MSP vendors are like a box of chocolates

Another RMM & PSA business.. poof. Except this time they didn’t even bother putting up an elaborate lie about “becoming more competitive, better resources, nothing will change” – instead a hand written “Please flush twice” sign.

But hey, it wouldn’t be Dell if they didn’t class up the joint and find another way to kick the industry that should have passed it up a long time ago.

For the rest of the “barely breaking even, raising another round, Vlad you’re too harsh on VC, this is how real business works” crowd – you’re left out in the sun.

While printing virtual shares more worthless than the paper they are on is a good way to motivate employees too dumb to realize you’re not going public, the reality of business hasn’t changed much but the fundamentals are lost on many.

The reality of business hasn’t changed in 3700 years – ever since the Egyptians came up with the concept of zero – your business either made more or less than breakeven. And if you make less than 0 all the fancy BS is just lottery.

Meanwhile at the trade show

Step on up folks, step on up.. Get in tighter, who is feeling lucky tonight?

Find the vendor, find the vendor, find the RMM vendor that won’t be out of business next month!!!! Oooo, tough break! How about you sir, can you find the fastest dinosaur?

What the IT media at large is finding out is what people in the SMB IT have known for years – there is no future in automating what Microsoft and Apple are automating a deprecating away on their own. While these tools and MSP value concept was easy to explain in 2003 when stuff would go down all the time and needed constant surgery to keep spyware and viruses at bay, in 2013 – more than a decade later – that business model is worthless. Some people are just waking up to the fact that value propositions have to change over in order for value to be converted into profits.

People have poked fun at the so called apocalyptic writing on the wall for years on Vladville but let me ask you this: What is an antispam company worth in 2013? Don’t answer that yet. Now say you were an investor in such technology (that is rapidly marginalized and given away for free by virtually everyone) – would you be putting in more money in it or hoping someone dumb enough walks by with a bucket of cash and walks away with it before it’s completely worthless?

This is the cycle that the MSP vendor industry finds itself in right now. Too many single point solutions, too much debt, too little integration and business development that focuses on what businesses are actually buying.

While point solutions still have a place, and will still be sold, their competitive value has been marginalized by innovation and they can no longer stand on their own. For most of these things their best chance is to be lumped into something more cohesive or given to someone that can actually put a meaningful business model around them that can compel small businesses to buy it or sign up for it for free in order to sell more profitable, more popular solutions. You can’t take Shockey Monkey seriously because a version of it is free? I can’t take you seriously if you are too stupid to figure it out.

The game.. the business.. doesn’t change because the vendors cannot stay in business. But it changes all the time and if you refuse to change with it, all you’ll be left with is change.