Selling professional services is tricky business. There is nothing tangible in the conversation. No product to pick up, turn over, and closely examine for quality and functionality. What clients are buying is you and your expertise.
During a recent chat with ex-marine and current president of MSP Carolinas IT Mark Cavaliero, I made the mistake of asking him what keeps him up at night. “Nothing,” he said. “We’re running smoothly and I sleep great at night.”
And other misinformation observed by a managed services pioneer.
Jason Shirdon is VP of operations at Ease Technologies, a 53-employee managed services company in Baltimore. He’s been there since 1999, having joined the company when it was just seven years old and back when managed services wasn’t even a concept. Shirdon is in part responsible for the fact that managed services is far more than a concept today. Some five years before Karl Palachuk and company began advocating for the managed services business model in 2005, Shirdon was implementing it among Ease Technologies clientele. He and his colleagues at Ease just didn’t know what to call it back then.
Darek Hahn, president and CEO of Dynamic Strategies Inc. (DSI), details the challenges of his company's shift in customer focus, sales strategy, and corporate culture.
Russ Levanway, CEO of California-based MSP TekTegrity, recently let me pick his brain about how and why the company acquired four MSPs in the five-year period between 2010 to 2015. Like many solutions providers looking for ways to grow, TekTegrity used these acquisitions to expand its regional footprint and establish itself in new verticals. In the process, Levanway had to integrate differing cultures and a rapidly expanding headcount.
It’s a good time to be an MSP. Multiple reports from channel organizations are touting healthy EBITDA and growing MRR. Still, the times are changing. Looming giants like Microsoft threaten the storage and networking markets with new software-defined technologies. Competition is creeping in from unforeseen places, from small-time resellers to big-time global services companies.
Selling professional services is tricky business. There is nothing tangible in the conversation. No product to pick up, turn over, and closely examine for quality and functionality. What clients are buying is you and your expertise.
An MSP owner realizes that two of his newest team members aren't going to make it to the ninety-day mark. Should he dread replacing those employees, or relish the chance to dramatically improve his business?
One of the notable highlights of Admiral Nelson’s win at Trafalgar is that he believed his better trained forces would be superior in a battle against overwhelming opposing odds, and he was correct. The more educated the workforce, the greater the productivity: we all know this, or we should.
Businesses turning to MSPs have no shortage of options in the marketplace, making the solution provider’s ability to distinguish itself crucial to its long-term viability. In my opinion, perhaps the surest path to differentiating a managed service is providing expertise that goes beyond simply delivering technology, and gets to really helping clients navigate the real-world complexities that govern how technology must be applied.
ARRRGH!\ o, this is not me living my fantasy as a swashbuckler, though as a fencing instructor (a healthy and fun diversion of mine), it would not be too far from reality. Rather, it is an expression of angst when I hear Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems reduced to being called “accounting” or “financial” systems. I let the rather defamatory term slide when it comes from the chief financial officer or vice president of finance at a client of mine: hey, I am pretty picky about most things but even I have my limitations. But I cringe when I hear it from the reseller, because I know that this is a reseller with a myopic focus.
Focusing your managed services business on cybersecurity creates several opportunities to increase margins; most significantly, by implementing layers of security at client sites, you can reduce costly security-related issues. Understanding that effective cyberdefense involves multiple layers of technology is crucial, as is the understanding that customer disruption is a revenue killer in the world of the managed services provider (MSP).
Simply put, the bad guys are constantly searching for any possible point of entry that can be exploited by viruses and malware.
The first three installments of the Cyberthreat Defense Report (CDR) began the process of looking beyond major breaches and the never-ending evolution of cyberthreats to better understand what IT security teams are doing to defend against them.
Webroot delivers intelligent cybersecurity for endpoint, mobile and web to channel partners, consumers, businesses, and enterprises worldwide. Powered by its BrightCloud® collective threat intelligence network, Webroot protects the internet of everything. Our cloud-based threat detection, high performance, lightweight agents, and single, web-based point of control have changed the way businesses think about protecting mobile devices, PCs and servers. Named a ‘Visionary’ in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms, Webroot’s smarter approach to security is why companies including Cisco, F5 Networks, GateProtect, HP, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Proofpoint, RSA and others choose our solutions for advanced threat protection for their security products and services.
Harbortouch is a leading national provider of touch-screen point of sale (POS) systems and payment processing services. As pioneers of the “as a service” model, Harbortouch offers an unprecedented “free” POS program that allows the company’s sales partners to offer a full-featured POS system with no up-front costs.
| ConnectWise is the leading business management solution designed exclusively for technology organizations, such as IT solution providers, MSPs, software companies, hardware/software resellers, and System Integrators. |
Datto protects business data and provides secure connectivity for tens of thousands of the world's fastest growing companies. Datto's Total Data Protection solutions deliver uninterrupted access to business data on site, in transit and in the cloud. Thousands of IT service providers globally rely on Datto's combination of pioneering technology and dedicated services to ensure businesses are always on, no matter what. Datto is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut and has offices in Rochester, Boston, Portland, Toronto, London, Singapore and Sydney. Learn more at www.datto.com.
SolarWinds® MSP delivers comprehensive, scalable IT service management solutions to empower MSPs of every size and scale worldwide to create highly efficient and profitable businesses that drive a measurable competitive advantage.
Jenne, Inc. is a leading value-added distributor of technology products and solutions focusing on voice, video, data networking, premise security and cloud. Jenne is committed to providing value-added resellers, integrators and service providers with a broad product selection, competitive pricing, on-time accurate delivery, outstanding technical support plus ongoing sales and technical training.
The managed services market got its start as early as the 1990s as the recurring revenue business model sparked a new era of change in the technology industry. As managed service providers (MSPs) emerged, the market for their offerings grew, and it is expected to reach $193 billion by 2019, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.5%, according to Markets and Markets.
In a recent survey, conducted by Opinion Matters on behalf of VIPRE, IT administrators chimed in on a plethora of topics surrounding endpoint security. Here’s a look at some of the standout numbers from The VIPRE Report.
Hundreds of thousands of ransomware attacks take place every single day. Everyone is a target. No one is immune.
Webroot's 2017 cyberthreat survey report takes a look at the most susceptible nations, the rise of cyberattacks, the top industries where security budgets are increasing, and more in this infographic.
Savvy MSPs know that automation improves efficiency and strengthens their bottom line. In a nutshell, automation enables an MSP to reduce the amount of time its technicians spend handling routine or repetitive tasks, thus cutting costs for service delivery and freeing those techs to devote more attention to activities that generate more revenue.
