Business Services Industry

Center 7 Joins MSP Association, Defining Standards for Management Service Provider Sector

Business Wire, Feb 1, 2001

Business Editors

LINDON, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 1, 2001

Center 7 Inc., a Management Service Provider (MSP) that enables businesses to achieve continuous operation of mission-critical systems by providing enterprise management services over the Internet, announced that it has joined the MSP Association.

The association -- composed of an international consortium of companies -- was formed to define, shape, and promote the emerging Management Service Provider sector.

The Massachusetts-based MSP Association, launched last June at PC Expo in New York, will define and promote the MSP industry by providing a forum for discussion of industry issues, creating market education programs, sponsoring industry research, and defining standards and best practices.

By joining the MSP Association, Center 7 is taking the lead in aligning itself with other companies that share a similar vision of the technology services market evolution. Center 7 looks forward to working with other designated MSPs to define this emerging space.

Center 7 Chief Executive Officer Kelly Phillipps highlights the business community's benefits of this organization.

"Center 7 chose to join this organization and lend its insight in the spirit of `co-opetition,'" he said. "We believe there is a time to collaborate and cooperate with our competition for the benefit of the greater good. This drives innovation and will set higher industry standards."

MSP companies deliver information technology (IT) infrastructure management services over a network to multiple customers on a subscription basis. MSPs operate similarly to Application Service Providers (ASPs) in that they deliver services via a network that are billed to their clients.

Unlike ASPs, which deliver business applications to end users, MSPs deliver system management services, such as resource monitoring and reporting, to IT departments and other customers who manage their own technology assets.

The MSP Association's officers are as follows: Linda Shannon-Hills of HP OpenView, chairman; Michael Coffield of Nuclio Corp., president; Skip MacAskill of Silverback Technologies, vice president; and Michael Gnoinski of ManageIT, secretary-treasurer.

The association has five working committees -- Education, Technology, Research, Membership, and Best Practices -- whose functions are to move the association's initiatives forward.

About the MSP Association

Founded in June 2000, the MSP Association is a consortium of companies that together will define and promote the emerging Management Service Provider sector.

Founding members are 2ndWave Inc.; Candle Corp.; Entuity Inc.; HP OpenView (NYSE: HWP); InteQ Corp.; iSharp; Luminate; Manage.com; ManageIT; McAfee.com (NASDAQ: MCAF); NCMX Inc.; Nuclio Corp.; Silverback Technologies Inc.; SiteLite Inc.; siteROCK Corp.; Storability Inc.; TriActive Inc.; and UP 7/24.

Information on the MSP Association is available on the web at www.mspassociation.org; from association headquarters at 401 Edgewater Place, Suite 500, Wakefield, MA 01880; Tel: 781/876-8830; or by sending email to info@mspassociation.org.

About Center 7

Center 7 Inc., was formed by the Canopy Group, a venture capital company of Novell founder Ray Noorda. Center 7 provides IT infrastructure management services to customers over the Internet. Clients are able to manage their own technology assets and take control, no matter how diverse their environment. For more information, please visit http://www.center7.com.