The MSP Alliance continues to build out its Vendor Advisory Board. Next to join is Autotask CEO Bob Godgart (pictured), we hear. The Godgart announcement should come in a few days or so. So, how will MSP Alliance differ from the MSP Partner organization? We received some thoughts from MSP Alliance CEO Charles Weaver. Here’s a look.
First, Weaver confirmed that Godgart will join the MSP Alliance Vendor Advisory Board. N-able CEO Gavin Garbutt was the first person on the board earlier this week. “We will be naming more board members shortly,” wrote Weaver in an email to MSPmentor. “Bob Godgart (CEO of Autotask) will be the next one.”
How does the MSP Alliance’s vendor board differ from work under way at MSP Partners (a vendor-driven group formed by Level Platforms Update: See thoughts from Level Platforms CEO Peter Sandiford in the comments area below. He clarifies the MSP Partners’ history, backing, etc.
MSP Alliance’s Weaver was happy to discuss the difference between MSP Alliance and MSP Partners. “We are different from MSP Partners because we are neutral and represent the entire community of Vendors, not just a select handful,” wrote Weaver. “We have no formal relations between MSP Partners and will likely not have any in the near futur Most of the members in our group (and non-member MSPs) we talk to feel it would be politically dangerous to align ourselves to a select group of vendors.”
Still, some platform providers see value in both groups. Autotask, for instance, is an MSP Partners platinum sponsor and Autotask’s CEO is now joining MSP Alliances’ Vendor Advisory Board. And Level Platforms has stated that MSP Partners is open to all interested vendors that would like to join the organization.
Posted In: Charles Weaver | Gavin Garbutt | Level Platforms | MSP Alliance | MSP Partners | N-able | Peter Sandiford
Tags: Autotask | Bob Godgart | Charles Weaver | Gavin Garbutt | Level Platforms | MSP Alliance | MSP Partners | N-able
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Joe,
This looks like a great intiative on the part of MSP Alliance.
However I do want to correct your statement about MSP Partners and its founders.
MSP Partners was founded by Cisco, Ingram Micro, Intel, Microsoft and Level Platforms. We are of course proud to have been able to join with such a prestigious group to address what the founders all perceive to be a gap in the marketplace.
Specifically the goal of MSP Partners is to provide a neutral source of managed services education for solution provider partners of all vendor organizations.
MSP Partners has over 2000 solution provider members and a growing number of vendors committed to this objective. It is open to all vendors that share a commitment to these objectives.
Level Platforms has been active with MSPA for some time and I perceive our goals to be entirely complimentary.
Peter Sandiford
CEO Level Platforms
We agree that MSP Partners and MSP Alliance are servicing two very important and complimentary purposes, hence our involvement with both organizations, as noted above. There is room for the two of them, and in fact, room for the literally dozens of different and distinct “communities” that make up the IT services ecosystem, including CompTIA, SMB Nation, Ascii Group, all of the SBSC’s, to name but a few.
Bob Vogel
CMO, Autotask Corporation
[…] Meanwhile, the MSP Alliance recently launched a vendor advisory board featuring N-able CEO Gavin Garbutt, with Autotask CEO Bob Godgart also expected to join. […]