Thursday, July 28, 2011

How to Succeed with Managed Services: Part 4 - Managed Services Agreements


Autotask Academy and MSP University have teamed up to create an 8-part webinar series to help you build and improve your Managed Services practice and your success!



Each month, Autotask's Len DiCostanzo and Steve Noel and MSPU's Erick Simpson will cover a topic central to developing your Managed Services practice and adding recurring revenue to your bottom line.

Part 4 - Managed Services Agreements

This training session on Thursday, August 11 at 1 PM ET will cover the creation of a Managed Services Agreement, including specifics on what to include and what to exclude, the term of the Agreement, and developing a prioritization-response-resolution process for effective Service Level Agreement (SLA) management.

In this webinar, you'll learn valuable information tailored to protect you and your clients, including:
  • How to increase the value of your MSP organization through properly crafted Managed Service Agreements
  • The importance of having a legal team review all the documents and agreements governing your Managed Services practice
Register now!

CompTIA Cloud Foundations Workshop & Certification - Module 1 - Executive Overview

At Autotask Community Live, CompTIA debuted its Cloud Foundations Workshop and Certification Program. It was so well received that we've teamed up with CompTIA to bring you the first of the five modules in a convenient, two-part webinar format.

Take advantage of the substantial business opportunities in delivering cloud solutions to customers!

Dave Sobel of Evolve Technologies will lead the first module of the Cloud Foundations Workshop, with a summary of the program and how you can use it to transform your business by leveraging cloud technologies.

Len DiCostanzo of Autotask Corporation will also be on hand to share how IT business management software can be the central platform for managing your evolution to the cloud and delivering a whole new range of services more profitably.

You will walk away with high-level findings including:
  • Market opportunities
  • Glossary of terms
  • Why customers want the cloud
  • Key aspects to transforming a traditional solution provider business
  • Potential business challenges and how to overcome them
At the end of Part 2 on August 10, all attendees will receive CompTIA's 10 Week Guide to Building (or Expanding) a Successful Cloud Solutions Practice.


Attendees must be present for the duration of both parts 1 and 2 to receive the educational credit for this module. After completing all modules of workshop, attendees will receive a certificate of completion. Watch your inbox for opportunities to attend future modules.

NOC, NOC. Who's there? More profits and scalability!

Are you looking to drive growth in your business, but feel hesitant to invest in the necessary resources to get going? Perhaps the global economic outlook is holding you back from taking the risk to reach for success...

Instant scalability - and higher profits - don't have to require you to beef up your staffing levels so you can take on more clients. Instead, outsource your helpdesk and Network Operations Center (NOC) so you can assign your techs and resources to more strategic, more profitable activities.

You're invited to join us Wednesday, August 3 at 1 PM US ET, when Dan Goldstein of GMS Live Expert and Steve Noel of Autotask explain how an outsourced NOC uses IT business management software to support MSPs and other IT solution providers.

Learn how GMS Live Expert uses Autotask to:

  • prioritize and track service tickets
  • outsource tickets back to partners for escalation
  • report on KPIs and SLAs
  • help you squeeze additional profit from your existing customer base!
Register now!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Insider's Secret to Boosting Revenue & Profitability: Surveys & Benchmarking

Most service providers believe they’re doing a good job for their clients… until the clients stop doing business with them.

If you’ve ever been blind-sided by a long-term customer leaving you for a competitor, or had a promising new account mysteriously drift away after just one or two engagements, you can't miss this webinar on how implementing a simple survey program can help you prevent surprises and keep your business growing!

Please join us on Wednesday, July 20 at 11 AM US ET when Len DiCostanzo of Autotask Corporation will show you how to use client survey and benchmarking tools to successfully attract new business and secure your current clients for life.

In this free, one-hour webinar, you'll learn:
  • 10 indisputable benefits of using surveys
  • The real ROI of a client survey program and proven tips to design it
  • Best practices for survey question development
  • The importance of monitoring results in real time and comparing them against IT industry benchmarks
  • Key features you must look for in a survey tool to automate and optimize the process
Real-time feedback from customers is more than just ‘nice to have’. It gives you the solid business intelligence you need to grow your business, and it’s a critical component of ITIL’s continual service improvement methodology. Best of all, it doesn’t cost and arm and a leg and it isn’t hard to do – if you have the right tools.

Register now!

Pricing for Profits: A Guide for MSPs & IT Service Providers

Nothing's trickier than coming up with the right pricing for IT services.

