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Break-Fix Customers: Keep Them or Dump Them?
Posted March 18th, 2010 by Paul Barnett
Normally, I like to keep my blogs to advice and tips on how to market and sell managed services. This month, I am going in a different direction. I want to ask you a question that I am unsettled on. I want to hear your opinion and get your thoughts on this. After making the switch to a managed services business model, what do you do with customers who refuse to give up your break-fix services?
A quiet race to recruit managed service providers into associations and user groups continues. The latest example: CompTIA MSP Partners has announced a relationship with PartnerConduit Network, an online community that helps solutions providers to manage collaborative opportunities. Here’s a look at the relationship. Plus, a broader look at the effort to find and recruit MSPs into associations, organizations and user groups.
GreatAmerica Leasing Corp., a U.S. commercial equipment finance company, is making multiple moves to engage managed services providers, managed print experts, and VARs that participate in HTG Peer Groups. Here are some of the emerging details.
I concede: I often blog about the fact that many SaaS applications like Microsoft BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) don’t offer VARs and MSPs enough profit margin opportunity. But I had a rather enlightening conversation yesterday with Next Level Cafe, a managed services provider based in Minnesota. CEO Richard Anderson offered some timely perspective on the true SaaS opportunity. Here it is.
And now for something completely different. Autotask has acquired VARStreet. The move potentially allows VARs and MSPs to have a single dashboard for managing distributor relationships and product sourcing (VARStreet) and IT services automation (Autotask). Here’s some analysis of the deal, the potential implications, and a FastChat video conversation with Autotask CEO Bob Godgart.
Latisys, a colocation and managed services provider, is back on the acquisition track, purchasing a Washington, D.C. area firm that provides a similar set of services. Here are the details.
Call it a small step for the managed services market, but a significant move for the Utility Company. The Master MSP, which works with a range of managed services providers, has attracted $1 million in financing, led by BDC Capital Inc. The Utility Company plans to use the money for a mid-market push, among other things. Here are the details.
As smartphone usage has exploded—up 55% last year in the United States (comScore)—the popularity of push messaging has increased on a parallel track. Messaging gives workers more collaborative power with immediate access to what’s new in their e-mail, contacts, calendar, and social media. Push messaging makes utilizing applications on mobile devices more convenient and consistent—factors that are sure to drive the market even further. But where do MSPs fit into this market trend?
I’ve been promising this story for a few weeks. Here it is, at long last: An Australia managed services provider is acquiring four peer MSPs to form a national managed services provider. One of the MSPs involved in the deal — Tim Brewer from Accord — sat down for a FastChat video interview to explain the deal. Here’s the discussion plus some quick details about the five companies involved.
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