MSPmentor

Before I start, the answer is NO. You can’t afford to ignore that elephant in the room. You’re risking everything that you have established up until now. A fundamental shift is taking place and it can’t be ignored. It’s not a matter as to IF it’s happening, only when it will fully take hold. Tim Shea, CEO of Alpha Netsolutions Inc. recently wrote: “Pretty soon, clients won’t care where a server sits or what brand it is. They will just care that they have the computer services they need—and how much it will cost to have them.” Here are the implications for MSPs.

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While it may seem counter-intuitive to launch a business during a down economy, for IT professionals the worst of times may in fact prove to be the best of times. If you are an IT professional out of work, your chances of finding full-time employment with a vendor or IT services firm are quite narrow. That’s no reflection on your abilities necessarily, but rather an acknowledgment of the realities of the market. What should you do?

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As people who live along the Gulf Coast and Eastern Seaboard know, hurricane season is in full swing. For residents there, checking flashlight batteries and having sheets of plywood ready to cover windows are annual rites. But when a major storm system does loom on the horizon, there’s still an inevitable swirl of commotion as people near the sea head for safer habitats. Perhaps forgotten in concern for personal safety are thoughts of company financial records and business data. While skies and minds are clear, it may be a good time to start a conversation with your customers about their business continuity plans.

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Today as technology providers grapple with a weak economy, anything less than an all-out effort to increase sales — either by attracting new customers or earning additional business from existing clients — is short-sighted. IT Solution Providers need to refocus on becoming sales-driven organizations. You can start by resetting your in-house priorities. Delegate non-demand generating activities to external support specialists by using a virtual help desk. If you don’t offer this service, this is a good time to do so as long as any added cost is tied to added revenue.

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Successful managed service providers understand the basic truisms of technology: Clients just want it to work, so don’t bother them with how it works. Second, technology is the means to an end, which is to support business operations and goals. MSPs who understand these realities also understand the importance of addressing clients’ common IT pain points. Here’s how to get started.

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Last month, I offered you four keys to ongoing managed services success — regardless of the economy. With those previous thoughts in mind, let’s look at new client acquisition in healthcare — which is a ripe opportunity for managed service providers. I’ll even show you how to find leads for healthcare companies that are 10-99 employees in a 50-100 mile radius around your office.

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Many managed service providers talk about good business strategies for the bad economy. I prefer to look at what you can do to increase your chance of success in good times as well as bad. In this blog entry, I offer four tips for ongoing business success — regardless of the economic climate. And in my next blog entry, I’ll take a closer look at a specific vertical market opportunity that’s ideal for managed service providers.

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President-elect Barack Obama will make history when he takes over the White House Jan. 20, and much of the world will be counting on the new U.S. president to revive an economy that has been stalling for at least a year. But how will President Obama impact managed service providers? Here are some thoughts.

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Business continuity is the ability of an organization to continue functioning after an unplanned interruption. Data disaster recovery is an important part of business continuity capabilities.

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If your client base isn’t growing, you can’t be happy and furthermore you’ll find it harder and harder pay the bills. Your support structure should allow you bring on more new clients and less new employees, if you’ve set up your assembly line properly. If you haven’t, that’s a problem that will require much more time to cover.

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We all talk about how difficult it is to grow our sales. Is there a magic bullet? What can you use as a door opener so you can promote your managed services? Let’s focus on what small to medium size businesses (SMB) are looking for.

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