The Global MSP Network (GMN), an international association focusing on the advancement of the outsourced management service provider (MSP) channel, today announced the launch of original research on key MSP sales and marketing issues.

In conducting this research, the GMN aims to educate the IT marketplace and to advance the successes of the MSP channel. The association anticipates Plans to unveil the results of the research are at the next worldwide GMN meeting in Amsterdam, Netherlands at the end of October, 2001.

Dan Atkinson, Executive Vice President of GMN member company DirectPointe Inc., of Orem, Utah says that as the MSP channel progresses, the GMN has recognized many questions and issues surrounding the types of sales and marketing they require: "For example, what kind of salespeople will best serve an MSP? Who is addressing the small/medium business market? What about an MSP who is addressing the enterprise? And in either case, what kind of sales and marketing tools will these people require? These are the issues we are working to help identify and answer in our research," he says.

The GMN's findings will be issued free of charge to GMN member companies. The study will also result in the development of specific sales and marketing support tools addressing the needs uncovered in the report.

The MSPs participating in the study will largely be GMN member companies for says Rob Moore, director of Strategic Marketing for GMN member Center 7 Inc., of Lindon, Utah. However, MSPs outside of the GMN are invited to participate, and will receive the report in exchange for their involvement.

He says the research will be take steps to differentiate and categorize the various types of MSPs: "For example, some of our member companies have emerged out of the systems integration community. Others, such as Center 7, emerged in the dot.com era with specialized infrastructure management services. Based on the varied needs of these companies, we hope to determine which MSPs are currently successful, and to translate their successes into tools that build the momentum to help the entire MSP channel succeed," he explains.