GFI Software, a leading infrastructure provider for small and medium-sized businesses, has announced a program for IT support companies to help them start selling revenue generating services to their clients and get them on their way to becoming Managed Services Providers (MSPs).
As IT support companies struggle to become, or remain, profitable, there is high motivation to move into Managed Services, yet the rate of adoption is relatively slow because many find it difficult to get started. There are concerns over how to price services, the risks in meeting Service Level Agreements (SLAs), how to set up contracts, and importantly, unknowns with how to package, market and sell their services effectively and demonstrate ongoing value to the customer for their monthly spend.
A recent survey, published in Business Solutions Magazine found that 51% of Value Added Resellers (VARs) had difficulty showing the value of a Managed Service to potential customers. Furthermore, over 40% believed that implementing a Managed Service was too difficult and too time-consuming.
“The traditional break/fix model of IT support is problematic. The nature of the model presents a conflict of interest between the support company and their customer – the more problems the customer has the more money the support company makes. This may seem great on the surface, however, the support company is constantly fire fighting making it extremely difficult to predict revenues and capacity. Compound this with the many fixed costs to the business, such as staff and premises. For these reasons, along with the advent of Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM), helpdesk and other automated technology solutions, we’ve seen a growing movement toward Managed Services in recent years,” Doug Wilson, General Manager, GFI MAX RemoteManagement, said.
To help many IT support companies wrestling with growing managed service revenue, GFI is launching the Building Blocks to Managed Services program. Perfect for both those who’ve already begun the transition to Managed Services and those who are keen to but have not yet started, the Building Blocks program also helps these businesses grow recurring revenue profitably and with minimal changes to their existing business operations.
“The program adopts the common sense approach that is core to the GFI MAX philosophy and differs from other ‘revolutionary’ style programs out there that IT support companies find over-complicated and expensive. The Building Blocks program is a set of easily digestible, quick-to-implement services that help support companies win more managed services contracts either with a ‘land and expand’ approach or, a full Managed Service offering from day one,” Mr Wilson added.
The program means IT support companies can quickly and easily get their customer comfortable with a monthly subscription service, continually demonstrate their value through automatic reporting, and tap into additional revenues (either break/fix, projects or new equipment) up to the point where the customer is ready and they, having a full understanding of their infrastructure, are confident to offer them a full fixed price managed services contract and start reaping the rewards.
GFI is expecting to see strong uptake of the Building Blocks program as it is launched to GFI MAX customers in North America, the United Kingdom, central Europe, the Middle East and Africa through a series of a webinars, seminars and conferences in some 50 venues over the next three months. Register for the launch webinar here http://www.gfi.com/pages/buildingblockwebinars.asp.
About GFI MAX RemoteManagement
GFI MAX RemoteManagement delivers an easy, affordable solution for IT support providers, Value Added Resellers (VARs) and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) who are looking to take better care of their clients at less cost. GFI MAX RemoteManagement (RMM) solution includes server, network and workstation monitoring and management, asset tracking, client reporting and remote access.
About GFI
GFI Software provides the single best source of web and mail security, archiving and fax, networking and security software and hosted IT solutions for small to medium-sized businesses (SMB) via an extensive global partner community. GFI products are available either as on-premise solutions, in the cloud or as a hybrid of both delivery models. With award-winning technology, a competitive pricing strategy, and a strong focus on the unique requirements of SMBs, GFI can satisfy the IT needs of SMB organizations on a global scale. As the leading infrastructure provider for SMBs, we have offices in the United States (North Carolina and California), Canada, UK (London and Scotland), Austria, Australia, Malta, Hong Kong and Romania, which together support more than 200,000 installations worldwide. GFI is a channel-focused company with over 10,000 partners throughout the world. We are also a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.