Saturday, October 4, 2008

Staples in the Managed Services Biz?

We've been expecting this for a while so nobody can be really surprised at this news but I would be interested in what all of you think about this.

Turns out that Staples, the office supply chain, will be getting into the IT services business. Now, at first glance, it looks like most of the services being offered are more of the low value services that are easy to deliver but not very high value or high profit. Even more curious, they are going to be offering 'on-site' tech services to the SMB market.

Now, at some point I would assume a lot of you will be saying, 'so what? We've been offering thes same servces for years.' I would agree with anyone who feels like this. However, it is worth considering how a company like Staples will help build the brand of managed services for the SMB market.

So, my question to you is what do you think of Staples as a managed service provider?

3 comments:

David Deans - BTR moderator said...

Charles, a point of clarification. I believe that they are only offering services currently in one state, MA.

Mike Cooch said...

They've actually been offering these services for a couple of years now; since their acquisition of Thrive Networks. It doesn't seem that they've really put too much behind it in the way of resources or focus.

Mike Cooch
www.everonit.com
www.smbitpros.com

Charles Weaver said...

Mike - do you think they don't understand how to market their service or is it that they just don't place a premium on it compared to their other services and products?