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MSP IT Services Business Prosper With Smart MSP Software

O-Tec, a network integrator based in Dallas, Texas, has been providing cheap IT services and best-of-breed technologies to its buyers for over twenty-five years. Their team of technical experts works closely with its customers to get an exhaustive understanding of their business processes so it can consistently deliver top-notch services.

Company business has been growing steadily for years but its outdated, break-fix service model was making it harder to provide superior service. The result was often costly down time for their clients and an unsustainable pace.

O-Tec wanted a solution that would help them predict problems rather than just reacting to them. They evaluated one or two products but only N-central offered precisely what it was looking for - remote monitoring with a potent interface, detailed reporting capabilities, and an all-embracing support program - at a reasonable cost. 'I was straight away sold on N-central's dashboard because of its flexibility.

I am able to simply get a 'bird's-eye' view of all of the networks we support or quickly change views and drill down to a particular field of interest. We're a tiny network integrator with little resources so having the N-able team help us along has been a great asset in developing our MSP plans.'

With TecWatch, it can identify an impending problem before it becomes critical. Technicians then call the client, warn them of the potential problem, and advise them on the easy way to forestall it from happening. Also, N-central's reporting features give the Company discernible metrics that they can show clients to help them make upgrade decisions.

'Thanks to N-central and our TecWatch program, we've added $3500 a month in recurring MSP earnings. Even more importantly, we've adopted a new business plan that is going to enable us to develop an a hundred percent MSP enterprize model within the next 12 months.'

the best advantage for O-Tec is that they are now able to offer clients and prospects a unique approach to IT support and management that the majority of their break-fix competitors are not able to offer. 'By putting N-central to work, we are able to be active which frees us up to target the client's business wishes and it has produced more project orientated business.

More reading:
How to Monitor Your Network Availability in the Most Effective Way

Network Systems Business Boosts Value with Innovative MSP Products

When he and a co-worker purchased the office printers and copiers company they were working for in 1982, Ron Taylor knew he was on to a nice thing.
His new company, Office Systems Northwest, posted 10 solid years of growth as a provider of office products.
'Suddenly, we were hooking up copiers and printers to networks, but we knew nothing about computers and networks. Office Systems Northwest made a decision to expand into networking, getting a computer and network services company. 'Almost straight away, we wanted to change the business design of the network services division,' Taylor recollects.

'When a {computer|P. C. P.C breaks down, information that used to reside on the computer has to be retrieved or restored,' Taylor recalls.

'Every half a year, we had to change the business structure again - one model never seemed to continue to be profitable for at least a year.
the corporation's engineers assumed a remote network monitoring approach would change things for the better, and'N-able Technologies truly hit the target.' After getting a demonstration of N-central, Taylor asserts he was sold.

'N-central had features we could actually use for our clients, it was functional for the engineers, and the price point was excellent.' N-central enabled Office Systems Northwest to proactively monitor network availability, performance, security and service management for multiple buyers from one central Web console. And that, joined with business change support from N-able, finally ended in a stable business model that really worked.
'N-able helped us find a way to remotely reply to customers and bill for it, as well as to be proactive and escape the break-fix cycle,' Taylor claims. They drilled into what was wrong with how we were running the services division and their consultation helped us change our model to be more cost effective.'

Taylor says that it also became simpler to sell the services. 'Remote network monitoring and reply is so salable,' he stresses. 'The logic of it really is so clear : let your machines let us know what is going on on so you have no down-time and never need to call us. We closed 95% of the business we presented the new solution to.' actually, he says,'The N-able product helped us land about 33 contracted clients inside nine months. When the owners are prepared to get out, there's not much to sell. The customers is loyal to an engineer and will have a tendency to follow the engineer.' by contrast, Taylor says,'N-able let us build a model that made our clients loyal to the business. We could respond to any customer request at any point, so their relationship was with Office Systems Northwest, not with a particular engineer.' And that, he contends, made the organization's services division a fascinating purchase target.
Taylor still believes in the outsourcing model and in the network services company he worked with N-able to make. Office Systems Northwest ( now a provider of office printers and copiers ) and the new, independent services company share a bilateral contract whereby Taylor's team resells network services to clients who need it, and the services company provides Office Systems Northwest with managed network services.
Taylor observes that the worth N-able provided went miles beyond good product and support.

N-central really understood our business and what we were going thru. They helped us make the services company into something that might be sold.'.

