Pricing For Profits: A Guide for MSPs and 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're looking for actionable advice to increase profits on the services you already sell, then don't miss your chance to register for this live webinar.

During this information-packed session, Autotask SVP Community & Business Development, Len DiCostanzo will share his best tips based on his own success as a profitable MSP, and his work with hundreds of service providers around the world.

Len will be joined by Meagan Kelly, Partner Development Specialist at N-able, who will share how N-able can add to your revenue and profitability.

Register now to boost your confidence in crafting, selling and delivering profitable services. Walk away from this webinar knowing:

• 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

How to Leverage the Popularity of the Cloud to Make it Rain

Cloud computing: technology revolution or marketing gimmick?

You will hear arguments on both sides. But one fact is beyond argument: the cloud has fundamentally altered the way technology services are bought and sold. Ignore this change at your peril!

The MSPs and VARs that capitalize on this shift and update their selling strategies to reflect the popularity of cloud computing will enjoy a more reliable stream of clients, revenue and income. More importantly, these businesses will cement a competitive advantage that will continue to pay dividends down the road.

Join Kutenda CEO Mike Cooch and Autotask Online Marketing Manager Rich Akullian on Wednesday, February 15 at 1 PM US ET as they identify the challenges and opportunities facing IT service providers in today’s rapidly changing business environment.

Don’t miss your opportunity to discover:

• How the cloud has changed the rules of game—and why yesterday’s selling methodologies won’t work today
• Why it’s imperative that you become a change agent
• The simple lesson about sales that all IT service providers must learn
• The 3 core skills that top salespeople always focus on and mediocre salespeople rarely do
• How to match your selling process to the client buying process (a key ingredient for selling success)
• The 4 places to look for qualified leads
• How to embrace your selling role (even if you’re not a so-called “natural born seller”)
• How to know when the time is right to close the deal and how to do it right
• The top 3 misconceptions preventing most VARs and MSPs from reaching their earning potential

The cloud has the potential to be either a costly disruption or a lucrative opportunity for your business—it’s up to you!

BONUS: Register today and enter to win a list of 1,000 local contacts! We’ll be drawing winners from our list of registrants after the event. Register now to enter your submission today.

Register now!

Transform Your Business with a Hybrid IT Services Catalog

Sponsored by N-able Technologies:

Years ago, it was easy enough to deliver break/fix services: you received a call from a distressed client and quickly went to work diagnosing and mediating the issue. Then as your business matured, you probably added professional services to your offerings, but perhaps it wasn't enough to sustain client satisfaction and your business's profitability.

Within the last decade, the industry trend to managed services forced you to re-examine your operations and business model. And just when you mastered that challenge, the buzz around cloud services exploded and further complicated the service delivery landscape.

Are you now wondering what could be next?

You're invited to listen to an insightful presentation led by Len DiCostanzo, Autotask SVP of Community & Business Development on Tuesday, January 10 at 1 PM US ET. In this hour, Len will guide you through building a profitable IT services catalog to use to transform your business.
Learn how to organize the products and services you deliver now, and how to incorporate cloud services into your current offerings. Len will share:

• Industry best practices and standards to transform your business
• Methodologies to define services categories in your hybrid catalog
• Where the 'cloud' fits in your catalog strategy
• Why balancing product sales and services drives profitability and revenue
• Determining your balance with a vertical focus using solution sets
• How to align your catalog with the four critical stages to securing a client for life
• How an à la carte menu makes it easy for clients to buy from you
• How automating catalog sales reduces costs, increases profits

Register now!

CompTIA Cloud Foundations Workshop & Certification: Module 5 - Operations Management

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 modules in a convenient webinar format.

Take advantage of the substantial business opportunities in delivering cloud solutions to customers! On Tuesday, December 13 at 1 PM US ET, Dan Shapero will lead this fifth and final module of the Cloud Foundations Workshop, and help you recognize many of the operational elements of your business that need to be modified as you build a cloud business.

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.

Learn to develop insights into these operations management components:

• Deal economics
• Cash/revenue flow
• Creating effective sales compensation plans
• Establishing operating metrics & evaluators

Register now!

A Day in the Life of a Successful MSP

Ever wonder what the top managed services providers are doing that you're not? Here's your chance to find out!

On Tuesday, December 6 at 1 PM US ET, you're invited to join this webinar and hear from leading MSP, Dan Tomaszewski, President of Michigan-based Computer House Calls. Dan will explain how he combines the power of Kaseya and Autotask to deliver world-class services while continually increasing his monthly recurring revenue stream.

During this insightful session, you’ll learn:

• How Dan and the team at Computer House Calls transitioned their business model from Break-Fix to Managed Services
• Critical steps to immediately implement in your business that are proven to save the most time and effort for MSPs
• The most important services to offer your clients, along with the most efficient and profitable way to deliver them

Instead of listening to a bunch of marketing fluff, you'll hear from this true MSP discuss the best tools, features and technical functions his company uses to deliver efficient, profitable IT services to clients.

Autotask's Rich Akullian and Kaseya's Gerald Beaulieu will be on hand to provide brief introductions to their respective solutions and answer questions.

