.

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