A story to illustrate:

One of my best friends just switched from T-Mobile to ATT to get the iPhone.  After waiting in line for six hours (This is an adult with three very young children mind you.  Better things to do with his time?!) he proceeded to watch the sales reps go through SEVEN iPhones before they were able to get him up and running.  SEVEN!  And it took him another six hours.

They ended up giving him the phone for free.

MSPMentor just posted on the fact that Kaseya is now officially supporting iPhones, and several other MSPs are making plays to include iPhone services in their portfolio.  I agree that it’s a good move, I would just encourage most MSPs to charge for it on a time and materials basis for the next X months so you don’t get beat up!

This is a very important lesson for anyone providing IT services on a flat-fee basis like Everon.  Your customers will try to bait you into supporting EVERYTHING for the original flat fee you sold them on.  We have a very important word that we use at Everon to combat this phenomenon:

NEW.

Simple, right?  If something is new to the marketplace, new to your network, or just new to Everon - we reserve the right to evaluate it and determine if we should charge more as part of the support plan we have with you.  It puts you in the position to protect yourself, and it’s something everyone should have in their contract.

MRC

I have to admit that I have not put a lot of time into understanding their program or if they are going to launch a master MSP play so I am curious if anyone else out there is working with Dell in their MSP programs?

I know the technology they bought gives them all of the tools necessary to provide a master MSP offering and I guess we will know in time if this is a road they are going to go down.  (On a separate note I am surprised that none of the master MSPs out there or anyone working with one commented on Mikes post from last week - let us know your thoughts if you are out there).

Anyway, check out the blog talk radio show if you have the time and let me know what your thoughts are!

JC

———
Join Stuart Crawford from Calgary’s respected DELL Partner IT Matters and DELL’s channel chief Greg Davis as we discuss what is working inside the DELL ParterDirect Program and how IT professionals can win with DELL.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/smb/2008/07/25/Partnering-with-DELL

Another fun event was our Annual Field Partner Summit.  This is the second year we’ve had this event, and it’s been incredibly valuable for us.  We get together with representatives from most of our field partner companies and discuss how we can work together better…and of course, have some fun.

Last year’s meeting was mostly about logistical stuff, whereas this year we were really able to spend most of our time and energy on strategic issues.  We discussed:

• How we saw the market changing
• How we needed to position ourselves to take advantage of the changes
• How Everon could shift our model to use partners to an even greater extent for the benefit of both parties

I’ve come away from it with a great deal of optimism and engergy about creating a bigger model for Everon, which has always been my goal.  Time will tell, but I think we hit on some key takeaways that will allow us to achieve greater impact in the marketplace.

MRC

Others are doing this as well, most notably MSP On Demand.

An interesting conversation is taking place on this subject over at MSPMentor…check it out here.

MRC

Jamcracker’s MSP LaunchPad: Ready for Liftoff?

Dell’s Next Move: A Master MSP Strategy

At Everon, we’ve always worked with partners (that would normally be our competitors) in local markets to provide IT services in the field; we deliver them field work and they help us provide great service.  It’s not a very big leap for us to turn this into some sort of Master MSP model where we integrate all of our services for the good of both parties.

It makes me curious as to how this compares with the models that are currently out there.  I’ve yet to talk to anyone that is actually working with a Master MSP, so I’m hoping someone out there can give me some insight into their experiences.

MRC

During the past three years we have seen a steady proliferation of managed services in this market, and the pace of adoption is accelerating. The growth has been driven by an increase in the number of solution providers getting into the game for the first, as well as from established players increasing the percentage of MSP offerings in their IT services portfolio.

With 20,000 solution providers using our software, we have a bird’s eye view of this trend – measurable both by the percentage of customers who ask us to turn on our MSP extensions that link Autotask with the managed services vendors – including Kaseya, Level Platforms, N-able, Zenith and others – and also through direct polls we take through the Autotask CommunITy built-into our software. The last poll we ran just a few weeks ago revealed that fully 95% of our customers now say that at least 10% of their revenue is coming from a recurring managed IT service… And more than 1/3 of them say they derive more than half of their revenue through Managed Services.