Register now!

Pricing For Profits: A Guide for MSPs and 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're looking for actionable advice to increase profits on the services you already sell, then don't miss your chance to register for this next webinar coming up on Thursday, November 17 at 11 AM US ET.

During this information-packed session, Autotask SVP Len DiCostanzo will share his best tips based on his own success as a profitable MSP, and his work with hundreds of service providers around the world.

Len will be joined by Stefanie Hammond of N-able Technologies and Nick Pontacoloni of TechTarget who will share how their respective solutions can add to your revenue and profitability.

Register now to boost your confidence in crafting, selling and delivering profitable services. Walk away from this webinar knowing:

• 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

Get Into the Cloud Without Leaving the Ground

There is little doubt your prospects and customers are asking about the cloud. Do you have the knowledge and tools in place to remain their trusted advisor?

On Wednesday, November 16 at 1 PM US ET, please join Christopher Graham, Strategic Marketing Manager for Intel Hybrid Cloud Organization, and Rich Akullian, Online Marketing Producer for Autotask, as they share details about the partnership to help you grow opportunities and revenue.

Christopher will introduce the Intel AppUp(SM) Small Business Service, built on the Intel® Hybrid Cloud Platform. Register now to learn more about the subscription-based model for providing locally hosted server software on a pay-as-you-go basis. Small businesses get the benefits of services in the cloud, with the responsiveness and consistency of local applications, plus the peace of mind of having their data on site.

You can expect these key takeaways:

• The impact of cloud growth on small business
• An overview of Intel Hybrid Cloud Partners
• How to incorporate these services into your business model
• The potential revenue opportunities for MSPs
• First steps to get started - including promotions and materials to help you sell

Register now!

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!

Upsell Your Clients with Cloud Services - The Easy Way!

To increase revenue and profitability in your IT business, you can upsell clients on new offerings that make their technology faster, easier, and safer.

One option is to deploy a new cloud services solution, but without a connection to your other business you end up with another silo of contact and billing information to manage.

Enter Cloud Integration Services, a brand-new connector that synchronizes account data, performs contract updates and improve service coordination between Rackspsce Email & Apps Services and Autotask's IT business management software!

Please join us Tuesday, July 12 at 1 PM US ET, when a featured panel of speakers demonstrates how easy it is to create seamless pass-thru billing relationships and generate rich, detailed client-based reporting - all from one integrated solution.

Don't miss this first look as we unveil the benefits of the integration, including:

• Reducing the complexity of multiple vendor portals, billing systems and fragmented data
• Increasing recurring revenue and billing opportunities without adding manual tasks
• Managing additional services from within your primary business management tool

Register now!

Less Work. More Value. Pairing Disaster Recovery with IT Business Management Software

As a technology solutions provider, your clients expect you to stay prepared for the unexpected. By including backup and disaster recovery (BDR) solutions in your services catalog, your clients can rest assured knowing you provide true business continuity by eliminating the risk of downtime or lost data for their employees and customers.

On Thursday, June 30 at 1 PM US ET, Adrian Goins of Arces will show how his team generates new business and recurring revenue by leveraging a unique integration to manage his clients' devices.

Arces' solution pairs Datto's backup and disaster recovery solutions and Autotask's cloud-based IT business management platform to seamlessly manage service delivery, workflow and billing.

Steve Noel of Autotask and Shannon Kohn from Datto will be on hand to answer questions and discuss the key benefits of the integration, including:  

• New recurring services you can create to attract new business
• How to improve service delivery to existing clients
• How the integration between Datto and Autotask streamlines the management and delivery of BDR servces for all of your clients

Register now!

Maximise Your Managed Services Practice with GFI MAX and Autotask

Please join Autotask and GFI MAX for this exclusive webinar introducing how our rock-solid integration will maximise your Managed Services Practice. You can run your business better and more profitably with the unique combination of Autotask’s IT business management software and GFI MAX’s IT security and productivity solutions.

In this not-to-be-missed hour on Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 11 AM GMT / 4 PM US ET, you’ll hear from Tony Poole, Group Managing Director of the Pure Synergy Group, one of the UK’s leading Managed Services Providers. Tony will speak on how an integrated software toolset can ease your transition, improve efficiency, and build profitable services for you customers.

Len DiCostanzo and Alistair Forbes will be on hand to introduce you to Autotask and GFI MAX and demonstrate how you can leverage the integration to:

• Win new business
• Develop new services
• Generate additional recurring revenue
• Improve service delivery
• Automate and optimize key business processes
• Make your life more manageable

Register now!

New Tools Open Doors to More Recurring Revenue and Higher Profitability

Odds are, if you're not already selling recurring services to build your business, you're working on ways to add them to your catalog. And even if yo'ure already offering a slate of services, you're probably looking for new and better solutions to offer your clients. Either way, this educational webinar is for you!

Please register now to join Level Platform's Jeff Dryall and Autotask's Steve Noel on Tuesday, June 14 at 1 PM ET for a valuable one-hour session on how you can use Managed Workplace 2011 and Autotask together to create and deliver high-margin recurring services while you reduce your service costs and increase client satisfaction.

