Australia Managed Services: The Next Chapter

N-able VP of Sales Mike Cullen is heading back to Australia in November 2009 for four N-able hosted conferences. Cullen isn’t the only North American MSP software executive who has been spending time in Australia this year. For most of 2009, a managed services land grab has been spreading across the land down under. Here’s a look at recent trends in Australia.

I saw Australia MSP trends first-hand during an October 2009 road show hosted by Kaseya and Intel. At the time, MSPs and VARs in Australia told me about fierce competition between N-able and Kaseya across Australia. Fast forward to the present and additional companies have been moving into the market.

On the PSA (professional services automation) front, both Autotask and ConnectWise have hosted Australian events in recent months. And the MSPAlliance hosted a conference for aspiring/established Australian MSPs and vendors back in August 2009.

In some ways, the Australia managed services market trails the North American market — especially when it comes to adopting SaaS (software as a service) offerings. As many MSPs have pointed out to me, broadband remains a hit-and-miss offering in some Australia territories.

Still, SaaS options are starting to catch on in Australia. And key voices are emerging as experts in the Australia managed services market. One example is Mathew Dickerson, author of SLAM (Service Level Agreement Model), a book that shows MSPs have to generate recurring revenue and maintain service level agreements. If you have a chance to see Dickerson on the speaker circuit take the time to do so. He’s very active in Australia, and occasionally visits North America.

Meanwhile, N-able’s Cullen is packing for Australia right about now. During the recent N-able Partner Summit in Arizona, Cullen mentioned that European and Australian sales had been particularly strong in recent months. Now, N-able and its rivals are looking to accelerate those sales.

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