Your sales team knows how to sell IT solutions. But they’ve never evangelized managed services to your existing and target customers. Further complicating matters, your sales team is worried about their compensation under a managed services model. Get Started: Register to enter our Resource Center, where you’ll be able to download numerous guides to building and running your managed services business. And check back often. We post new guides in the MSPmentor Resource Center every week.
When Cisco Systems (CSCO) delivered relatively strong Q2 2012 financial results earlier today, the numbers revealed the networking giant has successfully cut costs while restoring top-line revenue and net income growth. Listen closely and you may even hear CEO John Chambers suggest Cisco is taking share from rival Juniper Networks (JNPR) in the service provider market. Here’s the chatter.
MSP pricing — how much to charge for proactive managed services — has always been a hotly debated topic. Now, some answers: Managed services providers (MSPs), on average, are charging about $52 per desktop and $216 per server for monthly support and maintenance. The stats are from a Kaseya MSP Global Pricing Survey that I (finally) spotted. Here’s a closer look at the numbers.
Things have shifted a bit this week on our MSPmentor Job Board. The usual openings for technicians and support personnel have been replaced by MSPs looking for business development, marketing, sales and SEO experts.
I’m now convinced that all IT service providers — MSPs, VARs, resellers — need quoting and sales proposals software. Ironically, I reached that conclusion while researching a potential home improvement project. Here’s the back story, and how it shaped my views back in the managed services providers.
Small and midsize businesses can be a fickle bunch. Anyone who spends any time working with entrepreneurial businesses knows they tend to be extremely sensitive to market fluctuations and often dramatically change strategy and positioning with little advance notice. But what if MSPs could gain some insight into the kinds of IT investments SMBs are planning for the rest of 2012?
If a customer doesn’t see the business value in what you do, your services are expendable. It’s a harsh reality, but one that we all face. As an MSP, the challenge lies in communicating your customer value day-in and day-out. For most, promoting value at the front end of the sale to earn the customer’s business comes easy. But once the ink dries, many MSPs turn the focus to meeting the SLA (service level agreement) and recognizing the recurring revenue. The selling stops. The relationship is managed, but is the business still being earned and relationship nurtured?
The essence of all technology lies in coding, yet it has become an overlooked part of the IT management process. While crack coders were stars of the tech world in the 1980s and early 90s, by the mid-90s industry attention had shifted more toward whiz-bang end results and away from the lines of 0s and 1s that make those results happen. When coders do get attention, it is usually for the wrong reasons, such as major hacking attacks or systems failures.
MSPmentor 100 companies, representing the world’s top managed services providers, grew their recurring annual revenues to $1.04 billion in 2011, up 28 percent from 2010. Here’s a preliminary look at our fifth-annual MSPmentor 100 survey results.
Tigerpaw Software, the business automation and service management software provider, is calling on its satisfied customers to help take sales viral. To with the company has launched a Tigerpaw Customer Referral Program to give existing customers — typically VARs, MSPs and telco resellers — a little added incentive.
It’s not quite an earnings release, but N-able Technologies has offered some anecdotal information to describe the company’s continued momentum in the managed services software market — including key MSP milestones outside of North America.
BrightGauge believes it has built an easier way for managed services providers (MSPs) to create and deliver performance reports to customers. BrightGauge’s cloud-based application, championed by Eric and Brian Dosal (pictured), involves a five-step process to generate customer reports. Here’s an overview.
Managed service providers considering a shift into cloud services are faced with a number of considerations: What should I offer? How much do I need to lay out in infrastructure costs? How can I get the word out? Each of those three questions demand answers that, if incorrect, could severely impact an MSP’s success.
As the New Year approaches, we’re looking back at the most read managed services stories of 2011. Yesterday, we recapped the 10 most read MSP news stories from Q1, 2011. Now, let’s look at the most read MSP stories from Q2, 2011 and their implications for managed services providers.
Before MSPmentor marches forward with you into 2012, we’re spending this week looking back at the most read managed services stories of 2011. Let’s get started: Here’s a look at the most read MSP stories from Q1, 2011 and their implications for managed services providers.
Here’s one final call for technology professionals in 2011: The MSPmentor Job Board has new career opportunities for you to consider. So whether you’re a technical engineer, sales representative, or have an interest in leading the business side of a managed services provider (MSP), the MSPmentor Job Board has something for everyone. Make a New Year’s resolution to explore new career opportunities.
At the start of 2011, masterIT CEO Michael Drake challenged his team with a monthly recurring revenue (MRR) target. Hit or exceed the target, Drake said, and masterIT would take its employees and their spouses/significant others on an expenses-paid trip to Jamaica. So what was the outcome?
The MSPmentor Job Board has several new opportunities listed — even as managed service providers and solution providers prep their operations for the Holiday hiatus. Also, many of the job opportunities that became available last week and weeks prior still stand, so check out what the Job Board has to offer before you shutdown your smartphone, tablet, desktop and laptop for some Holiday festivities.
Aspire Technologies Inc., which develops QuoteWerks sales proposal and quoting software for VARs and MSPs, is wrapping up its “best year ever,” according to President John Lewe (pictured). Looking ahead to 2012, it sounds like QuoteWerks will place a larger spotlight on QuoteValet — an online quote delivery and acceptance platform that creates a personalized Web page for customers. Here’s the background.
Every once in a while we hear about partnerships between two IT companies that have nothing to do with technology, yet those partnerships leave a lasting impression on the technology space at large. Such is the case with IT services vendor NetEnrich and solution provider Heartland Technology Solutions, which have paired to help out the victims of the devastating tornado that hit the Joplin, Mo., area in May 2011.
Many managed services providers continue to hurt themselves with poor pricing practices and lack of price integrity, according to a new 2112 Group research report sponsored by N-able Technologies and NetEnrich. Generally speaking, MSPmentor believes the report’s conclusion is on the mark.
Here’s a quick question: Would you sell your managed services provider business for 10 to 12 times EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization)? In other words, if your earnings were about $200,000 in 2011, would you sell your MSP business for $2 million to $2.4 million? Before you answer consider this update from Mike Jones, CEO of ETG, one of North America’s top MSPs serving the health care vertical. Jones recently reached an intriguing decision.
Thousands of managed services providers (MSPs) are striving to build profitable sales strategies. But very often, MSPs don’t realize the key responsibilities that their business development and sales leaders must manage. With that in mind, here are 15 key responsibilities that profit center employees — CEOs, sales leaders, business development leaders, etc. — must oversee.
Join the Channel Expert Hour webcast, hosted by MSPmentor, today at 2:00 p.m. eastern. The topic: Five best practices for MSPs that are selling cloud services. We’ve got three dynamic, expert speakers confirmed to speak on today’s Webcast. They include Savvis VP Martin Capurro, Mycroft CISO Liz Mann, and CA Technologies Senior Advisor Wendy Petty (CA is the event’s sponsor). We’ll take your questions throughout the webcast.
