1. A Starter Guideto IT Managed ServicesA successful managed services business is reliant on a solidbusiness strategy and service delivery model as well as findingthe right technology for your needs.

2. Kaseya | A Starter Guide to IT Managed ServicesTable of ContentsIntroduction: Why Should I Read This Guide?Part 1: The Role of the MSPPart 2: Formulating the Right StrategyPart 3: Choosing the Right ToolPart 4: Pricing for ProfitPart 5: Watch Out for These TrapsPart 6: What You Can Hope to Achieve When Building a Successful MSPPart 7: Safe Systems: The Right Way to Build a Successful Managed Services BusinessThe Conclusion: What We Learned

3. Kaseya | A Starter Guide to IT Managed ServicesIntroduction: Why Should I Read This Guide? This guide will help you:Dear IT Solution Provider & Services Professional, I Develop and execute on a solid business strategy for running a managed servicesI had an interesting conversation with one of our managed services customers the other day. We were discussing the companyjourney he took as his IT services company grew from a one-man show to an 18-person managed services company I Choose the right IT systems managementwith $3 million in revenue in just a few years. He said it was a tough transition, but it was worth it. However, what solution to help enable your visionstruck me was the motivation behind transforming the business. I Price your managed services fairly,Here is what he said: I had been working for years in a break-fix model and was making enough money to be competitively, and profitablycomfortable. Then it occurred to me. I had built a nice job for myself but it was far short of a business. And thats I Understand MSP pricing and profitwhat I really wanted. I wanted to build a business, and I knew that I had to get serious about managed services. scenarios including cost, profit, andIt was the perfect light bulb moment. He had built a job but wanted a business. MRR/project/breakfix calculations and analysisThats what this Starter Guide to IT Managed Services is all about. Kaseya works with hundreds of companies thathave transformed their one-man shops into successful managed services businesses with thousands of managed end I Avoid some common pitfallspoints. By embracing the Kaseya IT Automation Framework, these customers have formulated and executed on a I Understand the benefits that comemanaged services strategy that allows them to manage thousands of systems robustly, reliably and securely with with implementing managed servicesjust a handful of technicians. correctlySo, take a walk with us. Read this guide. Turn your job into a business. I Understand how an IT service provider successfully rolled out managed servicesSincerely and best of luck, for its customers and transformed into one of the largest MSPs in the countryDavid CastroDirector, Marketing

4. Kaseya | A Starter Guide to IT Managed ServicesPart 1: The Role of the MSPLets start with a joke.Whats the difference between a traditional IT service provider and a managed service provider?The will and the knowledge to succeed.Ok. Its not very funny. In fact, its not funny at all. But its the truth. The only thing standing in the way oftransforming your break-fix provider into an MSP is you. You have to want it, and you have to know how torun a business.The role of a managed service provider is to provide quality IT services to customers quickly and efficiently Why I want tofor a consistent, low price. But theres a second part. The role of an MSP is also to make money. Remember, you be an MSParent just building a job for yourself. Youre building a business, and businesses need to be profitable. I MSPs are approximately 200-400%Finding the right technology is the easy part; management solutions are just tools. MSPs need to focus on the more profitable than non-MSPsbusiness aspects of managed services, blending a solid business strategy with the right tool that will enableyou to implement your vision. I Pure play MSPs are approximately 25-50% more profitable than hybrid model MSPs I MSPs are 3x to 10x more valuable than traditional VARs Source: Kaseya Worldwide Customer Survey, 2012