You'll learn how you can:

• Better evaluate managed services opportunities
• Leverage managed services to increase your value to existing clients - and attract new ones
• Centrally monitor and manage services for all of your SMB clients
• Use new features including enhanced scripting and automated task management to streamline workflow
• Manage, implement, track and bill everything - seamlessly - from a single, cloud-based platform

Register now!

Preparing for the Future: Convergence of the IT and Pro AV Markets

As an MSP, VAR or IT service provider, you already know all about cloud computing, broadband connectivity, and networks. But to the Pro AV industry, these same concepts started a revolution, along with a significant opportunity to broaden your catalog offerings and your client base.

Displays have evolved from the AV world to the network and the cloud, creating a demand for services provided by solution providers like you. New products from display manufacturers and distributors like InFocus are on the market, creating new sources of recurring services and revenue growth.

You are invited to this special one-hour webinar, hosted by Scott Niesen of InFocus and Jay McBain of Autotask on Thursday,May 19 at 1 PM ET as they will discuss how the Pro AV and IT markets are coming together - and the unique business-building opportunities created.

You'll walk away from this webinar knowing:

• New ways to make money from selling high-margin product products
• How to discover remote monitoring & management opportunities with Pro AV clients
• How Pro AV installations can build the recurring revenues with your SMB clients

Register today!

New Tools Open Doors to More Recurring Revenue and Higher Profitability

Odds are, if you're not already selling recurring services to build your business, you're working on ways to add them to your catalog.

And even if you're already offering a slate of services, you're probably looking for new and better solutions to offer your clients.

Either way, this educational webinar is for you!

Join Level Platform's Rob Rae and Autotask's Steve Noel on Wednesday, May 18 at 1 PM ET for a valuable one-hour session on how you can use Managed Workplace 2011 and Autotask together to create and deliver high-margin recurring services while you reduce your service costs and increase client satisfaction.

You'll learn how you can:

• Better evaluate managed services opportunities
• Leverage managed services to increase your value to existing clients - and attract new ones
• Centrally monitor and manage services for all of your SMB clients
• Use new features including enhanced scripting and automated task management to streamline workflow
• Manage, implement, track and bill everything - seamlessly - from a single, cloud-based platform

Register today!

Add More Customers and More Profits with Managed Print Services

Q: Why are so many IT Service Providers rushing into the Managed Print Services business?

A: Managed Print Services is one of the easiest new offerings to add to your portfolio...and it's one that can deliver a nice, upfront infusion of cash, plus ongoing recurring revenue.

It's also a service that can get you in the door with new prospects, and expand your relationship with existing customers.

Learn how you can cash-in on one of the hottest IT services on Thursday, May 12 at 1 PM US ET. Our featured panel of speakers includes: Corey Simpson, Director of Member Communities at CompTIA; Tim Brien, Director of MPS at OKI Data; and Len DiCostanzo, Senior Vice President of Business Development and Dean of Autotask Academy at Autotask Corporation.

At the end of this webinar, you'll have insight into:

• Why now is the time to take advantage of the Managed Print Services opportunities
• Unique strategies for building incremental revenue with large profit margins
• Barriers of entry to Managed Print Services and how to overcome them
• Key benefits of adding Managed Print Services to your existing services portfolio

You'll also be exposed to different options for entry into this market, including creating a complete Managed Print Services business model or setting up a modular, stand-alone offering.

Register today!

How to Add Cloud-Based Infrastructure Solutions to Your Solution Stack

The 'cloud' is the hottest and most talked about trend in the IT channel. Do you have a business strategy to capitalize on this trend? Is your current strategy aligned to profit from cloud opportunities? Do you understand how to position the cloud to meet the needs of your client base?

By attending this 60-minute webinar on Tuesday, May 10 at 1 PM US EDT, you'll learn how to supercharge your business with cloud-based infrastructure. Join Rob Bissett, 6fusion's VP of Product Management and Steve Noel, Autotask Corporation's Technical Product Manager, as they dig into the subject of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

In just one hour, you'll learn the answers to these questions:

• What are cloud-based infrastructure services?
• What role does IaaS have in the channel?
• How does IaaS complement and support your existing processes, products and services?
• How do you leverage IaaS to compete, differentiate, and profit?

Don't miss this brand-new session focused on how a channel-specific IaaS from 6fusion integrated with Autotask's IT business management platform can help you retain existing clients, win new business, create additional scale, and increase profitability from your operations.

Register today!

The Perfect Year in the Life of an IT Solution Provider

By: Len DiCostanzo, SVP and Dean of Autotask Academy

When VARs, MSPs and IT solution providers evolve their businesses to include a managed services practice, the goal is to deliver recurring services to ensure recurring revenue and recurring profit. While it’s not so easy as to convert to this model overnight, start by identifying an entry point to deliver managed services to a new or existing client and build your practice over time. Let’s take a cross-section of one year operating with this business model and discuss how you can build a similar practice layer by layer.

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.

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: