Delivering the Secret to Success in IT Support
Lately, I’ve been up to my eyeballs in Webinars! We’ve delivered GFI MAX Building Blocks Webinars to thousands of IT Support Companies worldwide. These webinars demonstrate an easy way to move towards recurring revenues (assuming that’s what you and your customers need).
This week I caught a minute to reflect on what it was like to be in the ‘hot seat’ running a fast growing IT Support company, doubling in size every year.
I remember it was exciting but hard work, made even harder by my slavish dedication to do the right thing for my customers at all times. Even, if that meant losing out occasionally in the short term.
I wanted customers to be certain of our integrity. Anything we suggested to them was because we thought they needed it. Not because we fancied selling it to them or needed the profit from it.
This reminded me about how it felt when software/hardware vendors were trying to sell us stuff, or pitching to get us to sell on their wares. Right in the front of my mind was ‘how will this suit our customers?’
Which in turn, caused me to consider our own position as a Software Provider for Support Companies – do we ask them to do something because it suits our mission but puts their reputation for integrity at risk?
You are now entering ‘DoWhatYourCustomerWantsVille’ – Please drive safely!
I got to thinking that ‘no we don’t!’ Our Building Block program basically says – The road to success goes straight through ‘DoWhatYouCustomerWantsVille’.
If your customer wants break fix, we can help you help them. If they want a fixed cost deal – again, we can help you help them. We aren’t proscriptive. Building Blocks are ‘take it or leave it’ ideas and useful material you can use to move as far towards managed services as it suitable for your customer (NB: use of towards rather than to).
Moreover, our Product and Pricing suits this well! It’s very possible to use GFI MAX RemoteManagement™ for your break fix customers and reap dividends on extra hours billed, extra equipment sold, etc. It’s also possible to use GFI MAX RemoteManagement for fixed cost support for huge efficiencies, etc. And it’s possible to use and pay for different parts of the system (or none at all) for different customers.
Now, considering the same question in relation to our competitors and the ‘Managed Service Industry’; do they ask IT Companies to do something predominantly because it suits their own agenda?
You are now leaving ‘DoWhatYouCustomerWantsVille’ – Thank you for driving safely!
Welcome to ‘TailWaggingTheDogVille’
Regarding the Managed Services Industry – Hmmm, I was a managed service provider (apparently)… long before I’d even heard of the term. I did what was sensible and delivered what was required to profitably service our customer’s wishes. A whole industry/army of consultants/people with a vested interest in making this seem difficult built up around that?
Regarding our competitors – They package and license their products and programs entirely differently to us. It’s my contention that they need everybody to be offering Managed Services (Fixed Cost) so that they can shift their software (because of the product design & pricing deal). So they bang this drum hard.
We ‘tap’ the drum of ‘Managed Services’ and other drums besides, because it’s the right thing for you to do for your customers.
GFI MAX RemoteManagement software and pricing fits all models. That’s why we can say – do what’s right for your customer and you!!
Or perhaps you’d rather do the right thing for folks with software/consulting/sales programs to sell?
Our conscience and our customer’s conscience are clear.
About the Author: Chris Martin
Chris has a first class Honours degree in Software Engineering and Masters in Computer Science. He has the dubious distinction of being one of the earliest Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers (MCSE) in the UK. Chris started his career in the early 90s in Enterprise IT at NCR/AT&T as a Software Engineer and morphed into Infrastructure looking after company Network & Servers. He then spent some years in small business, forming and running an IT Support Company. Chris lives in Fife, Scotland with his partner, kid and two dogs. He’s a keen sportsman, cycling, running, golfing and various other (sometimes risky) outdoor pursuits. He claims (and we believe him) that he really wants to be an Egyptologist or Economist.
Absolutely bang on the mark.
We looked at Kaseya, etc and it would have meant re-engineering too much of our business too fast to get a return on the investment
Some of our customers, especially professional services are used to billing by the hour and are reluctant to so called managed services deals.
We like that GFI don’t force us to do that.
Vic
Chris,
I have always had challenges with the value proposition “you should own the licenses” model that many of the “big boy” Remote Monitoring & Management (RMM) providers have been promoting..it’s challenging to make the ROI meet the road for both the MSP and the end customer.
Especially with a major factor of the ROI equation being recouped over time. With the current economic pressures on our customers to cut costs, and traditional MSP services quickly becoming a commodity as the major telco’s and even office supply companies (Staples) enter as competitors…we MSP’s need “reasonable solutions at reasonable prices” now – not in 1-2 years.
We have found GFIMax to be a refreshing affordable approach to staying competitive.
Hi Ty.
Thanks for the comment.
I wholeheartedly agree. Having run a ‘real world’ IT Support Co – it’s tough to convince all your customers that recurring fee is the way to go. So we ended up running both break/fix and managed services side by side.
I actually used GFIMAX RM in both cases:
Managed Services for efficiency
Break Fix – to drive extra revenue/hw sales and to tie wandering break fix customers into our services.
And because it was ‘pay in arrears’ and only for what you used – economically it worked well for us as GFI MAX’s cost were low enough to generate a return in both cases.
All the best,
Chris
“do we ask them to do something because it suits our mission but puts their reputation for integrity at risk?”
That’d definitely a tough act to balance. But I think giving customers as many options as possible is always a good thing. It should never be beyond the core competencies (or resources) of your company of course, but having the ability to walk your customers through as many scenarios as possible is always plus. However, it’s always important to provide them the transparency they deserve as they examine each and every one of their choices.
@Nic
Unfortunately, from a consultation and advisory standpoint, many clients waste valuable time, effort and resources in exploring different options, only to come out undecided in the end. Despite the fact that I agree with presenting the client with options, it’s always best to be able to guide them quickly, and efficiently, on what track to take. I think consultation and advisory firms should be more than aggressive with this.