Most hosting providers in the space today are limited by their ability to offer only Microsoft Exchange.  If you want swallow a different pill to differentiate your offering and become a market leader, then you will need to focus on a bundle of applications delivered through the Citrix DaaS model.  Here is a proven prescription for building a strategy based on a hosted desktop model using Windows Server 2008 R2 and XenApp. Following these Doctors orders is sure to lead you on the path to becoming one of our most successful CSPs.

There are two basic Rx’s for producing a subscriber base of five thousand.  First is to develop a solid plan for sales and marketing.  According to research over 73% of SMBs have a need for your service but don’t know how to get it.  Focus, focus, focus on the market you want to go after.  Finance, Healthcare and Services are top on this list.  So you need to be proactive in your sales and marketing motion. 

Once you’ve planned for and staffed your sales and marketing teams, go hard after your potential customers.  Because of this tremendous demand chasm for IT services, once you have a qualified lead, our research shows that you have better than 70% chance of closing them as a customer.

Remember that all of our core products, XenApp, XenDesktop, XenServer and NetScaler (VPX) are available under the CSP subscription pricing model.  So give this prescription a try and tell us if you like the side effects of a growing CSP business. 

The CSP team is proud to offer you a new way to help build your CSP business – the CSP video series. You can now learn about and share information on the CSP program with a series of a’ la carte videos, straight from the Citrix CSP experts. These videos are a more engaging way of learning, and they enable to you pick and chose the right content for your team and your customers. The series begins with four foundation videos to get you started:

   Building a successful CSP business
   Cloud computing for the small to medium business (SMB) customer
   CSP packaging, pricing, licensing, and resources
   Understanding the CSP Reference Architecture

The videos are available in the CSP Toolkit, your single source for CSP videos, tools, and resources. Stay tuned for more videos on everything from CSP security, CSP taxonomy (what is SaaS, DaaS), to ROI. If you have suggestions on videos you would like to see or comments about these videos, let Scott Lindars know.

SMB IT Spending: 63% of Microsoft Small Business Specialist partners forecast higher spending among SMBs in 2010, a 38 point increase over 2009.

Reducing Costs: Reducing staff and IT costs continue to be the most common ways SMB customers are surviving the economic downturn, but at decreased levels from 2009 to 2010. Investing in IT and creative marketing and advertising are at significantly higher levels in 2010 than in 2009, but remain a way of surviving for one third or less.

Cost-Saving Technologies and Investments for Growth: Virtualization continues to be viewed as the best cost saving technology and investment for growth in 2010. IT consolidation (small and mid-size servers) and SaaS follow virtualization in consideration as best cost saving technologies. Customer Relationship Management follows virtualization in consideration as the best technology for growth.

Software as a Service (SaaS):  On average, over one in ten small and mid-sized business customers are currently using SaaS/Hosted applications (+2% to 12%). Small Business Specialist partners continue to forecast increased use by the end of 2010, which is likely to be realized given the expected shift in customers with increased IT purchases in 2010.

Remote Workers: The majority of Small Business Specialist partners continue to believe their customers will increase their remote worker base in 2010 with a significant upward shift (+20 points to 74%) since 2009. 

(Source: 2^nd Annual SMB/Partner Insight Report, 2010, Microsoft)

Citrix FlexCast(TM) enables service providers to deliver every type of virtual desktop - each specifically tailored to meet the performance, security and flexibility requirements of each individual user. FlexCast also means that Citrix Service Providers can deliver Windows desktops as a month by month subscription service.

During this webinar the new tools and capabilities within the Citrix Service Provider program will be discussed and demonstrated so you can see firsthand what it looks like to deliver desktops as a service (DaaS) as a CSP. You will learn about the user experience, personalization, and how your CSP business can offer this service. Finally, learn more about the Citrix Service Provider licensing program as it relates to Microsoft SPLA licensing and the various trade-offs a service provider must consider when determining their hosted desktop business models.

This webinar will be lead by Kurt Moody – Senior Product Marketing Manager for the Desktop Division, Tarkan Kocoglu – Senior Manager of Technical Readiness and Ashish Gujarathi – Desktop Division Principle Design Engineer. The live webinar will be available at three different times to accommodate all regions. Register today!

9:00 AM – 10:00 AM EDT - Wednesday, September 29, 2010 – Register here

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT - Wednesday, September 29, 2010 – Register here

8:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT - Wednesday, September 29, 2010 – Register here

Nasstar plc, a leading Citrix Service Provided in the U.K., Ireland, Netherlands and Canada has successfully embraced and executed on the strategy of building a scalable, multi-tenant,  package based offering to its customers.

Since Nasstar launched Hosted Desktop in 2004, their continued focus on innovation and a successful business strategy has lead to a world class platform, utilizing Citrix XenApp, to deliver a Windows 7 themed desktop with Microsoft Office 2010.  The Nasstar Hosted Desktop platform enables companies of all sizes access to enjoy the benefits of cloud computing for their desktop and line of business applications. 

Nasstar Hosted Desktop is available through Nasstar’s international partner network.  Partners can expect recurring revenue with 40%+ margins and receive on-going presales, sales, marketing and technical support. To learn more about Nasstar Hosted Desktop and, please visit http://www.hosteddesktop.co.uk.

EMS-Cortex software has been helping service providers deliver desktops and applications using Citrix technology for over five years. 

The Cortex Cloud Control Panel is used by hosting providers, telco’s, managed service providers and System Integrators across the world to automate provisioning processes and delegate administration tasks in a safe and easy to use way.  Cortex supports the most popular Microsoft apps as well as providing a leading solution for delivering desktops and applications using Citrix XenApp.

Cortex automates commonly needed administrative functions that usually require skilled technical staff.  Further to this, you can now delegate these functions directly to your helpdesk or to the customer.  Cortex helps your business by: 

  ·  Reducing support time and costs

  ·  Scaling your business without increasing staff volumes

  ·  Increasing operating margins by delivering more with less

  ·  Improving customer satisfaction by providing what they want when they need it

If you want to learn more about EMS-Cortex or request a demo, please visit: http://www.ems-cortex.com/citrix

Available in early October, the XenDesktop Reference Architecture Addendum for CSPs version 1 will provide detailed technical guidance on the implementation of XenApp 6 as the DaaS and SaaS enabler for Citrix Service Providers.  This addendum to the currently available XenDesktop 4 Modular Reference Architecture will include CSP specific software and hardware requirements, and discuss user experience/acceptance, scalability, multi-tenancy, and security options for both CSP Basic and CSP Premium based solutions. 

 We have many more documents and tools that will be made available on an on-going basis through a new Citrix Service Provider community site within our Cloud Developer Network.  This new site will be launched in parallel to the release of the reference architecture addendum.  So get ready to engage directly with the Citrix Service Provider program, product and engineering teams as we all work toward making the delivery of DaaS and SaaS services a vibrant and growing market throughout 2011 and beyond.