MSPmentor

The MSPmentor team just returned from Juniper’s first-ever global partner conference. Next up, we’ll be attending a private CA Technologies gathering of MSPs in Miami. But in the meantime, here are seven managed services blogs and MSP news stories the MSPmentor team didn’t have a chance to write for the week ending January 20, 2012.

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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?

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How do you explain the following: masterIT, a managed services provider in Tennessee, recently told me annual revenues are on track to grow 30 percent this year. And Rackspace‘s CEO yesterday said business demand for cloud services is insatiable. Yet Wall Street and foreign markets have tumbled amid growing debt fears in the U.S. and Europe. So what’s the real economic outlook for MSPs and cloud services providers (CSPs)? I have some hopeful, educated guesses…

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So much for a summer break here in North America. The channel conference machine is preparing to rev its engine again. Some MSPmentor readers are hitting the road over the next few weeks — surfacing at CompTIA Breakaway, HostingCon, VMworld and XChange, among other destinations. But before you head to your local airport here are seven managed services blogs that MSPmentor didn’t have time to write for the week ending July 29, 2011.

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According to AMI Partners, U.S. SMBs with fewer than 100 employees are expected to spend $36 billion on marketing in 2012, up 4 percent from 2011. Now here’s the big question: Are managed services providers (MSPs) also increasing their marketing dollars? And if so, where should MSPs focus their marketing efforts? Here are some educated guesses.

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Picture this: At the recent TruMethods Schnizzfest conference, managed services providers like masterIT said annual revenues were growing roughly 30 percent. And at the recent Ingram Micro Cloud Summit, scores of MSPs expressed optimism about their growth prospects. Meanwhile, U.S. financial markets have declined for six consecutive weeks. And there are growing fears on Wall Street that the U.S. economy is heading for a double-dip recession. What’s an MSP to do? Here are some clues.

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Within the SMB managed services market a multi-year debate has been raging: Should managed services providers develop price-per-user or price-per-device business models for MRR (monthly recurring revenues)? I heard a surprising answer to that debate during the recent TruMethods Schnizzfest event in Philadelphia, Pa. Here’s the answer and the background.

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Three top managed services executives are discussing sales strategies during a TruMethods SchnizzFest conference panel here in Philadelphia. The experts: Moderator Gary Pica interviewing masterIT CEO Michael Drake, Spade Technology CEO Myles Keough and ActiveCo President James Ford (pictured, left to right). So, what are their sales-driven recommendations? Here’s the update.

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I’m heading to TruMethods Schnizzfest — a conference that will attract roughly 150 MSPs — later today. As you may recall, TruMethods is a consulting firm that helps MSPs with sales and business development. But off stage I’ll be poking around and asking at least five key questions about the managed services industry. Here they are…

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A growing number of MSPs seem to be reaching the following conclusion: Maybe running a successful lifestyle business isn’t so bad after all. Indeed, earlier this decade thousands of VARs jumped into the managed services market with a common goal: Automate operations, drive recurring revenues, and vastly increase the value of their businesses. In some cases the goals are now changing. Some MSPs are deciding it’s time to focus on highly profitable lifestyle businesses rather than hyper-growth, high-valuation dreams. Here’s why.

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For the first time in a long time, I suspect the entire Nine Lives Media Inc. team plans to unplug for a 3-day weekend. Of course, we’ll be back online if there’s any breaking news. In the meantime, here are seven managed services blog entries MSPmentor’s team didn’t have a chance to write for the week ending Sept. 3, 2010.

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So, you’re a managed services provider looking for some key sales, financial and business insights. By all means: Keep coming to MSPmentor. But I also need to tip my hat. In recent days, the team over at SMB IT Pros has delivered some compelling content and guidance for MSPs. Here’s a look at what they’ve been up to…

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Everon Technology Services, a managed service provider that lands regularly on the Inc. 5000 and MSPmentor 100 lists, is starting to target the hardware as a service (HaaS) market. Everon’s HaaS move is important for at least two reasons. First, it leverages a relationship with CharTec. Second, Everon is savvy when it comes to marketing and end-customer education. So Everon’s efforts and learnings could help accelerate the HaaS industry. Here’s a bit more background.

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During the ConnectWise Partner Summit, MSPmentor sat down with a range of managed services experts. In the following MSPmentor FastChat videos, we covered such topics as hardware as a service (HaaS), MSP-to-MSP collaboration, sales and business development, online marketing for MSPs and email security. Here are six FastChat videos with a range of MSP industry experts…

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Zetta, an enterprise-level cloud storage service available to managed service providers and VARs, finally leaves a long closed beta phase and becomes available to the channel at large today. Sure, online storage is an increasingly crowded market, but Zetta claims to have licked a few challenges that plague their peers. Here’s how.

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At a time when roughly 10 percent of North American MSPs are falling off the map, masterIT is on pace to have its most profitable year ever, according to Chairman and CEO J. Michael Drake. As part of our ongoing look at MSPmentor 100 companies, here’s an update on masterIT’s evolving business — including a strategy that gives customers 90 days to get hooked on managed services.

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When I visited mindSHIFT (a prominent managed service provider) on August 14, I quickly discovered the company measures everything. Pushing far beyond revenues, operating income and net income, mindSHIFT offered me a range of statistics culled from the company’s business operations. Here’s a look at some key performance milestones at mindSHIFT, and the bigger-picture implications for rival MSPs.

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Sometimes I get so tied up talking technology, I forget that managed service providers also like to talk about business basics — including public relations (PR) strategies. That was the case last week, when MSPs started asking me for some basic PR and social networking techniques during the Ingram Micro Seismic Partner Conference in Dallas. Here are the PR recommendations I shared.

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No more Mr. Nice Guy. If you’re a managed service provider targeting small and mid-market customers that have small IT staffs, here are two rather timely pieces of advice that I picked up at the Ingram Micro Seismic Partner Conference.

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During a quick video interview, masterIT CEO J. Michael Drake describes his company’s success blending managed services with hardware as a service (HaaS). Drake articulates why HaaS is more than leasing for laptops and desktops. And he offers practical tips for MSPs that want to move in a HaaS direction. The conversation was recorded at Autotask Community Live in Nashville, Tenn. Take a look.

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Want to position your company as a polished, buttoned-up managed service provider? Steal a page from J. Michael Drake and Gary Wiseman, the executives behind masterIT. Drake and Wiseman both appear in this slick, well-scripted video about their company.

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More proof that the best managed service providers are holding up pretty well during the recession: Eurodata Systems PLC, a solutions provider in London, says managed services helped the company lift profits 21.5 percent (I assume that’s 2008 vs. 2007). The 120-person company says demand for its managed services grew 17% last year, and Eurodata expects the trend to accelerate in 2009. But I think Eurodata needs to spin the story slightly differently: Executive leadership is the No. 1 reason the company is growing in a bad economy.

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As you develop your marketing, sales and PR strategies for managed services in 2009, you can embrace a range of closely related Web 2.0 technologies — blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds and so on. Which Web 2.0 technologies are right for managed service providers? Here are six tips to get you started.

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