Whether it\’s LPI, Zenith, Nable, or one of the many platforms available out there, it\’s really your technical knowhow and your ability to lower the impact and likelihood issues your client may face. Yesterday was just one more example of total incompetence with the big players. Heading out on a four day trip, I opened up my laptop in the airport in hopes of getting some work done between flights. All of the sudden my wireless broadband card will not connect.
Verizon tests my connection and says everything is ok on their side and then actually takes a proactive step and gets Dell on the line (something I never expected). Then after the usual computer troubleshooting 101 drills, the Dell tech decides we need to reinstall my entire system from the disks sent with the laptop. That\’s right, not reinstall the driver for this wireless card, but actually rebuild the entire system. I\’ve already told him I am sitting in the airport, but he actually asks if I have the disks and can save my data to a thumb drive! How hard is it to beat this kind of competition?
High Tech Business Growth 
I completely agree that technical know-how is far more important than an automated managed service product backed by no-nothing techs.
But from your blog, I’m not sure if you are promoting managed services or knocking it. And are you knocking Dell for wanting to wipe your hard drive clean without reinstalling the wireless card driver first or praising them? And knocking Dell for thinking that everything can be backuped to a thumbdrive with no consideration to programs, configurations and time.
I think managed services CAN be good, but most of what I have seen, its snake-oil salesman tactics, especially from Zenith Infotech.
A program that delivers monthly recurring revenue is important to long term financial stability, therefore some form of managed services…this comes in many flavors. Of course I am knocking the service I received on this call in the airport and anyone who thinks they can just buy a box and call themselves a managed service provider is dreaming. It takes expertise, a well structured program, and an understanding of the client’s situation. As an update, I did call them back to get a second opinion which resulted in a hardware failure diagnosis (covered under my contract).