Specialising in a vertical market can be an effective way of competing in a crowded managed services market. Yet, it’s not an automatic choice. According to a recent survey, some two-thirds of MSPS don’t ‘verticalise’.
We consider the pros and cons – and set out 10 questions you need to ask yourself if you’re thinking about taking a vertical market focus.
How can you ensure that your MSP business is in the ‘Golden Quintile’, a term used in a recent survey by IT Glue to represent the 20% of MSPs in their survey who reported not just growing revenue but also enjoying high margins (in excess of 20% net margin).
The route to growth is relatively easy to map; the route to profitable growth is much more challenging – as I found out myself.
So here is my advice to ensure your growth turns out to be is profitable rather than problematical. (more…)
My last blog looked at the very real impact of high customer churn rates on financial performance. This blog flips the coin to take a more positive view. Churn isn’t inevitable – and as long as your customers feel valued and are receiving the prompt, high-quality service they expect, at a reasonable price, they are much less likely to jump ship. (more…)
Read how an N-central Audit and Remediation project from Inbay resolved more than 97% of stale and misconfigured alerts for US IT outsourcing and consulting firm Winxnet, enabling the company to leverage N-central in a more efficient manner and improve staff productivity. (more…)
As we move through the last quarter of 2018, MSP hearts and minds are probably focussed on giving ‘one last push’ to close new business before the end of the year. All good and necessary, but in striving to bring new business on board make sure you are not neglecting your existing customer base.
There’s little value in onboarding new business if your customer attrition rate means that the overall ongoing customer number/recurring revenue remains more or less the same. (more…)
The past year has seen high levels of M&A activity in the IT channel – and a prediction that 20 percent of MSPs will dominate 80 percent of managed services revenue in the U.S. by 2020.
What is fuelling this activity? Is it really happening at an unprecedented level? And what does it mean for your MSP business? (more…)
Eric Rockwell, former MSP, founder of InovoIT and industry thought leader delivered a CompTIA webinar recently on the theme of ‘How to become MSP 2.0: The path to profitable managed security services’. (more…)
Managed security services are much hyped as an opportunity for MSPs to scale up their business and increase profit margins. The potential rewards are tantalising. But unfortunately, you can’t just flick a switch and morph into a managed security service provider (MSSP) overnight. (more…)
Almost certainly less than the cost of building and managing a NOC in-house!
And I say this with confidence as we have been providing NOC services to MSPs for quite some years and have worked through the cost comparisons many times.
In almost all cases, partnering for NOC offers a much more cost-effective option – as well as bringing additional benefits over and above ‘dollars and cents’ savings.
There are three main reasons for this. (more…)
Staffing/training tops the list of challenges facing MSPs, many of whom are struggling to recruit the technical talent they need and retain the people they do bring on board. This is an issue that affects MSPs of all sizes and it can be a severe restrictor on growth.
Capacity planning is problematical for most organisations – and the MSP business model is no exception. However carefully you plan the expansion of your business, the unexpected addition of a new customer with a large number of users and/or complex requirements can totally disrupt your existing support operation. Conversely, the unanticipated loss of a major account can leave you overstaffed and scrambling to replace revenues. (more…)
