Billerica, Mass. (October 31, 2005) SilverBack® Technologies, Inc., the industrys leading provider of service delivery platforms that allow solution providers to profitably enter the managed services business, today announced the Instant-MSP program. Instant-MSP is a new program that allows traditional hardware resellers; solution providers, consultants; distributors and other emerging service providers to immediately enter into the lucrative business of remote managed services with no risk in terms of upfront investment in infrastructure or technology.
Without an established network operations center (NOC) and the knowledge of services best practices and training necessary to deliver remote managed services effectively, most resellers and VARs are not readily equipped to offer managed services on their own to their customers.
Merely purchasing a monitoring technology is not always a realistic or complete solution for many emerging MSPs, said Jim Hare, SilverBacks VP of worldwide sales. SilverBacks Instant-MSP program solves this problem by giving new entrants into the market an instant pathway into the lucrative managed services business.
The Instant-MSP program works in several ways:
1) It creates a partnership between SilverBacks best, and highly trained MSPs and new, emerging service providers who have customers desiring new services but may not have the staff or infrastructure to handle the back-end service delivery.
2) It creates partnerships between experienced MSPs and large VARs or distributors also new to services that can then add maintenance/monitoring services as an optional check-box or SKU to their price list.
3) The smaller reseller now has access to a menu of other services it can sell, but could not deliver in the past, including 24x7 staffing, help desk, global break/fix delivery, and other advanced services.
In each case the newly minted service provider immediately takes advantage of the higher margins and recurring revenue streams available through selling services. Existing SilverBack partners also benefit from a percentage of the service derived from delivering the backend operations side of the equation.
The Instant-MSP partner can choose to control everything, have the backend provider do the bulk of the work or anything in between. The key component is that the Instant-MSP partner is the only contact the end user customer knows and the partner continues to own the customer relationship and contract.
SilverBack also has a migration strategy for those participants who start in the program and then over time wish to bring operations in-house.
ASAP Software of Buffalo Grove, Illinois, a leading software services and hardware provider with $1.5 billion in revenues, is starting to work with Do IT Smarter, an MSP headquartered in San Diego, California. ASAP customers who purchase a backup system, for example, are given the option to buy a service maintenance contract that includes performance monitoring and validation that backups successfully occurred as scheduled. The service is sold by ASAP and included on their price list and delivered by SilverBack partner, Do IT Smarter.
Do IT Smarter utilizes the SilverBack Datacenter Enterprise service platform as the technology engine behind the ASAP service as well as other security and IT services offerings. SilverBacks Datacenter Enterprise platform initiates the monitoring, alerting, updates and remediation to power these services as well as keeping costs low to ensure price points that fit the needs of the midtier market.
This is a win-win situation for everyone, added Jim Hare. This model appeals to large VARs such as ASAP Software who care to find creative means to expand their services. Their customers benefit and ASAP benefits by entering into a recurring revenue relationship with their customers.
Managed services represent new ways for our clients to quickly dial into technology advantages. Partnering with a company like Do IT Smarter gives us and our clients rapid and painless access to security assessment and deployment, hardware maintenance, and other vital technical services, said Harry Zoberman, ASAPs senior vice president of marketing and operations.
The Instant-MSP is a program that can also apply to smaller resellers who wish to offer remote managed services to their client base without having to invest in building a NOC. This risk-free approach to entering into managed services is handled by established MSPs with experience and infrastructures equipped with SilverBack technology.
Many of the network hardware vendors, enamored of the promise of lucrative service margins, are trying to convince their channel to resell their branded remote service. The downside of this model it that it cannibalizes the hard-won service agreements solution providers already have in place with their clients just as theyre beginning to realize the benefits of a recurring revenue model.
Explained Hare, Enlightened VARs are seeking to provide their own set of remote managed services to better compete in the market and maximize the business value of their own offerings. Not surprisingly, SilverBack believes competing with your own channel is the wrong way to compete in the managed services business and weve specifically structured this program to reward rather than compete with our most experienced partners.
Do IT Smarter is taking full advantage of both sides of the Instant-MSP opportunity, working with resellers and major distributors that wish to outsource their expertise. Do IT Smarter offers a three-tired MSP program based upon the degree to which monitored alerts are escalated and remediated.
For smaller service providers who want to get their feet wet in delivering remote managed services, our risk-free program benefits all parties involved, said Lane Smith, President and CEO of Do IT Smarter, a San Diego-based MSP since 1999 that is building Instant-MSP relationships with resellers in 45 cities nationwide. We looked at all the vendors in this market and even purchased several of their products. In the end, it was clear they had no idea of what is really involved in providing remote managed services as their efforts were focused only on their product. SilverBack has extensive experience in actually building and running remote service organizations. Thus, their hands-on approach is the only viable way to succeed in selling managed services.
About SilverBack The choice of the VAR500 and other elite organizations, SilverBack's expertise lies in helping product-focused resellers transform their businesses into services-focused operations. SilverBack has designed and perfected a "franchise" approach that accelerates the transition from a low margin, one-time sale to a high margin, recurring revenue model. Its ServiceAccelerator program combines integrated IT and security monitoring software with the company's proven sales, marketing and operations best practices to help its partners see successful results immediately. SilverBacks technology significantly reduces operations costs at set-up and over the life of the customer contract, facilitating mass customization of services and assuring high margins.
Visit www.silverbacktech.com.
