As all of the big dogs have done Cisco has recently made their push into the small business managed services market. Cisco defines this market as companies under 100 people. Sure does sound like our sandbox doesn’t it.

If you look at their new small business web site I believe they do a nice job talking to the business owner about solutions rather than support and products. “Secure my business” sure makes more sense to a small business owner than “Security products”.  This is what I mean by the right positioning. Anyone that continues to sell product and support going forward will not succeed in my mind.

Now it is going to take some time to see what kind of traction they are able to get in the small business areas but I can tell you that the 100 million dollar investment they are committed to making sure will give them a leg up over you and I when it comes to getting their word out. I personally believe they will make good inroads with the 100 – 200 user organizations because there is generally at least one IT guy on staff and the Cisco name means something to him. The sub 100 user companies are generally looking for a high level of service and the ability to call the CEO of your organization if something goes wrong, if this remains true it will be a much tougher nut for Cisco to crack.

I suppose in the grand scheme of things this just gives us one more giant to watch as they try to make their entry into the small business market. Perhaps as all of these big dogs show up we will see more strategic acquisitions and all of our organizations will get much higher valuations!

J C

There is an interesting article on MSPMentor today about Cisco’s new per user, per day pricing for their unified communications product line.  Very interesting stuff!  Everybody is seeing the value of offering products and services in a way that is easier for the masses of small businesses to gain access to.  Man…it’s a good time to be a small business!

Anyway…back on topic.

In the article author Joe Panettieri mentions that some members of the msp community are crying foul when it comes to HaaS, saying it’s really just the industry trying to dress up leasing in sexier clothing.

I disagree, and I think customers will disagree as well.  I say this for one simple reason:

My definition of HaaS includes hardware replacement as an integral part of the service.

That may not seem like such a big deal on the surface, but I think it is.  Consider the small business that buys the laptop HaaS from Everon, a provider of small business IT support services.  Six months into the service their laptop craps out and they think, “Oh not again,  this will probably take a full week of downtime to get replaced”.  And if they had bought that laptop direct from Dell, it probably would take a week with all of the time necessary to justify getting parts replaced, rebuilding the laptop, loading personal settings, etc.

But not with the Everon laptop HaaS service.

In this case, Everon would have a spare laptop on hand and would keep an image of the proper user configuration on our servers.  We would image the spare laptop and have it shipped overnight, ready to go when it arrives.  The user then packages the old laptop in the return box and ships it back to Everon.

No worries about warranty details.

No arguing with the manufacturer about why the computer broke in the first place and who’s to blame.

No questions about who actually owns the computer and who gets stuck with the service-related costs of setting up the new laptop.

That’s a nice service, and you won’t get it with a lease!  But is this a reality today?  Unfortunately not.  At least not at Everon.  We’ve had a devil of a time finding a financing partner that will allow us to do HaaS right.  If you know of one, please let me know!

MRC