Managed Service Contract Becomes The Top Choice For Many IT Customers

Since opening its doors in Phoenix, Arizona in 2002, Net Fusion has maintained a powerful reputation around its team of specialised IT specialists. Yet given the proven fact that Net Fusion began operations just as the post-9/11 economic slump took hold, company officers soon decided they needed to evolve their business and extend its value proposition to include a high-value managed services offering that wouldn't only work to stabilize money and expansion streams, but offer customers greater service and cost benefits. That strategy is paying off even more now, amid the up to date economic downturn. Irrespective of how you look at it, managed services offers our purchasers more for less.' shortly after debuting its proactive IT Management offering - which combines network monitoring and unlimited remote IT support - Net Fusion's management team realized the software platform their company was using to deliver services wasn't best in class. 'It truly fell down when it came to remote monitoring and that just was not acceptable,' says Butina
After re-assessing the varying managed services software sellers, Net Fusion selected N-able Technologies as its partner of choice and started using N-able's N-central network and systems management solution. 'N-able's N-central software does a miles better job of proactively monitoring our clients' networks and systems,' announces Butina. 'Monitoring is critical to successfully handling our clients' networks and in a number of cases it is the primary service our buyers purchase.' With N-central's powerful monitoring capabilities in place , the 30-person company found that it was ready to noticeably reduce response times and address Problems and potential issues quicker and with more efficiency. 'They can just jump onto a remote connection and quickly understand and resolve the problem right then and there.' N-able's N-central software also instantly and proactively fixes common problems by running a script and then making alerts a problem has been addressed. 'Our technicians can take care of three times more clients than they could before - which presents an incredible gain in productivity and profitability.'

in addition, its N-compass performance reporting software permits Net Fusion to generate monthly outline reports for clients - giving each a clear image of the standing and availability of their network. The reporting capability also supplies the necessary data, including which machines might need to be replaced, the status of software patches and more. These reports enable Net Fusion's technicians to advise clients on strategic IT issues and mention high-risk areas in the network.

These reports, Butina claims, also help possible clients to more obviously understand the cost-savings and quality advantages of a managed services contract. He offers the example of a law practice that Net Fusion serviced on a break-fix basis for one or two years. 'Initially, the firm resisted moving to a managed services contract. after six months of discussion, the company made the jump and discovered that its average monthly IT costs dropped from $8,000 to $3,500 - more than 50 per cent,' claims Butina.
'The value of hiring a worker includes retirement, insurance and other benefits as well as salary and taxes, while managed services supply a set fee without additional cost.' Today, Net Fusion has a roster of 15 customers, the biggest having 1,000 users.

Other similar article:
Computer Gallery System Management Case Study

MSP Achieves Market Success with Velocity Remote Management System

If you're exploring managed services as a business model and wondering whether it can put you on a fast track to sustained success, look no further than Michael Drake and his high-growth company masterIT.





Picture yourself building an IT services business mostly from the start. That was the scenario Drake faced in early 2006, right after he set up masterIT in Memphis, TN. An 18-year IT veteran, Drake knew the finance and operational issues of offering break/fix or perhaps reactive services and had resolved to have a look for a more lucrative business model that would produce rapid results and lasting success.

Drake and business partner Gary Wiseman wanted masterIT to generate substantially higher margins and experience a competitive differentiation by offering a comprehensive set of IT services delivered at a consistently world-class level.

they actually did their homework and came away persuaded that managed services was the way to go.
Drake and Wiseman, the company's President and CTO, did their homework there too, choosing speed System on the power of its N-central remote monitoring and management platform and the business and technical support that N-able provides thru its speed plan for Success. 'N-able's solution stood out in a number of ways, but the most important one is their business transformation services. They treated the 1st 2 months as a coaching bootcamp where we learned MSP go-to-market secrets and best practices for setting up a NOC ( network operations center ),' Drake says. 'The capability to make business value messaging, marketing collateral and internet site content and to set up the product itself - all using N-able personnel and support - significantly reduced our time to market by at least 6 months.' Drake was also sold on Velocity System's capability to reduce service delivery costs by enabling masterIT to support more seats with less technicians, to automate important jobs like patch management and to streamline workflows. To date, 800 customer seats have been added to masterIT's N-central dashboard and another 600 are in the backlog to be delivered by the end of the year.

'Our two main messages to prospects are that we will measurably lower the overall cost of ownership ( TCO ) of their infrastructure and that we will give them problem-free IT so they can focus on their core business. They come away with reassurance from knowing they have enterprise-strength technology and IT experts working for them - and the budget predictability that comes from one set monthly fee.' One prospect that liked what it heard was the Memphis office of commercial real estate giant CB Richard Ellis. As a part of its engagement methodology, masterIT conducted a network assessment and produced a TCO report for the office, which employs more than 65 people. The TCO report showed how much the office spends on IT every month and proposed changes to scale back costs and stabilise spending. The suggestion included hardware-as-a-service - in which masterIT acquires, installs and services all hardware and software for the customer - as well as remote monitoring and management.
In particular, consolidation of technology and services employed by the office's field sales team led to direct savings and nearly eliminated downtime and lost productiveness.

Supplementary reading:

SMB Network System Management Case Study

It’s Good to be an MSP

In March 2006, IT Authorities launched itself into managed services knowing that its unique corporate culture, combined with a best-in-class managed services platform, would translate into a booming services business that would supply a steady money stream and make for happy customers.

'The buzz and the energy inside our company are actually 2nd to none,' asserts Jason Caras, President of the Tampa, FL.-based managed service supplier ( MSP ). 'We always hire extremely galvanized people and battle to follow industry best practices when it comes to IT solutions and consumer support.' According to Caras, the organization's drive for best-in-class services is what led IT Authorities to N-able Technologies, the number one provider of remote monitoring and management software for IT automation and managed services. 'After considering many options - many being too costly and complicated - we selected N-able to help us make the move to managed services.' blueprint for success Using N-able university, IT Authorities quickly educated itself about the way to leverage the N-able tools and develop its managed service offering. 'The education and support resources that N-able provided warranted us that we could take the leap,' says Caras. 'They walked us through every facet of the transition, beginning with an analysis of where we were, and they gave us a blueprint for success and a strategy of teaching our salespeople and engineers.' The remote monitoring and management capabilities found within N-able's N-central on-premises platform are another clear differentiator and have helped the Company reduce the number of truck rolls to customer sites by 82 percent. 'It used to be silly with folk running around reacting to one crisis or another and now it is a controlled pro atmosphere.'

According to Caras, the Corporation has reduced its team of technicians from 22 to just eight, while tripling its shopper base. 'There's been at least a twenty p.c shift and, even better, our quarterly buyer reviews have improved dramatically,' claims Caras.
Detailed reports and regular meetings are crucial staples that IT Authorities uses to keep customers privy to the worth it brings to the table. N-able's N-compass reporting engine is used to generate reports that demonstrate the business price of managed services by spotlighting key service performance metrics like uptime, capacity and security.
'N-able's monitoring, management and notification systems are all as good as it becomes, and the platform supplies the strongest reporting engine out there.' during the past 2 years, the company has landed many new accounts and is actively monitoring more than 1,500 desktops for its little to medium-sized customers. This year, IT Authorities has already surpassed all of 2007 sales while upping gross profits by a startling 2,800 p.c. 'It's been a great year for revenue and profits as well as for the building of a solid and trustworthy internal operational foundation that's now supporting our exponential growth', concludes Caras.

Additional reading:

Making Fast Profit of Managed Services Business (MSP)

Using Advanced MSP software to Grow Existing Managed Services Model

Infinity Network Solutions first expedition into managed services was not at all what corporate officers hoped for. The software failed to work as promised and the at first lower price of entry was quickly dwarfed by the period of time and resources important to get the solution up-and-running and able to support customers. Pissed off and behind schedule, the company wanted to make a change.


'Level Platforms software was already installed and it would have been most cost-effective to go that route, but I would have liked to start out with a clean slate,' asserts Drinkwine. 'It wasn't a large fight internally because the goal was to get into managed services - and what we had installed did not work. At the end of the day, if you buy something that you do not use, it's lost money anyway.' Transition to MSP model a Key in selecting N-able. After judging a number of MSP solutions, Drinkwine chose N-able Technologies and its N-central platform, based mostly on the seller's name for easing its partners' transition to managed services, he says. 'For anyone considering managed services, if they have 0 experience then N-able is the way to go thanks to the hand-holding they provide.' Over the course of about two months, Infinity analyzed its business using tools available on the internet in the N-able Resource Center, as well as its client knowledge and network experience, selecting which existing accounts were robust candidates for managed services.
'In today's competitive marketplace, having the right technologies, processes and people in place to support your business structure and to help give remarkable service to your clients are urgent success factors that can't be compromised,' claims Brian Betzel, Executive vice president of Sales for Infinity, a Technology assurance Group ( TAG ) member and a CRN Top 100 Fast growth Network Integrator as well as an N-able MSP partner.

It's great walking into a new business deal knowing you have what it takes, both technically and professionally, to win and grow that account.'

To hone their understanding of N-central and managed services, Infinity engineers and technicians completed courses developed by N-able varsity. 'Of course, there is a certain quantity of learning that takes place outside the University, since every business is different.' spotting that clients' wants also alter, Infinity offers 3 tiers of IT services, ranging from hour-blocks to unlimited, fixed-fee models with active services, asserts Drinkwine. But whatever service level purchasers purchase, Infinity expects its IT services business to resume its strong expansion based on the company's collaboration with N-able and the skillsets Infinity brings.

'For somebody hoping to get into managed services and to have it become part of or the primary focus of their business, N-able does a better job than anyone else out there,' says Drinkwine. 'You may lay our more for it, but as we found out with our first experience in managed services, you get what you pay for. Similarly, we're not the lowest-priced solution supplier in the market but we are able to successfully explain our pricing to our clients.'.

Additional information resources:

Making a Switch From Traditional IT Products and Services to Managed Services Platform
Computer Gallery System Management Case Study

Sonny Rutledge

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