Service level agreements (SLAs): Many MSPs offer them. But do you really have to? And if so, how can you design SLAs that give your customers peace of mind without putting undue stress on your own business. 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.
At first glance, managed services platforms represent the perfect business opportunity for VARs. But take a closer look — and talk to companies like Kaseya and Nimsoft — and you’ll discover a completely different target customer for MSP-centric systems. Here’s the scoop.
I’ve been on the road all week, moderating events in New York, Minneapolis and Boston. Reliable WiFi connections have been critically important to me during this extended road trip. But unfortunately, a lot of big-name hotels and conference centers still don’t understand how to deploy and manage WiFi networks.
Instead of offering WiFi on their own, hotels should leverage managed service providers to set up, maintain and troubleshoot WiFi systems.
The situation is particularly shocking when you consider how many homes now have super-fast, highly reliable WiFi networks. Upscale hotels are supposed to offer all the comforts of home — and more. Yet when I visited the Millennium Hotel Minneapolis, the Hilton New York and the Park Plaza Boston, I was greeted by weak or non-existent WiFi networks.
Here’s why and how things have to change.
First, let me clarify the headline: I’m not pressing a panic button. Cisco’s overall profits and revenues, announced May 6, were impressive. But if you’re a managed service provider, there’s a note of caution: Cisco’s sales to big U.S. service providers were weak this quarter. Here’s why managed service providers should care.
What’s the single biggest threat to managed service providers:
Actually, I think it’s something else. Read More >
Sometimes, managed service providers (MSPs) struggle to scale their business while fulfilling service level agreements (SLAs) with customers. With that challenge in mind, Kaseya has launched Network Operations Center (NOC) Assist, which allows MSPs to leverage Kaseya’s talent pool without hiring more full-time employees.
From where I sit, NOC Assist is part of a bigger trend in the managed services market. From Autotask to ConnectWise, OnForce and Kaseya, many MSP platform providers and IT market places are striving to help MSPs find more talent (through partnerships or vendor relationships) without increasing full-time payroll. Read More >
One of the best presentations on managed services I’ve ever read reached my inbox on April 10. It was sent by Joe Paquet, VP of vendor alliances and relations at Axis Business Solutions, an MSP in Portsmouth, N.H.
Paquet took the time to summarize key learnings from the MSPAlliance’s Managed Services Summit, held earlier this month in Atlanta. Slide after slide, he offers value tips to MSPs that want to get started in the business.
For instance, here are six ways MSPs can effectively acquire customers, according to Axis Business Solutions: Read More >
The move from managed service provider to software as a service (SaaS) can seem intimidating, but the barriers to market entry continue to fall. Each week, yet another company introduces a SaaS framework that you can plug your managed services business into.
Whether it’s Amazon.com’s Simple Storage Service (S3) or Jamcracker’s expanding Service Delivery Network, MSPs have a growing list of cloud-oriented platforms from which to choose. The continued reinvention of Jamcracker is of particular interest to me. Here’s why.
Can one size really fit all in the managed services market? Cisco Systems doesn’t seem to think so. Al Safarikas, Cisco’s senior director of managed services, predicts that the most successful managed service providers will offer mass customization to their customers.
I partially agree with Safarikas, who shared his views through Cisco’s corporate blog. Here’s what he wrote, along with my perspectives.