Price yourself too high, and your prospects and customers will balk... price your services too low and you'll leave money on the table - or worse, lose money.

If you are looking for actionable advice that you can walk away with to increase profits on the services you already sell, please register now for this webinar coming up next week - Thursday, July 21 at 11 AM US ET.

During this one-hour, information-packed session, Len DiCostanzo will share his best tips based on his own success as a profitable MSP:
  • How to determine costs and profits for:
    • Managed services
    • Cloud services
    • Professional services
    • Break/fix services
    • Time and material services
  • Five key factors to consider when pricing your services
  • How to build inclusive Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for profit
  • How to use automation to scale service delivery and profitability
This webinar will boost your confidence in crafting, selling and delivering profitable services.

Register now!

Monday, July 11, 2011

Motivate Your Technicians to Stop Wasting Time...and Start Capturing It.

The goal of many IT solutions providers is to employ multiple technicians who are constantly busy working on clients' tickets and projects.

But with multiple techs comes a common problem facing IT business managers: techs who don't consistently enter tickets, notes, and time entries. Not only are they wasting time at the end of the week trying to recall work completed to fill in their timesheets, they are bound to leave billable hours on the table. Suddenly, a busy IT business is losing revenue and profitability.

For an enlightening discussion and a proven best practice that motivates techs to correctly enter their time, please join us Wednesday, July 27 at 1 PM US ET, when Anthony Chiappetta of Advanced Microcomputing Concepts shows you how he changed his technicians' behavior - from time wasted to time captured.

Jay McBain of Autotask will share additional tips and benefits of using an IT business managmement software solution to save time, reduce double entry, and track and monitor billable time and expenses more easily and more accurately.

Don't miss this first-person case study, and your chance to learn how Advanced Microcomputing:
  • Converted lost time to billable hours
  • Realized lost revenue by creating proof-of-work statements for flat-fee customers
  • Boosted employee morale and productivity
  • Built and configured reports to manage his motivation system
Register now!

Efficiently Manage Your Online Backup Services In One Place

Are you frustrated with using multiple tools to track and bill the backup and disaster recovery services (BDR) you provide? Are you wasting time manually creating tickets and escalating backup-related issues after receiving notification emails?

If so, this is a webinar you won't want to miss!

To efficiently run their businesses, MSPs and VARs rely heavily on a central IT business management platform - one that easily integrates with tools like BDR services. Now, Autotask and Intronis have teamed up to unveil the integration between the IT business management software and cloud provider of backup and disaster services.

Join us Tuesday, July 26 at 1 PM US ET, when Matt Kowalski and Ted Roller of Intronis and Steve Noel of Autotask will walk you through the core functionality and benefits of the integration, including:

  • Quick and easy setup
  • Effortlessly monitor BDR solutions via Autotask Service Desk tickets automatically generated by Intronis notifications
  • Automatically adjust billing in Autotask per flexible contracts, service bundles, etc.
  • Generate reports and client invoices

This is the first time details are being shared about this new integration, so register now to learn more!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

MSP Tells All: Adding Managed Print Causes Profit Surge

At this year's Autotask Community Live worldwide customer conference, Oki Data created quite the buzz around the topic of Managed Print. Now, the secret is out - and we've found one MSP who is willing to share his valuable learnings since including Managed Print in his portfolio of offerings.

Please join us Wednesday, July 13 at 1 PM US ET, when James Laszko, Chief Technology Officer of Mythos Technology, reveals his first-hand perspective of why his company entered the Managed Print arena, how doing so is positively impacting his clients, and best of all, how Managed Print is producing incredible results for his bottom line.

Tim Brien of Oki Data Americas, Inc. and Len DiCostanzo of Autotask will be on-hand to talk about pairing a Managed Print platform with a cloud-based IT business management solution to drive continuous business process improvement through workflow automation and operational optimization.

If you want to find out how to achieve 35%+ in margins - not markup - register now for this webinar! You'll also get access to these key takeaways:

  • The true market opportunity and long-term growth potential of Managed Print
  • Three common misconceptions MSPs have about Managed Print - and the truth to squash them!
  • The urgency to embed Managed Print in your offerings and build the expertise to capitalize on emerging, spin-off markets
  • How Oki Data's Total Managed Print™ platform provides a competitive advantage to your managed services practice
  • How Autotask cloud-based solutions can help you be successful with Managed Print and other IT solutions
Register now!