Monday, December 20, 2010

Benchmark Your Business to the Next Level

By: Len DiCostanzo, SVP and Dean of Autotask Academy

If you’ve instituted surveys as part of your customer satisfaction program, the next step is to understand the how and why of maximizing the data you have collected from your customers.

That’s where benchmarking comes in. For the IT services industry, surveys give you an opportunity to measure your customer satisfaction levels and a variety of key performance indicators (KPIs) against an industry baseline (created by aggregating similar ratings across an anonymous population of MSPs, VARs and other technology solution providers).

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The Importance of Taking Your Customer’s Pulse

By: Bob Godgart, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Visionary Officer

In a previous article, I talked about the 10 benefits of using surveys in your service provider business. But if you still feel surveys are a “nice to have” rather than a “need to do” (despite knowing how surveys increase customer retention, improve product and service delivery and create competitive advantage), let me convince you otherwise.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Do You Survey Your Customers and Prospects for Anything?

By: Len DiCostanzo, SVP and Dean of Autotask Academy

On the road again - here in Orlando, Florida at the MSP University Boot Camp. There are over 125 IT solution providers in attendance who are in various stages of business, running the gamut of industry business models. From box pushers to pure service providers, from break fix to managed service providers and one-stop solution providers. Quite a few are just starting out, some have been in business over 20 years, and everything else in between. And they are all looking to build a managed services practice or validate where their practice or business stands, and discover the next steps they should take to grow their business.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Specialize to Compete - But Don’t Forget the Basics

By: Bob Godgart, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Visionary Officer

In the last few months I’ve spent a lot of time on the road, at events and visiting with countless VARs, MSPs and other technology solution providers. And, I can tell you first hand that this is an industry in motion! As technologies and markets evolve, solution providers are carving out their own unique market segments, areas of specialization and core competencies in order to compete and grow their businesses.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Four Critical Stages To Securing A Client For Life

By: Len DiCostanzo, SVP and Dean of Autotask Academy

Becoming a Managed Service Provider (MSP) has been a hot topic for several years now; so much so that I heard a comment at a recent conference that managed services is now a commodity offering. Everybody is doing it, and whoever is jumping in now is way too late. My opinion? Not so fast! Here’s why.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Focusing on Profitability Using a PSA Tool

By: Bob Godgart, Chief Visionary Officer

Fortunately, today's new IT business management software tools promise a variety of ways to optimize the profitability in your managed services business. They furnish a range of features and functions for handling projects and service contracts that let MSPs more easily define and measure key metrics and get a much clearer picture of their profitability.

What are some of those features?

Friday, October 29, 2010

Benefits of Pricing Your Services Right

By: Len DiCostanzo, SVP and Dean of Autotask Academy

I am just back from a few weeks on the road presenting at several partner events. I was energized not only from meeting lots of our customers in person, but seeing the energy in the community. Everyone in attendance had one thing in mind, and that is, how do I improve my business. Whether it was by getting into the latest technology to support their client’s business needs, understanding what the cloud is all about, or finding the right solution to help their own IT business run better, the search was on.

Monday, October 4, 2010

How to Manage Expectations With Your Managed Services Contracts

By: Bob Godgart, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Visionary Officer

The time-tested formula for MSPs when creating service contracts is to set fixed monthly fees to ensure regular recurring revenue.

But that may not be the most profitable strategy, especially if you are not incorporating key business terms and conditions to clearly define the work scope, and then managing to those deliverables. And that approach can be a real crap shoot, unless you have a solid business management platform in place to help you analyze your performance against each and every contract so you can make adjustments as you go.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Build Solution Sets to Sell Products AND Services With Confidence

By: Len DiCostanzo, SVP and Dean of Autotask Academy

You may have started your IT company as an IT consultant, selling professional or technical services by the hour. Typically, you’ll let your clients buy products from another source, maybe even a source you recommend, because you feel that it’s just too hard to make money with all the competition and small margins.

Then you realize the downside to this strategy when you lose a client to a competitor who sells products, but then bolts on the associated servicing of those products in a one-stop transaction. Even loyal clients might not think they are violating your business relationship, feeling like they are simply buying from someone something you don’t offer.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Going Vertical.

By: Bob Godgart, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Visionary Officer

I just got back from the terrific “Breakaway 2010” event put on by CompTIA, the leading computer industry association, and I was glad to see the big emphasis that was being placed on opportunities in the healthcare vertical market for IT solution professionals.

