Helping MSPs help cloud users

There is some simple maths behind the latest upgrade of GFI MAX RemoteManagement. Many businesses are still en route to the cloud, having got half way there by working with Managed Service Providers (MSPs). A good number of those businesses also remain committed to working with Microsoft servers and applications, while many others have opted to move to Google Apps. Between those two camps, the vast majority of business users are covered.

This is why GFI has opted to upgrade MAX RemoteManagement with the launch of App Control, a new cloud services management component, which enables MSPs to take full advantage of the cloud services opportunity with their clients.

App Control will initially allow MSPs to manage Microsoft Office 365 and Google Apps user accounts, mailboxes and licences, all from a single dashboard. This new feature further enables MSPs to shift from device management to managing the broader user experience, as well as enabling them to add additional value to customer relationships and better address clients’ evolving needs.

 As organisations continue to adopt more and more cloud services, MSPs using GFI MAX can find themselves equipped to help them do business effectively across a full range of IT environments including physical, virtual and cloud-based.

App Control allows MSPs to perform user and group management tasks in both Office 365 and Google Apps from a single, consistent user interface, eliminating the need to login to multiple consoles or to use complicated scripts or APIs when managing customers’ differing IT infrastructures. MSPs using the platform are also better equipped to resell Office 365 or Google Apps licenses as well as to manage existing deployments. Support for additional cloud-based services such as sync and share, as well as productivity services, will be added on an on-going basis.

The upgrade offers enhanced administration and monitoring capabilities to help clients reduce waste on unused cloud services licences, fast onboarding and offboarding capabilities to enable MSPs to create, update or remove user accounts easily, ensuring that customers can get new employees up and running on cloud services quickly, even in the face of high turnover, and much simpler management of security groups, distribution lists, organisations and teams from a single screen allows for added efficiency when adopting and managing new services.

It also provides reporting capabilities that allow MSPs to better predict future usage trends and help customers understand their current and future cloud services costs.

“MSPs are faced with an accelerating rate of adoption of cloud services in their customer base and until now this has presented more threat than opportunity,” said Dr. Alistair Forbes, general manager of the GFI MAX business unit. “The movement to cloud-based services in the SMB sector is well-established and is not going to slow down. Previously, MSPs have not had access to tools that allow them to embrace these services and be proactive in offering and supporting them for their customers, all while facing the added risk of either increasing unbillable time or weakening their customer relationship. With App Control’s new cloud management features, MSPs using GFI MAX RemoteManagement have the opportunity to create new revenue streams by taking the complexity out of cloud adoption and taking on additional responsibility for a new, critical component of their customers’ businesses. The data available about their clients’ cloud services use will better position MSPs to advise customers on cloud strategies and current trends, increasing their value even further.”