The #1 Missed Managed Services Opportunity

By The Business Solutions Network

I recently spoke with several managed services vendors, and I asked them this question: "What's the #1 recurring revenue opportunity that solutions providers miss?" I learned a lot of good information from their answers, but the one answer they all had in common surprised me: BYOD (bring your own device).

Indeed, there is a trend happening right now among your customers where they're trying to figure out the best way to deal with their employees' smart phones, tablets, and other consumer devices that are making their way onto their networks. According to the latest research from Gartner,  90% of companies will support corporate applications on personal mobile devices by 2014. If you've only been focused on managing your customers' PCs, servers, and MFPs (multifunction printers), you're missing a big revenue opportunity.

Where can VARs make their money selling BYOD services? Security is a good place to start. Consider this: Business owners, sales reps, and other employees can potentially generate and save sensitive corporate information on their BlackBerry, iPhone, and Droid device.  You can help protect this information by providing RMM (remote monitoring and management) services whereby your mobile customers' devices are backed up to the cloud when they connect to their corporate networks. Also, if a mobile device is lost or stolen, it can be remotely locked out or wiped clean. This service can be added to your managed services offering, and can be the one thing that separates you from your competitors.