Channel Transitions Midwest Speakers Offer MSPs "Steps To Success"
Executives representing CompTIA, GFI MAX, Mercury, and Worldpay provide guidance to 100+ channel professionals at Chicago conference
Every managed services provider’s (MSP’s) path to success is different, but as speakers at Channel Transitions Midwest, powered by Business Solutions magazine, explained, there are guiding principles and best practices all successful MSPs have in common.
At the event, held October 7 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Chicago-Oak Brook, Brian Sherman of the CompTIA faculty and the principal consultant for Tech Success Communications, presented a keynote that followed the guidance in the CompTIA MSP Partners Community document “Seven Steps to Next-Gen Managed IT Services Success.”
Step 1: Ask Your Customers
Sherman told Channel Transitions Midwest attendees a recent CompTIA survey of its MSP members reveals providing managed services facilitates deeper conversations with customers and the ability to establish yourself as a trusted advisor. He advises MSPs to talk to their customers, find out what they need as well as where they are now and what is included in their business plans. He adds that these conversations can help end users manage risks and costs — another factor that can contribute to your role as a trusted advisor.
Nadia Karatsoreos agreed during her presentation representing event platinum sponsor GFI MAX: “We want your customer to see you as a virtual CIO.” She reminds MSPs that their clients want the focus to be their businesses — going beyond maintaining the technology needed to accomplish their goals: “Your customer wants the best tools and best technology. You can offer this, and your customers don’t need to worry about it because they trust you.” Karatsoreos says the virtual CIO role evolves as you balance the necessity to provide service that is consistent with flexibility as technology changes. She says best practices that contribute to the role of virtual CIO include automating processes, educating yourself and your team on the technology market and your customers’ markets, and remembering “nothing is a positive or a negative. Everything should be looked at as an opportunity.”
Step 2: Invest In People, Process
Sherman says another critical step toward MSP success is creating the right team. “It’s the biggest resource and the biggest challenge in the channel among people I’ve talked to,” he says. As solutions providers transition from the break-fix business model to providing managed services, Sherman says they will be faced with the decision to train existing staff members or to hire new staff members. He says when making decisions about your staff, take into account who your clients are — does your team have the skills and resources to support your clients and the ability to scale with clients to provide services to multiple offices in different locations?
This analysis could lead to a decision to make an investment in your team. Sherman suggests providing opportunities for cross training, study, and certification, and points out, “If you are not investing in your employees, you are going to lose them anyway.” He adds, to combat employee burnout, “Make sure you empower your employees to make a difference, to provide feedback back to you … Do whatever you can to show your appreciation. Make sure employees are getting out of work what they expect.”
Step 3: Partner To Extend Services
Successful MSPs establish successful partnerships. In his presentation representing event platinum sponsor Mercury, Randy Clark, said, “Picking the right strategy and the right partner is really important.” Partnering can enable MSPs to build their competencies without adding staff or in-house resources.
Sherman advises, however, when partnering with other MSPs or VARs, to make sure agreements spell out that you are the lead — and suggests checking these agreements with legal counsel. He encourages MSPs not to avoid partnerships for fear of competition but to remain in control. If your customer needs a service you don’t provide “don’t force your customer to go out and find partners for you,” Sherman warned.
Step 4: Rethink Pricing
Karatsoreos, citing the CompTIA survey, points out that, unlike the early days of managed services when MSPs charged on a device basis, this is now the least used pricing model. Most now base pricing on user consumption or flat-fee per user pricing.
CompTIA’s “Seven Steps” document says the shift is due to factors such as per device pricing leading to “price wars” with competing MSPs, the management required for devices like tablets and smartphones, and virtual services based on consumption.
Step 5: Minimize Surprises
The CompTIA document also points out the importance of a well-defined onboarding process for new clients to ensure healthy networks when managed services are applied. Sherman advises, “Every process you have should be documented.” He says new customer training is also crucial. The paper provides an example of a company that provides a support package that includes training and consulting. This not only ensures the customer’s staff has the information it needs to fully leverage the technology you provide, it also minimizes unexpected downtime and costs.
Step 6: Make Your Services Stick
Understanding your clients’ businesses can develop a stickier relationship. As the CompTIA paper says in Step 6, “Essentially, service providers should aim to intertwine themselves in the customer’s business as much as possible. And that stickiness factor goes beyond an MSP’s own technology or service.”
In his presentation representing event platinum sponsor Worldpay, Chester Ritchie gives the example of retail IT solutions providers helping their customers transition to EMV-enabled payments.
EMV is the global standard for payment card acceptance that leverages chip card technology. In October 2015, liability for transactions made with counterfeit cards will shift to acquirers and merchants — and the least compliant party will be responsible for covering the full cost of the fraudulent transaction.
“EMV is a huge opportunity,” says Ritchie, adding growing demand for mobile payments and growing concern over data security are also fueling merchants’ migration to EMV.
Both Ritchie and Clark stress that customers facing a requirement to implement new technology can translate to opportunities for recurring revenue for managed services providers.
Step 7: Make The Commitment
Sherman’s challenge to Channel Transitions Midwest attendees was to assess their businesses and to look at the balance between projects and managed services. “What’s important in your business — that’s up to you to decide.”
He also encourages MSPs and those beginning to provide managed services to consider CompTIA’s managed services accreditation for solutions providers.
For more information on Channel Transitions VAR/MSP Executive Conferences that focus on helping VARs transitioning from break-fix to the as-a-Service business model, visit www.BSMinfo.com/go/ChannelTransitions.
Channel Transitions is sponsored by: Platinum Sponsors GFI MAX, Mercury, and Worldpay, Gold Sponsors F-Secure, RapidFire Tools, and CloudFounders, and Networking Sponsor Autotask, along with industry association partners CompTIA, The ASCII Group, and the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA).