The economy has shaken our country to its core. More jobs were lost that will never come back. So as the country re-shapes itself, businesses are also reforming and transforming the business landscape. Part of this reformation is how technology is deployed, managed and maintained.

The new managed service provider has to expand and reform themselves if they are going to profit in the new age. Part of this transition is adding mobility and more bang for the buck. More flexibility in the data spaces and much better availability are also keys to our growth. If we can re-shape and re-engineer what technology comes out, we have opportunities to reform the way IT is done.

One major growth area is in the medium size businesses that have traditionally been an onsite scenario. With the cloud offerings maturing, we see the possibility of hosting line of business apps that have not been an option before. The explosion of personal devices also adds to the push of anytime, anywhere accessibility needs which clouds can contribute to. Ultimately it is our creativity and position as trusted advisor that will propel the MSP into the next wave of success.

Of all the business ventures and industries I have had the pleasure of working in, it is the managed service provider arena that has given me the most satisfaction. Putting business and technology together into a fine running machine is what it’s all about.

I can be reached at djames59@yahoo.com

In your message monitoring system, you will generally be sending out alerts to mobile device users via text messaging when an error occurs. As mentioned above, it’s easy to send out a text message through email software, and the assumption here is that all your on-call resources are reachable through text messages on their mobile phones. However, there are a number of management issues you should consider as you configure your notification system. Among these issues are:

• Who are your responders? Do you have a list of defined responders who will be responsible for ensuring all issues are resolved? What compensation are you offering them for responding to off-hours system issues? What procedure will they follow when they receive an alert? What happens if the off-hours responder doesn’t receive the alert because of mobile device issues, such as a dead battery, out of cell phone range, etc.?

• Do you have a responder rotation? If you have more than one off-hours responder, do you have a published schedule for who’s on duty each night? Is your software set up to follow the schedule and only send to the on-call person or does everyone get the alerts regardless of whether they are on duty that night or not? How do you handle vacations or business travel when the scheduled off-hours responder may not be available?

• Do the responders have mobile devices they can carry with them and is your company handling the cost of the mobile device? If you’re requiring people to drop everything and answer a call, do they at least have the required company equipment to do the job? Are they aware that they will have to answer the call whenever they are on duty?

• Do you have a call tree? If the off-hours responder can’t resolve the issue, what escalation procedure should he follow and who should he call? Have you defined your subject matter experts (SMEs) who need to resolve certain types of issues, such as ERP system errors, hardware errors, Web site errors, etc.? What happens if the designated SME isn’t available? A negotiated and published call tree can alleviate many of these issues.

In my experience, these issues can be just as tricky as the software configuration. You need to carefully define your call trees and ensure that everyone knows what needs to done in case of a problem. Nobody likes to be on-call during off-hours, so proceed carefully and make sure your responders are taken care of in some way, shape, or form for their trouble.

So you’re the top guy. Everyone is starting to come to you for technology advice and solutions. Seems there isn’t enough time in the day to get everything done. The truth is there isn’t, and if you’re going to grow, you must learn to move out of the puppy love into more mature relationships. Sure it feels good to be wanted, it’s what we all strive for, but if you can’t take it to the next level you will be the self-employed, not the business owner.

The clients are used to you being their trusted advisor. They want to talk to you. They want to see you. They want to tell you about their business. That is the monster you created. Now you must teach them that you are a company. This is a slow methodical process that should have a plan to it. Each situation is different. For some, they already view you as a business and have no problem with talking to Joe the engineer. Others will fight all the way.

You may find some clients, especially the first clients you acquired, will never want to deal with the company. You might just have to fire them and make a plan to replace them with new clients that are sold on your company not you. Do not keep those 3 clients who refuse to accept your new way of life they will only slow you down. Not everyone wants to grow up with you. Growing up is never easy, in business or life, but it’s pretty much the same.

I can be reached at djames59@yahoo.com

Most of us have the technology part down pretty good. What can cause problems is when we hire people to help us. As we grow our business, learning how to manage and put people to task, is a learned skill and the first step, is knowing how we spend our week.

Write down what you do on a daily basis. Whether its billing, tech, or marketing, we have to get an idea of what we want to delegate. Once you figure out how much time you spend on each, you can make a plan to replace you in those hours, to free you up to do more. If you spend 25 hours doing tech work, then make a plan to replace you.

If it’s too complicated then make procedures to follow. You can’t replace you, unless you have a way to replicate what you do. If you create step by step procedures for the person to follow, it will be easier to put someone in your place. If you can’t make it something you can teach someone else to do, you will never grow your business. You will just be self employed and always running from here to there with long hours.

Imagine the professional race car driver. If he spent all his time fixing the race car, he would never be able to practice driving. He would always be doing everything and nothing really well. That’s why you must focus on what you do well and hire others to make the team. Being the best requires you to focus on your core skills. Hiring others is just part of filling in the team.

Now when you hire others, you don’t get all that time back. You have to anticipate some time for managing. So if you hired a tech and he took 25 hours away, you will have about 20 of those as available time to do more. Perhaps you will now do more tech work. That’s really all it takes to build your business. Add some passion and tenacity to the plan and you will next have to worry about going public with the whole thing, good luck.

I can be reached at djames59@yahoo.com

I’m not sure I can cover this in one entry, but I don’t want to bore you guru’s who stop by to read me, so I will just skirt the issue and make it interesting. I learned the value of monthly billable from my previous life as owner of an environmental company. We were doing gas station remediation systems and although the margin for the install was great, I found it much more so when we opted to include the monthly operation & maintenance plan. So I gradually phased out all project work and targeted the O&M market directly.

Same goes here with the SMB computer systems management market. The overhead of a project and break/fix shop can be heavy and with the ability to create business processes that are measurable and predictable you can create better margins. And we all want better margins right? Reminds me of the Capital One commercial where he offers 50% more cash and the baby says “no”. The more predictable the business the more you can create automated responses, and that gives you more cash, not sure about the double points thing, ask Capital One.

So get to the point already, ya, I know. You have to create a mind change in the decision maker. The only way someone moves from break/fix to monthly fixed is if they feel the win for themselves. An example might be that you total up the years costs and offer to do managed services for 15% less, capping his costs and saving him. I opted for a planned education of the potential client by way of mailers and email newsletters. Sometimes you will hit a client at an extreme pain point and find them eager to sign on, especially after that $5000 dollar repair bill on the exchange server.

Ultimately it starts with your own strategy and from there you plot your course. There are many ways to get to recurring revenue and it can take any number of forms. One successful person I know just outsources everything and collects the difference. He is a salesman, he stuck with his core competency and hired others to do the rest. Start with your top clients. Chances are there will be room to negotiate the price and SLA so you won’t lose money. Cut your teeth on learning how to service them within a budgeted amount of resources. This will start the structure for your processes and teach you what needs to be done. I can always be reached at darrenjvalukis@gmail.com

Darn, I was looking to buy them. Oh well, you snooze you lose. So let’s be paranoid about the whole thing and see if we can’t picture world domination for Dell. Or at least think about what it means to us channelnauts.

Dell’s acquisition picture over the last 2 years has spoken of diversification on the surface, which is a normal thing when you have some cash and most of your eggs are in one basket. Dell is doing what we should be doing as well. Once you are in as the “trusted advisor”, it would be extremely profitable, smart, logical for you to be able to sell and service all their needs.

See, in the very near future as the cloud and “everything as a service” model takes over, anyone who has a foot in the door could possibly take your eggs and you are left with dry toast. As much as you need to focus on your core competencies, you need to protect that trusted advisor role by diversifying to include any area that might threaten that position. I certainly don’t believe my cable company can come close to providing the IT consultancy I do, but I am not going to be assured they won’t try.

Brad Sugars, creator of Action Coach business coaching said it best, “Every day someone is trying to steal your clients, act accordingly.” I once took a survey asking my clients how many IT companies contacted them on a weekly basis, it was alarming.

Although I missed buying SonicWall for myself I am still aware of my need to protect my trusted advisor status. Maybe WatchGuard is available for cheap. I can always be reached at darrenjvalukis@gmail.com

I’m going to focus on what most MSP’s have as their bread and butter, the 5 to 50 user client. If you are one of those providers that handle the big guys go read my friend Joe over at MSPmentor he’s got news for you. I know someday he’ll plug me. Anyways, as I was saying, let’s talk about mom and pop and cloudy days ahead.

I’ve been putting long nights into this subject. The first thought is, “is there a solution for the small client?” The answer is yes and no. Storage for files and backups are part of it, but can we complete the whole deal and sell them an infrastructure, complete with desktops and applications? I surfed until 3am just on Virtual Desktop options and only got 4 pages in. There is a few I can see that might work. There are some vendors offering the whole deal, storage and desktops with email. The work that has to be done is the how much and why.

I think there are some margins in there, so far not much. We have to replace enough of the existing costs and problems so it adds up, so to speak. Now there will be situations where mobility and perhaps a growth period in their business that might force them to look at the new offers. Overall if we are going to move mom off her small business server in-house, we must have compelling data that either will save money or increase productivity. As I had mentioned in a previous blog, you are going to make your days pay as their trusted advisor. You may start thinking about a small fee based on numbers of users that represents your “management”.

Here’s the kicker, we remove the onsite except workstations, lose the server monthly maintenance then try and tack on what could be a larger amount then they were paying and you now also have to share that with your cloud vendor. Sounds like a loss in revenue to me. I hope you didn’t come here looking for answers. If I get this all figured out where costs are manageable and margins are better than in-house, I will post it, maybe.

For now, you are still on your own.
I can always be reached at darrenjvalukis@gmail.com

There were a few people talking about flat rate computer support. Mostly it was about trial and error, mostly error. Gary Pica and a couple others were filling the web sphere with claims of accomplishments. Even reading between the lines it was still hard to put some sort of business model together from what everyone was saying. So I headed out into the desert with just a compass and water.

Since I had been in business before, I had certain rules. One of those rules was, if I couldn’t make at least 33% margin, I would stay home. So not knowing how I was going to do this I doubled it. I figured that left plenty of room to make mistakes and not end up handing my house over to some banker. Plus, I love challenges. Total overhead of only 34% of revenue? Like I said, I’m glad no one told me otherwise.

I did end up where I wanted to be at around 30%. Certainly starting at such a low number helped. I think if I had started at 30 I would have ended up at 6%. Starting from scratch as a Managed Service Provider was the key. All my processes were based on managing the client’s environment at a certain level of total revenue for that client. Each client based upon the amount of revenue, received that amount of service. As I added staff the goal was always to perform within those boundaries without fail. There was no room for messy networks or sloppy repair.

Accept nothing but the best from your team. Set those expectations with your employees and also set the expectations of the customer. Something like, “the less you see us, the better off you are” is a start. Always tell the client what they need. Two halves of the success in managed services is right in the name, manage the service. Managing the customer’s expectation is the other half. In the end, it’s your goals that guide the ship.

I can always be reached at darrenjvalukis@gmail.com