We’re also seeing a new wave of Master MSPs who are making it even easier to get into the game, by offering up turn-key managed services that solution providers can simply resell to their customers. Zenith Infotech jumped into the game early, offering up a virtual NOC, and then Ingram Micro added momentum with its Seismic Offering. Then, Amy Luby’s MSPSN, Do IT Smarter, the Utility Company and a dozen other smaller players began to aggregate basic services, including virtual help desk, patch management, and monitoring – becoming the secret “back-end” delivery mechanism for hundreds of smaller VARs wanting to get into the MSP game without the big investment. Now the likes of NetEnrich and Dell are getting into the game.

What’s wrong with this picture? To put it simply, managed services delivery is entering the mainstream of our business, and the impact is going to be a steady increase in competition and a commoditization of many of the services in your portfolio.

Not only are most solution providers now offering the same suite of services to small and medium sized businesses – many of them are buying and reselling those services from the exact same sources and/or using the exact same managed services platforms to deliver them.

That’s why VARs and MSPs that want to continue being paid at a premium for the services they provide, must find ways to differentiate their business and collaborate with partners who can enhance their offerings and help deliver superior customer service.

We faced the exact same dilemma 15 years ago with the commoditization of computer hardware and software. Resellers had traditionally made most of their money on the healthy margins they realized on the equipment they purchased for their customers. Then, the basic computer networking technology became so pervasive, with so many vendors, that prices dropped, margins evaporated, and Resellers turned to services to make their money – becoming not just computer resellers, but VALUE-ADDED resellers.

That was then. But now that the services you are delivering are becoming commoditized, what is your “value-add” going to be? Are you going to be able to win new customers – and make a profit from your current customers – when everyone is out there offering up network management at $X/month per PC, and $Y/month per server – and each provider throwing something else into the mix, or lowering the price by another $1 a month, just to beat the next guy’s plan?

Now, I’m not suggesting that we’ve gotten to the point where you can’t make money in Managed Services today. But it’s going to get increasingly difficult to make a profit at it, as prices continue to drop, more services get bundled in, and your labor costs continue to rise.

The solution providers who are going to come out on top, in my view, are the ones who develop a clearly identified specialty – either in a proprietary business solution, or in one or more narrow vertical niches that they can establish themselves as “the technology gurus” within their areas of specialty.

The successful solution providers of tomorrow will use Managed Services delivery as a MEANS to their ends, not the end itself — whether delivered by their own staff or through outsourcing to others. The successful MSPs will be the ones who are rigorous about they way they collect and manage the information about their clients’ businesses – not just in terms of the data being generated through their monitoring systems, but data related to the quality of their service delivery.

They will use this data both to regularly justify the value of the services they have already delivered, and to identify new opportunities for selling higher-margin technology services and solutions to their clients.

Everon has done more marketing than most companies in our space, but we are really just getting started. We will do more marketing in the next six months than we’ve done in the history of our company thus far.

I think the most important thing I’ve learned about marketing that most people don’t intuitively “get” is that marketing is a system. It seems that most people think marketing is an art, or some kind of hocus-pocus. It’s neither of those things - it’s a system.

What do I mean by system? I mean that it’s a series of tasks that should be done very routinely, with results measured constantly. Easier said than done, I know. So how do you make this system a reality?

I’ve learned that it begins with a calendar to keep you on track, and I think John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing illustrates this point very well in his newsletter today.

Enjoy!

MRC

Live by the Calendar
Marketing is a habit and habits take practice

Marketing is such an important part of your business that it must be practiced daily, much like a habit, in order to really get the attention and momentum it deserves.

Doing that can be a tall task for a lot of business owners because so many other things call out for your attention.