Healthcare has been a choice vertical for IT solution providers for a decade or more, due to the constantly and rapidly developing technology in the medical field – and the abundance of money spent in that industry. At CompTIA, much time was devoted to educating IT professionals about what it takes to get a piece of the health-care action, along with some useful tools to help insure success.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Back To The Future For IT Product Sales

By: Len DiCostanzo, SVP and Dean of Autotask Academy

During my 20+ years as the founder and CEO of a successful IT solutions company, I saw first-hand the importance of evolving our business models to meet the needs and capabilities of our clients and our own companies. And, as I work with our customers and countless others in the channel now, I see that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Top Reasons To Use Surveys To Run Your Business Better.

By: Bob Godgart, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Visionary Officer

I’m always impressed when the IT service providers I work with take the time to ask me how things are going.

Consumer-oriented companies figured this out a while ago. They know that regular customer satisfaction check-ins will help to maximize customer retention, and help them figure out how to best position themselves to win new business. But businesses that provide services to other businesses have been slower to figure this out, and I’m continually surprised at how few companies in the IT business regularly conduct surveys of their customers.

And, increasing customer retention and loyalty is only one of the many reasons you should be regularly conducting surveys – of your customers as well as your prospects. Here are my top 10 additional reasons:

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Big Switch: Trusted Advisors Become Embedded Tech Advisors

By: Bob Godgart, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Visionary Officer

Much has been written and taught about the “holy grail” of IT service providers — to become your clients’ “Trusted Technology Advisor.” But don’t stop there. The next logical step is to become your customers’ Embedded Technology Advisor. Here’s why.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Why Service Level Management is Mission-Critical for IT Service Providers

By: Len DiCostanzo, SVP and Dean of Autotask Academy

It's All About Expectations

At the heart of almost every business relationship are expectations... expectations that have to be set, managed and met or exceeded. When it comes to IT Services, your clients' expectations are going to revolve around the specific services you are delivering and the promises or claims that you make related to them.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Automate to Achieve the Ideal Hybrid IT Business Model

By: Bob Godgart, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Visionary Officer

For years the prevailing wisdom has been for IT solution providers to focus less on moving products, and more toward a business model built primarily on services delivery. The conventional thinking was that product sales involve too much work for too little margin, while services allow for more predictable and stable recurring revenue.

While this is true, there are downsides to a strict focus on services. Three important ones come to mind:

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Selling Products Along with Your Services, Profitably

By: Bob Godgart, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Visionary Officer

Like it or not, products are an integral (and important) part of any IT Service business. Product sales and services sales go hand-in-hand, drive each the other, and produce a whole that is much bigger than the sum of the parts. With the latest product and services automation tools available today, if you’re not realizing a healthy balance of product and services revenue you’re likely leaving serious money on the table, and setting yourself up for erosion of your existing customer base.

Here’s why…

Monday, March 8, 2010

MSPs: Reinvention Once Again Is the Key to Success

By: Bob Godgart, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Visionary Officer

In today’s fast-paced world of technology, new IT issues — and new solutions — can arise in the blink of an eye. This poses a unique challenge for MSPs and VARs trying to stay ahead of the game while simultaneously working to contain costs and maximize ROI. After all, if you can’t or don’t evolve with ongoing service advancements you will quickly begin to lose customers to those competitors who continually find ways to reinvent themselves. So, what’s your next move? Here’s some guidance.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

What Service Providers Can Learn From the Industrial Age

By: Bob Godgart, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Visionary Officer

The word "efficiency" was born out of the manufacturing age as a concept for increasing the output of factories. In its simplest form, the idea is to get more coming out of the factory from the components and raw materials you bring in. This is done by optimizing the manufacturing process, and often times bringing in new tools to speed up and/or automate those process.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Increasing Business Efficiency: Nine Questions You Need to Ask

By: Bob Godgart, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Visionary Officer

To follow the ideas I presented in my January blog post, Getting Ready for the Rebound, we’re all looking to do more with less in 2010. That’s easy to say, but executing the concept in your day-to-day-operations can be a challenge. Here are nine questions you need to consider as you strive to make your business more efficient.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Get Ready for the Rebound

By: Bob Godgart, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Visionary Officer

There’s no denying 2009 was a challenging year. Nearly everyone was forced to cut costs, streamline operations and undergo the proverbial belt tightening to stay out of the red. It wasn’t easy. Salary levels were frozen. Bonuses canceled. Furloughs mandated. And, in the worst cases, employees laid off and businesses closed.

But all the tough decisions and hard work have a pay-off – especially for VARs and MSPs who continued to invest in their businesses and proactively serviced their customers during these tough times. Those who have made it are going to enter the new decade leaner, meaner, stronger and smarter than ever before. Here are my top five strategic tips for the new year: