Smaller IT resellers support and service one of the largest and most diverse sections of the business world, namely small and medium sized businesses. The client base encompasses micro businesses - for whom IT is simply a means to an end - all the way up to companies that retain their own in-house IT person or even a team of support staff. From the coffee shop that needs the till to be always on and protected from viruses to the school with a remit to keep children protected while using the Internet as an education tool all the way up to the local branch of a major bank that needs to stay connected to HQ client service needs vary tremendously. Some will have an irregular “break and fix” style relationship with a local high street IT store while others are happy to have a managed services relationship with a chosen partner.
Having a “break-fix” services business model is naturally something of a roller coaster ride. Revenues are unpredictable and margins are slim. But the latest cloud-based management tools offer smaller IT services companies the opportunity to break out of the rut and transition to a managed services model that promises regular, predictable income and an opportunity to steady the ship. Those who have made the switch report that providing a managed service makes it easier to provide a high level of service, opens up other sales opportunities, and makes them look more professional to their customer base.
For a partner to change how they deliver IT services requires planning and a degree of vendor help – we call the latter enablement services. An enablement program is designed to help a service provider generate profitable, recurring revenue streams without the pain or complication of completely transforming their IT support business. The process brings to the table all of the required tools and resources needed to help them take the guess work out of building, pricing and selling managed services. Rather than take an ad hoc approach to this, we have learned that a structured program of partner engagement saves time, mistakes and ultimately gives them the desired outcome in the most efficient way. We have built the structure for this around four fundamental steps.
1) Establish your goals
The first step is all about identifying, documenting and rationalizing the partner goals. Making them measurable ensures we can work to ensure they are reasonable, and tractable. This is the cornerstone of the direction of the partner’s overall Managed Services business plan.
2) Skills profiling
Secondly, we work with the partner to measure their own capabilities. By capturing metrics on staff skills in dozens of different areas, as well as the management techniques and how service deliverables are packaged we can construct a portrait of an individual partner and identify key issues including skills bottlenecks (where only one or two people have skills that are needed across the board), unused skill sets (where staff with web developer or database skills are not being given the opportunity to use them for the benefit of the business).
3) Equipping them for the task
Thirdly we make sure the partner’s management applications are as integrated as possible to minimize administrations costs and maximize service efficiency. We also check to see if there any services gaps – for example it might be possible to offer a greater all-round service to one or more clients by adding online data backup capability.
4) Program execution
Finally all of these issues are worked back into the original managed services plan with a delivery timeframe before being incorporated into the enablement program for execution. In summary, to successfully transition from break-fix to managed services you need to step up and commit to you long-term business goals. You also need solid support from your vendor partner. A good partner will provide plenty of training, workshops and user forums that allow and encourage the sharing of ideas and experiences. The training should be technical, but must also cover sales and marketing. Vendors worth their salt know this and have experts in enablement who can design and implement a program that is expressly tailored for your business needs. About the author Mike Byrne is Director of Partner Enablement, SMB, at AVG Technologies. He has spent the last 10 years working with and providing MSP-specific consulting services to VAR’s and MSP’s from all over the globe. He specializes in working with IT service providers that are committed to making the transition into becoming successful managed service providers.