Forgive me for the following rant, but it has been building inside of me for about a month. Our Ask A Mentor service receives numerous reader questions each week. But the one I see over and over again reads as follows: “We are considering remote monitoring and management software from vendor A, vendor B and vendor C. Which one do you recommend?” Here’s my standard answer…
“I apologize, but you’re asking the wrong person the wrong question.”
As MSPmentor approaches two years in the market, I’m still stunned by the number of people who get completely distracted by the tool selection process. No doubt, selecting the most appropriate RMM (remote monitoring and management) and PSA (professional services automation) solutions is a critical step for your business.
But don’t choose a tool based on what a blogger says. Instead, choose the tool based on your company’s first-hand experience testing the tool. It’s like buying a house or like buying a car: You need to tour the house — multiple times. You need to test drive the car — multiple times. Generally speaking, RMM and PSA software providers are eager to help you test their software.
Now here’s my most important point: Your success (or failure) as an MSP is a business conversation, not a tool conversation. Executive leadership. Sales. Marketing. Lead generation. Customer support. You need to master all the basics of business to succeed as an MSP. Even the best managed services tools can’t help you overcome lousy business leadership.
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Posted In: On Premise | Professional Services Automation (PSA) | Remote Monitoring & Management Software | Software as a Service and Hardware as a Service
Tags: managed services platforms | professional services automation tools | PSA platforms | Remote monitoring and management tools | RMM platforms
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Thank you for writing this! As a PSA software provider (http://www.coreconnex.com) we talk to people all the time who are wanting to know features and benefits of our software, but great decisions are made when business owners ask themselves the right question during this purchase decision – here are three good ones;
1. What business stage are we in? The PSA system you choose should enable your business to take the next step and grow as your business evolves.
2. How and when do I want to deploy the system? Integrating a PSA system into your business impacts clients, engineering staff and management even if one or two people play multiple roles in your business.
3. What system(s) do we currently use and how will the PSA we choose work with those systems? A planned out trasition to the new system is (should be) a requirement when making this purchase.
Why Good Systems Fail might also be something your readers may want to take a quick look at – http://www.coreconnex.com/2009/05/06/why-do-good-systems-fail
Tony: Thanks for continuing the dialog. I feel better now that I’ve ranted just a bit.
Joe,
I think how you run your business is more important than the tools you choose. If you don’t have an operations, marketing, and sales plan in place, it doesn’t matter what tool you choose. Focus on these things first and then choose the tools that address those plans. Most guys get it backwards.
Paul Barnett
Marketing Director
Virtual Administrator
Joe -
Tony, Paul and you are right on point. The “stuff” is really just the beginning of a vendor evaluation. A product evaluation is a must. But, support and services sustain winning vendor relationships. Does the vendor consistently demonstrate that they understand businesses like yours in the way they deliver products and services? How much does the vendor invest in creating effective training content? Is there an active user community that works effectively with the vendor and each other? Does the vendor have a culture that fits your company’s operating style?
You’re right: there is no magic pill that a vendor delivers that makes a poor operation run better. What we can do is provide the automation, education and support to help a motivated company make the right moves.
Santo Cannone
ConnectWise
Here is my recommendation. Take all of the RMM vendors that you are looking at, write each name on a piece of paper, tack them to the wall in a circular fashion (picture dartboard) and then throw a dart and which vendor it lands on is the one you move forward with.
Then focus on the important tasks of how you are actually going to deliver managed services to your customers.
I got this story from one of my partners that used this to help them to decide what RMM tool they went with and have used this analogy ever since. It pretty much sums up what we tell all of our partners.
“It’s not the tool it’s the people and the process that make a managed services solution work.”
Lane Smith
Do IT Smarter
Absolutely right! You must have processes in place BEFORE you select a tool. The analogy I like to use is a carpenter isn’t a carpenter because he buys a table saw. He knows how to build whatever he wants to make whether he uses hand tools, power tools, or higher speed/higher capacity tools… i.e. he can build a cabinet without a table saw, but the table saw will make him more efficient.
It is important to test the tools against your own internal processes. A tool that works for one person’s needs may not work for your needs… But you have to have your own processes/goals/objectives ironed out BEFORE you test a software platform… Never let the tool determine what you are able to do… Make sure the tool fulfills what your demands are.
I’d suggest away from throwing darts as a business-building strategy. I agree with Joe, Paul, Jason,… decide your direction, and then pick the tools. Tools vary, some subtle, some dramatic. The wrong tools can constrain your business, so due diligence is critical to find the tools that best conform to your goals.
Ken, sounds like a vendors perspective! If I had suggested that Nimsoft be at the center and much larger would you have agreed with me a bit more?
I agree with everyone’s post but the same problems still remain. Most Service Providers cannot develope a proper MSP plan. If they knew how to be an MSP they would have done so years ago. Service Providers need to find someone that will help them make the transition to be an MSP. If the technology you purchase does not have the business piece to its solution save your money. Look for a Business Solution and Technology Solution all in one. If all technologies are equal then find someone with a business component to their program who will help you move your licensing off the shelf.
