Managed Services Goldmine; Do you have the right tools?

With the MSPWorld Orlando conference just around the corner there are a lot of companies looking for new tools to help them make the most of their managed services practice. I have personally been fielding a lot of emails and phone calls lately from MSPs who are looking for new tools to either replace or augment their existing tool sets. It is not, however, just tools that are being sought by MSPs today but other MSPs.

Now, some of you may be wondering why on earth a MSP would want to seek out other MSPs. There is a growing number of MSPs who are trying to grow their services revenues while driving down costs by sharing them across a distributed community. I wrote a blog about this phenomenon a few months ago but it continues to grow in popularity amongst mature MSPs. As mature MSPs grow their practices, the pinch of trying to expand while keeping costs in line can be a challenge. Mature MSPs, who tend to be more secure in their own capabilities and therefore likely to not be threatened by other MSPs are creating small yet powerful communities that yield impressive service capabilities.

Datacenter capacities are being increased, help desks hours are being extended, and Network Operation Centers are being fully utilized. The important thing to note is that many of these communities are springing up among accredited MSPs. Obviously, these communities are seeking out secure, stable, and vetted MSPs who are likely to not be a risk to the larger group.

Whether you are just starting out or you have been in the industry for some time, I would really recommend looking into joining one of these communities. Don't like what you see out there…start your own. The benefits to your managed services practice might surprise you.

What's in your SLA?

In a recent conversation with a MSP executive the topic of contracts came up. This person said that MSP's who do not hold their clients to the letter of their contracts are doing the client's a disservice. I could not agree more.

particularly among smaller organizations there is a habit (no doubt born of many years of practice) where solution providers do business "on a handshake". When MSP's do business like this they are risking more than just a lawsuit. MSP's who cannot say no to a client asking them to do more than what is in the contract can open their managed services practice to a great deal of risk and potential harm.

1) Habit Forming - MSP's who do things not enumerated in their SLA get their clients thinking that they can ask for something anytime and they will get it...regardless if the contract says they should get it.

2) Liability - when a MSP performs a task outside a service agreement there may be far reaching consequences involving legal liability and/or insurance disclaimers.

3) Bad for staff - when an owner or account manager authorizes out of contract work to be done they are circumventing the internal service delivery process every MSP should have. Each service delivered should be directly tied to a SLA, if only to help bill accurately and ensure accountability on the part of the service delivery team.

4) Bad for business - during a M&A business transaction anything delivered outside of a service contract will likely become zeroed out or reduced significantly in value. All those times you thought you were doing your client a favor might actually end up costing you in the end.

Whether it is increased liability, bad for your internal service delivery procedures,  or simply bad business protocol, deviating from a standardized service level agreement is something that should be avoided at all costs. By sticking to the letter of your agreement (and inserting into an agreement any new services requested by the client), you will be doing yourself and your clients a huge favor.