Managed Service Providers Target Consumers

And you thought managed services were just for business. Guess again. Several companies are promoting managed IT services at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, paving the way for MSPs to push beyond their corporate heritage. Here are two prime examples:

Bsecure Technologies Inc., for instance, is the managed security service provider behind D-Link’s SecureSpot Whole-Home Internet Security Service. Bsecure‘s offering combines a Web 2.0 platform with tightly written applications that remotely manage router-based security and parental controls. The service targets the consumer and small business markets, according to a D-Link press release.

Meanwhile, OnForce is promoting its momentum in the consumer electronics sector. The company is an eBay of sorts for the channel, operating an online marketplace for VARs and MSPs. In the past year, OnForce says, it has managed more than 25,000 service contracts in the consumer electronics market. Most of those contracts involved flat-panel service requests, the company says.

More than 11,000 VARs participate in OnForce’s marketplace, which expanded to Canada late in 2007 and is now pushing into Europe.