Take A "Show Me" Approach To Managed Security Services

By The Business Solutions Network

This MSP doesn’t just tell prospects that they need new IT solutions and managed services — it proves it.

“Unless you continue to show customers how you keep their systems running smoothly, they will start questioning why they’re paying for managed services,” says John Quatto, channel partner manager, Zobrio

Photo By Tim Schermerhorn

Managed services provider (MSP) Zobrio’s success has a strong tie with the history of the state where the MSP is headquartered — Missouri. Although there is some dispute regarding the exact origin to the state’s “Show Me” slogan, the most widely accepted story gives credit to U.S. Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver, who coined the phrase in 1899. During a speech, he said, “Frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.” More than 116 years later, Vandiver’s words are still used to describe the character of Missourians: unwilling to believe without adequate evidence.

When it comes to selling IT solutions and services, Zobrio finds that many of its competitors have either forgotten or ignored this important trait when prospecting Missouri businesses. “A lot of IT solutions providers we compete against have prepackaged bundles that they try to sell every prospect without even knowing what the prospect needs,” says John Quatto, the company’s channel partner manager. “Also, even if these companies call their offering ‘managed services,’ it’s really just a break-fix offering with a shiny new face. We’ve learned that only after conducting a thorough assessment can we know and recommend a solution that addresses a customer’s business and IT problems.”

Why Network Assessments Matter
The first step to becoming a “show me” MSP entails gathering important facts about a prospect’s IT environment, says Quatto. “This process entails interviewing the client to get feedback on current problems — especially recurring problems involving network or computer downtime. It also entails using a network assessment tool to capture important metrics about the client’s network.” The assessment tool gives the MSP important metrics about a prospect’s network, including signs of potential problem areas. “A lot of times what we uncover is that a customer’s network was put together haphazardly,” says Quatto. “For instance, we’ll see that they’re using several different brands of switches because their previous IT person just bought whatever was on sale. Or they’re using multiple antivirus programs with different license expiration dates.”

When MSPs try to add their bundle to a patched-together network environment, there are a myriad of problems that can occur, says Quatto. “First, there is a much higher likelihood that an expired software license or a patch update is going to be missed, which makes the client more vulnerable to security threats. If an MSP is using a basic RMM [remote monitoring and management] tool that only indicates when systems are running or not running [i.e. red light or green light], they’re going to have to send technicians on-site constantly to troubleshoot problems after the fact, which totally defeats the point of the managed services model.”

Zobrio uses the AVG Managed Workplace platform (see sidebar on page 24 to learn more about AVG Business). At the same time, the MSP interviews key stakeholders to learn more about the prospect’s IT and business challenges. “If we discover that a prospect needs its network to be available all the time and they have limited in-house IT resources, we may recommend 24/7 monitoring with remote access and remediation services,” says Quatto. “Our assessment tool gives us other valuable information, too, such as the age and health of their servers and computers, plus the status of their appliance warranties and their software licenses. Armed with this information, we can offer specific value such as decommissioning and securely disposing of outdated equipment, setting up an equipment life cycle plan, and making other recommendations such as adding more storage, memory, or CPU before a problem occurs.” In addition to the “show me” nature of the reports Zobrio generates from its assessment tool, it uses real world examples from other customers and industry research to reinforce the value of following best practices. “One of the common objections MSPs face is that customers would rather pay as they go instead of paying a monthly fee,” says Quatto. “This is a good opportunity to delve into the real cost of downtime, which occurs when companies simply react to problems as they occur. In the vast majority of cases, it’s far costlier to be down for a few hours than it is to pay a small service fee each month and minimize downtime. Plus, when you have the luxury of being able to order a hard drive or other IT equipment ahead of time, you can almost always get a better price — and you don’t need to pay for rush shipping. Additionally, you can perform the upgrade at a time most convenient to the client rather than ‘right now.’”

One of the biggest needs Zobrio often uncovers during its assessments is in the area of security. “We offer a multilayered security solution that includes antivirus, a next generation firewall, email security, and cloud backup,” says Quatto. “What’s more is that through our AVG Business Managed Workplace platform, we’re able to see the status of all these service offerings on a single screen.”

“Only after conducting a thorough assessment can we know and recommend a solution that addresses a customer’s business and IT problems.”

John Quatto, channel partner manager, Zobrio

Continue Proving Your Value After The Initial Managed Services Sale
Although network assessments are the key to winning managed services business, they’re not enough to ensure long-term success, says Quatto. “Whether you do business in the Show Me state or not, it’s important to continue showing your value. We learned years ago that, after several months on a managed services plan, a lot of our customers would ask the question, ‘Since our network is working fine and we’re not having problems anymore, why do we have to keep paying for your service each month?’” The fact of the matter was that Zobrio was doing a lot for its customers. “We quickly realized that we had to continue proving our value after the sale,” says Quatto. “The same tools we use to conduct assessments also capture lots of other metrics about our customers’ IT assets, including all of the problems we’re able to mitigate remotely. We had one customer who had 6,000 incidents over the course of a year, and 95 percent of those problems we were able to resolve in less than one day — without them even being aware of it.”

The way Zobrio continues proving its value to its customers is by conducting quarterly reviews with each client and reviewing highlights from its managed services reports. “Not only is this a good opportunity to prove the ROI of our solutions and services, it also allows us to get an update on important changes happening within a client’s business,” says Quatto.

Becoming a proactive MSP isn’t just about using the right IT tools; it also requires a mindset shift. “For us to make this shift it required regular meetings and trainings,” says Quatto. “Now, when technicians aren’t resolving IT problems, they can log on to the portal, review customers’ networks, and look for trends and insights. This is an important part of empowering our salespeople to have strategic conversations with clients and prospects as opposed to blindly trying to push a new piece of equipment or software.”

Zobrio’s business strategy resulted in an impressive 18 percent growth in 2015. To supersede last year’s stats, the MSP is focusing on its vendor partnerships. “By doing more business with our closest vendors, we can add greater efficiencies to our operations and offer more competitive prices to our customers,” says Quatto. “For example, instead of selling antivirus, spam filtering, and remote monitoring services from three separate companies we now use one, AVG Business. This same vendor has also been instrumental in helping us get our message out, which has given us the opportunity to engage with more prospects and show them how we can solve their business problems.”