The surest way to keep your focus on the important task of marketing is to schedule it like you might appointments with best customers. When you have an appointment blocked off in your calendar, it’s pretty certain that you will keep it.

Making marketing appointments, and creating a systematic approach to marketing scheduling, is a great way to ensure you take a near and far term approach to building marketing momentum in your business.

Here’s the plan of action for your new marketing scheduling routine.

Annual - Create a large wall size annual marketing calendar that allows you to look pretty far forward and schedule the big things you know you need to do. Redesign the web site, hire a marketing assistant. You should look at this as an annual strategic planning exercise that combines nicely with the creation of a compelling set of marketing goals for the year

In addition, use this strategy session to create a marketing scorecard. Your scorecard is a list of simple tactical actions that, if performed routinely, will move you in the direction of your goals. So if your goal is to obtain five referral each month then a scorecard item tied to that goal might be to attend a networking event or send a handwritten note to a customer. (Create this scorecard and I’ll tell you how to use it in a minute.)

Monthly - When you start big picture planning things can get, well, big, and you can get overwhelmed. Take each month of the year and assign a theme of focus. Make December your PR month and determine that you will get that part of your marketing humming along in December, while January is blog month and so on.

Weekly - If you plan to accomplish your assigned theme goals each month then you will need a weekly plan of action with steps and accountabilities. Going back to our PR theme example might mean that week 1 that month is focused on building a killer media list for your industry and community, week two might be set aside to tackle the creation of a media kit. Now, the key to making this work though is to schedule marketing appointments throughout the week with yourself, your staff or an outside resource to make sure the action steps get moved forward.

Daily - For your daily marketing plan you’ve got two tasks. One is look at each day as you are planning your to-do list for the day and prepare for and keep your marketing appointments.

The second is to consult your scorecard we described above and see how many items on your scorecard can be done today. To make it even more fun you can assign a score to each item and set a daily point goal.

If you can keep marketing this front and center as you go about your day you will be amazed at how easy it becomes a part of the air you breath.

I have written about Microsoft’s software + service programs in the past and today everyone out there has written something about todays new anouncement. The best two blogs I have found on the subject are listed at the end of this post.

I think the most interesting part of the program is the pricing model built to encourage you and I (the channel) to continue selling their services even though we will lose a large portion of service revenue that comes from installing their products on site for clients. If you take this view on losing revenue rather than adapting your service and offerings to capture new revenue you will end up left in the dust.

I am a big beliver in recurring revenue which they are going to share with us but still believe that smart providers will build value added services on top of implementing these products for clients in order to have continued success in the future. I am not worried about clients going direct to Microsoft and cutting a company like Everon out of the picture because they will just be a piece of the solutions and services I aggregate and provide to my clients. (Mike has written about this move to utility computing and the role of the aggregators in past posts).

The power of being an MSP is owning the relationship, let me say that again, the power of being a MSP is owning the relationship. We all need to focus in on value added service for the small business, such as CTO programs, rather than the focus of turning the screws to install and manage technology.

Our customers demand to know that we have vetted the best vendors out there and are providing them the best strategic investments for their business. Becase we understand their business and are experts in what we do they quickly come to believe we are an indispensable part of their team.

So whether we are building services around Microsoft, Amazon, Google or any of the other large SasS players out there we need to be thinking about what’s next for our business and how we fit into the SaaS picture.

Best posts for catching up on today’s announcements:

Best post I have found for a simple overview of Microsoft’s Deskless worker.

Best post for staying ahead or at least on top of MS news as it is released about this program.

JC

Now I don’t usually get caught up in “cool” technology. I am a big believer in letting the other guy work the bugs out and adopting one step behind the cutting edge - less likely to get cut that way. But as Google takes steps to make their online applications useful to the small businesses around the world I think they hit on something that is powerful for you and me.

