Forgive the terrible headline. I’m waiting for a flight and dragging a bit today. But I did stumble across a rather interesting tip that could help managed services providers (MSPs) to work more closely with dentist offices. The tip comes from Intronis CEO Sam Gutmann, and it involves an emerging group called the Dental Integrators Association. Here are the details.

 

First, a little background: Too often, I think the media tells VARs and MSPs to push into vertical markets. But the media understates how difficult it is to develop vertical market business practices. Somehow, VARs and MSPs need to network with vertical market experts in order to develop proper business acumen. But how?

 

Now, let’s shift our attention to Intronis — the online backup service provider. In the past month, Intronis has signed up more partners than all of Q3 in 2009, Gutmann says. Plus, revenues are growing more than 30 percent quarter-over-quarter. But here’s what’s interesting: Intronis is more than a horizontal backup solution. The company has also managed to appeal to vertical market MSPs — especially MSPs that serve dental offices.

 

Somehow, Intronis stumbled onto the the Dental Integrators Association a few years ago. Gutmann considers the small association to be a sounding board and guiding audience for new product development. A case in point: Intronis is beta-testing an on-premises backup platform that closely integrates with the online Intronis backup system. The on-premises backup is ideal for dental offices that have large X-Ray files that don’t make sense to backup over the web, Gutmann said. Gutmann expects the system to disrupt more expensive offerings like those from Symantec Veritas. Plus, Gutmann credits the Dental Integrator Association for helping to shape the product’s development.

 

No doubt, the Dental Integrators Association is tiny compared to large organizations like CompTIA and the MSPAlliance. And I certainly realize large associations continue to provide value to their members. But sometimes, you’ll find new opportunities if you dig deep into the smallest niches.