Telecoms as MSPs? You bet…and here they come.

Posted By: Mike  Published in Managing Tags: , ,

10

Jun

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I have a couple of friends that have independently told me about some interesting happenings in our marketplace lately:

  1. Verizon is offering IT management services to small offices.  I have seen their model, pricing, etc.  I’m not worried about them being a competitive threat, but I’m sure they’ll sign a lot of small customers and we’ll start running into them more.
  2. Two major telecoms are in a bidding war over a small, remote IT services company that focuses primarily on the home office and very small business marketplaces.  I’m not a journalist…I’m not going to leak the name!

Very interesting times in this marketplace!  The question is becoming WHO ISN’T A MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDER?!

MRC

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Scott Cover Says, on 6-10-2008 at 13:26:44     

Frankly, this doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I can only imagine it will make the companies that are in this space and have their act together look even better. Telecom’s aren’t exactly known for the quality of their customer service.

Most likely they will simply take over dealing with all the customers that we as real providers don’t want. (The ones whose needs/wants are much greater than what they are willing to pay for).

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Mike Says, on 6-10-2008 at 14:28:57     

I agree with your perspective Scott. Although it’s very interesting to me to try to learn something from the situation.

One thing big companies are good as is structuring service plans/operations so they can sign up a lot of customers very quickly - something that 99% of MSPs would struggle with.

I would also argue that all of these companies expect to turn a tidy profit on these services, so I think the needs/wants to payment ratio will probably be in some sort of alignment.

Here in Denver I have been watching AT&T roll out a service to very small businesses at a crazy fast pace. When I got my hands on one of their contracts, I was shocked to see how little they are delivering and how many businesses were quickly signing up for it.

It made me step back to take a look at our current offerings. I think one of the biggest faults of most small businesses is that we try to do too much for our clients. It makes it very difficult to scale up. Nobody would ever accuse the big guys of doing too much for their customers…but then again, look how big they are!

Mike

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newmspguy Says, on 6-10-2008 at 15:32:16     

Mike,
Excellent post! I wonder myself who isn’t an MSP? But I also agree that these offerings from Telecom are going to be interesting because having dealt with these guys in the past, I can say that their customer service is sub-par to say the least.

I also think it’s absolutely possible to offer “too much” but in truth, don’t we do that because we feel that if we don’t offer a ton of services we won’t sign anyone up? how is it that these telecoms can do this and is it really possible to offer “less” but stress the “services” part more?

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Mike Says, on 6-10-2008 at 18:39:11     

I think it’s a topic that deserves a seperate post - I’ll see if I can come up with some clear thoughts in the next day or two. But the short answer is that I believe offering less service is often the way to grow your business faster.

Mike

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Joe Panettieri Says, on 6-10-2008 at 19:15:32     

Mike: It was great to meet in Boston during your trip to the MSP Summit. Yes, you’re absolutely right: Telecoms are becoming MSPs. But in new areas, as well. For instance, big telecoms are partnering to introduce managed telepresence systems for high-def video conferencing.

And watch for lots of news in the unified communications area.

But ultimately, smaller MSPs will hold the upper hand when it comes to customer relationships, and I think there’s a real opportunity for smaller MSPs to “grow up” and “grow big” through SaaS services like hosted Exchange, Dynamics and SharePoint.

Great industry. Great to meet.

All the best,
-jp

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New Buzz: Communications as a Service (CaaS) | MSPmentor Says, on 6-11-2008 at 14:18:03     

[…] (and cable companies) are moving into the MSP market. That subject popped up earlier this week on SMB IT Pros, a blog run by Mike Cooch, co-founder of Everon Technology Services, a managed service provider […]

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newmspguy Says, on 6-11-2008 at 19:17:50     

Joe,
I agree completely. I talked with a Glowpoint a few weeks ago about “managed telepresence” and it makes for a lucrative venture for a telecom provider because of the bandwidth requirements which most small busineses don’t have. Telepresence is Amazing but to do it good and well it takes a lot of bandwidth. I can see telecoms offering the managed service along with a “bundled” bandwidth upgrade.

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» Is less service the answer to greater growth? smbITpros.com : a resource for managed service providers and other small business IT professionals Says, on 6-19-2008 at 09:37:14     

[…] Can less service be more? Posted By: Mike  Published in Managing Tags: growth, managed services, service levels 19Jun Welcome to SMBITPros - make sure to sign up for our RSS feed!One of my recent posts led to a “comment conversation” about whether or not providing a really high level of service is necessary or the best way for a managed service provider to grow.  See the post here. […]

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