We recently started to map out our clients in a Google spreadsheet and it is powerful to see the way they layout around the country or around a particular region. Not only is this cool but it helps our dispatcher as we direct partners around a region to our clients sites to perform work. If implemented properly we should be able to create efficiencies that allow us to drive billable utilization rates beyond the industry norm.

What are you using to track your techs, their routes, their idol time, etc, to drive your utilization rates up? I know it makes sense to create compensation plans that reward utilzation rates, but what are you doing to help your engineers reach these goals?

One of the things we are always working on with our partners around the country is how to make their business and in turn our business more profitable. And I truly believe that tracking traffic patters, knowing locations as you direct a tech from one client to another, having minimums for on-site visits, and empowering your people make this possiable.

Anyway, I am starting to veer off into another subject so check out the Google blog post on their feature and let me know your thoughts:

http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2008/06/featured-gadget-map-it-in-your.html

JC

Here goes:

E-Myth Mastery: The Seven Essential Disciplines for Building a World Class Company - If you’ve ever been to one of my presentations, you know I’m a big fan of this one. Building a business that allows you to step out of the day-to-day requires processes, and this book teaches you how. On a side note, Arnie Bellini of Connectwise was kind enough to let me join him and others for a private lunch with Michael Gerber a few years ago when he spoke at Arnie’s Connectwise Summit - thanks Arnie!

The Great Game of Business - This is another one that should be taught in every business school but generally isn’t. It’s a great story and has fantastic lessons about how to engage your employees and run an “open” business.

Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Growing Firm - Another book that should be taught at every business school but generally isn’t. Verne “The Growth Guy” Harnish boils down the successful habits Rockefeller used to run his companies and teaches you how to apply the practices to your business.

Killer Customers: Tell the Good from the Bad–and Dominate Your Competitors - This was the first book I read that made it clear that not all customers are desirable customers, which can be a tough thing to swallow for a customer service-oriented entrepreneur. Most importantly, it explains how to tell the difference between good ones and bad ones.

Patrick Lencioni Library (Five Temptations of a CEO; Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive; Five Dysfunctions of a Team; Death by Meeting) - Lencioni does a fantastic job of using simple short stories to teach important business lessons and then gives practical advice on how to implement what you just learned. These make for great quick reading assignments for your executive team!

Now, Discover Your Strengths - This is a fantastic book on finding and managing to your natural talents/strengths and those of the people that work for you. It gives you access to a highly regarded survey that determines your strengths - I was amazed at how accurate it seemed to be for everyone on our executive team.

Topgrading: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching, and Keeping the Best People, Revised and Updated Edition - This is the HR system that was famously put to use by Jack Welch at GE. It provides a clear way of evaluating talent and making organizational decisions that raise the overall level of talent at a company.

How to Read a Financial Report: Wringing Vital Signs Out of the Numbers (How to Read a Financial Report) - This book may look elementary, but don’t be fooled. It’s the best explanation of the major financial statements and how to use them that I’ve ever seen. I’ve used it to teach financial literacy at Everon with great success.

New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century with Online Learning Center access card - I think this is the best book on how to analyze a business opportunity and write a business plan; much better than any other business plan books I’ve read. This is a newer version than the one I have, but I think it’s pretty much the same.

Jack: Straight from the Gut - Jack Welch has been called the “Tiger Woods of business” by Warren Buffett. This book was written by Jack himself, and is full of lessons on how to manage people and companies.

And finally, one resource that isn’t a book but I think is some of the most fascinating business reading around is the annual reports of Berkshire Hathaway, the company that Warren Buffett runs. I’ve never read anyone that can take the most complicated business lessons and turn them into easy-to-understand language like Buffett can. His annual reports are the only I’ve ever found that are actually worth reading. Be sure to read his “Owner’s Manual” as well - great stuff!

Full disclosure - I’ve included Amazon Associates links to each of them so if you end up buying them Josh and I will make our first Internet sale! If you do, we promise to hang a “our first sale” dollar in a frame like you see in restaurants and post a picture of it on the blog.

MRC