I just have to say AMEN Joe! You’ve read my mind. Keep in mind the REASON that MSPs are tool focused is because so many are started by engineers, techies, geeks. I don’t use those labels in a malicious way either, but those are the people most concerned about tools. As an MSP matures its sees the tools as secondary and the business basics as the fundamentals.
Lane, so funny!! How about we go with a thumbtack analogy instead of dart throwing? This way the selected tool is not left to chance (I’ve seen persons miss the dart board completely)! But still, business first, then thumbtack the right tool.
As the old tech saying goes… garbage in = garbage out.
Most software tools have been designed to utilize a best practice way of doing things and put structure into that business process. Buying a tool of any kind (RMM, PSA, Accounting, etc) is not going to automatically make things run smoother and apply that structure if you have an unorganized mess and try to just dump it into a system.
So having a process in place that you want to automate or consolidate efforts on is a must. As Jason said, if you don’t know how to efficiently build a cabinet with a step by step process, a new latest and greatest saw is not going to make it happen for you. Not anymore than buying a $50k car with all kinds of bells and whistles is going to make you a better driver.
Once you have systms and processes in place that make sense to your business goals (both internal goals and goals in providing for clients), then you determine the type of tool to fit what you are doing. Now you can take your test drives of vendors as well as their tools.
You can’t be a trusted advisor to your clients in solving their business problems if you don’t understand the basics iside of your own business. A new piece of software isn’t the answer. And which one to use isn’t the first question to ask either.
George Sierchio
Action Business Partners
Marco,
That is where the Master MSP model comes in to play. We have already built MSP businesses and are now helping others do the same. Check out my company, Do IT Smarter, http://www.doitsmarter.com also take a look at:
Virtual Administrator, http://www.virtualadministrator.com – their TAP program is excellent.
or
Transformation Strategies – http://www.transstrat.com – Not a Master MSP but Dave and his team have all built MSP’s.
Sorry I’ve been so quiet on this comment trail. I’m learning quite a bit from the comments. But I’m silent because I was able to vent most of my frustration in the original blog entry. I’m feeling better now. Thanks for the group therapy.
Thanks Lane,
I like the N-able model. Dedicated rep that works with you to build programs and the best technology.
Mr. Panettieri,
A mentor must often address difficult questions of those he leads. I think you did a good job in this post of addressing the question asked by many of those who chose to “ask a mentor”. The question also identifies a challenge we face in our industry – education. Many of those asking the questions get their answers from vendors. I believe MSPmentor (and “ask a mentor”) are vendor neutral and offers from time to time opinions regarding those things MSP-related. What better place to ask that question and get the fine answer you supplied (as well as a little education). Maybe you could have even done it, without the rant. Keep up the good work.
benb
Benb:
Please call me Joe.
Thanks for the note. But I have to concede one thing that has always bothered me about the media industry: I don’t believe any information resource (journalists, bloggers, media companies, associations) can be fully vendor neutral.
By the very nature of the job, I need to speak with vendors constantly to hear about their strategies, missions, etc. Those conversations certainly influence our coverage. But hopefully from there, our coverage offers responsible, timely coverage. And an open forum where readers can weigh in, debate and collaborate.
At the end of the day my job is pretty simple: I repeat what I hear and throw in some personal observations. That’s a pretty cool job. But the job goes from good to great when readers weigh in with comments.
Thanks again for reading,
-jp
While I certainly agree with the general concensus that business questions have to be answered first, the tool selection is an incredibly important second step and as such any and all advice by people in the industry should be considered. I would like to give two examples where I believe such additional information by industry insiders could play a big part in the selection process:
1. When our company, Space Age Technologies, first ventured into the MSP market in 2001, there were no real tools we could buy and we were forced to develop our own solution. When the time came to augment our home-grown solution with third-party RMM tools, we did our home-work, tested all the tools extensively and then decided to build our business on Microsoft Remote Operations Manager. An absolutely awesome product with massive potential and since the name Microsoft was behind the product, we thought that this would be a safe bet. What went wrong, however, is that nobody told us that Microsoft had no real intentions to strongly go into the MSP software market and we landed up making a wrong decision (Microsoft officially withdrew the product less than a year ago). We lost more than two years of integration and development time in the process…
2. Even when extensively testing a product, it is still possible to be led astray by vendor marketing or just a lack of own first-hand knowledge. During the first install, almost any product looks amazing. Even after a few weeks, a product might still look good enough to pursuade somebody to make a purchasing decision (lets face it: who really has time these days to build a fully functioning business solution with all the bells and whistles before deciding to buy). It is only when the product has been purchased and the difficult task of integrating it into business processes starts, that the real problems often become visible. Advice by other businesses with similar ambitions and structures (even if raised by “our resident blogger”) could come in very handy to avoid nasty surprises after the purchase (again, our company has made many such mistakes that could have easibly been avoided).
To summarise, since RMM and PSA tools become the “heart” of a company around which the future will be built, a wrong choice can be incredibly limiting. So, while no business should take the advice of a “blogger” at face value without doing their own research, the opinion of such a person is nevertheless incredibly valuable and could just point one in a direction never considered before.
Mark Geschke
Managing Director
Space Age Technologies
(Sorry for the long post, but I feel strongly about this: the technical selection of the correct RMM/PSA tool IS incredibly important!)