5. Kaseya | A Starter Guide to IT Managed ServicesPart 2: Formulating the Right Strategy Top 10 List of IT Tasks Primed forBuilding a successful business is more than just technology. Successful companies understand how to take the art of Automationproviding a service and turn it into a business. They make sure they get the basics right. They are good companies 1. Patch management and softwarefirstand then they get the technology. deploymentCompanies that get the business part right and flub the technology part wont grow very fast but will chug along and 2. User and group maintenancesurvive. On the other hand, service providers that use the right technology but cant handle growth or manage daily 3. Network security sweepsoperations will most likely fail. However, its companies that get both the business right and choose the appropriate 4. Disk usage scansmanagement solution for their needs that are wildly successful. Running the business the right way is that critical. 5. Device and network performance monitoringHere are six tips that you can use to build a profitable business model: 6. File transfers 7. Code promotion (from staging to1. Take a Proactive, Preventative Approach production)Any dentist will tell you that its much easierand less painfulto prevent a cavity than it is to pull a rotten tooth. 8. High-level, routine administrationIts also a better business model because years of semi-annual checkups likely are more profitable for the dentist than 9. Rebootsa one-time tooth extraction. Its the same with IT systems management. Identifying and heading off minor problems 10. Malware scansbefore they become major issues is a more efficient and more successful way of maintaining the availability andperformance of your customers systems. Source: Kaseya Community Postings & Script Utilization Statistics, 2012Automation is the key. Make it a standard business practice to identify and resolve issues before users are aware.Set thresholdscapacity and memory ceilingsthat your customers systems need to meet to be in compliance.If they fall out of compliance (or come close), have automatic and manual processes in place to fix them.Being proactive reduces downtime and speeds time to resolution, ensuring your customers users have access tothe tools and information they need. At the same time, preventing problems helps avoid fire drills where your teamis forced to run around putting out fires to maintain availability and performance standards. If theyre not constantlycleaning up, theyre able to focus on more strategic (read: more revenue-producing or more customer-focused)projects.

6. Kaseya | A Starter Guide to IT Managed Services2. Stop Managing Individual Machines and Start Managing Policies and Machine GroupsThe days of managing machines one at a time are over. Successful MSPs create, update and apply policies to groupsof machines, managing exceptions while keeping systems in compliance of predetermined conditions. Create, editand push out base images for each type of machine in your customers environmentsWindows 7 desktops,Exchange servers, iPads, Finance Departmentand spend your time making sure the images are robust and appliedconsistently. Aggregate your management tasks and think how you can apply changes by machine group (ie,Exhange servers) across your entire customer base. Focusing on exceptions rather than each machine streamlinesIT systems management, eliminating the repetition typically associated with one-machine-at-a-time maintenancewhile ensuring consistent IT service across environments.3. Talk CashMoolah. Greenbacks. Clams. Money is the universal language. Every conversation you have with customers needsto be based on how much budget you can save them or how much additional revenue you can generate. A customerneeds to upgrade to Windows 7? Position it as a way to increase the productivity of users and to streamline licensingcosts. A backup process needs to be made more efficient? Mention the price of a typical data recovery job and thecost savings of using less bandwidth.When going after new business, calculate how much the customer spends on managing IT and show how muchthey can save by outsourcing to you. Stress that they will be able to focus on their core business because you have ITcovered. Get internal IT staffs on your side by quantifying how you can enhance their efforts, create efficiencies andmake their lives much easier.4. Get Your Head in the CloudsSuccessful MSPs manage a variety of IT services for their customers delivered through the cloud. This allows themto pick best of breed solutions and deliver these services to customers in an efficient manner. Customers deserve achoice of solutions that work best for themrather than what is available through their technology provider.For the MSP, delivering services through the cloud allows it to become a manager of services rather than simply atechnician. By out-sourcing the nitty-gritty to cloud providers, MSPs can focus on high-level strategy, helpingcustomers manage relationships and integration with cloud vendors.

7. Kaseya | A Starter Guide to IT Managed Services5. Keep Up with the Joness Top NeedsIts important to stay on top of innovation in the IT industry, constantly improving your services while finding newways to benefit customers. Get certified. Take classes. Participate in the social conversation taking place in the growing of IT Usersnumber of community-focused destinations. Connect with evangelists within the industry so you can pass that I End-to-end device protectionknowledge on to your customers. And be creative when marketing yourself. I Guaranteed services levelsThere are many smaller companies that could benefit from managed services but may not know any better. Spend theeffort educating potential clients, investing now for a payoff down the road. Your goal should be to create a community I Minimal disruption to user productivityof like-minded business professionals who can share best practices and contribute to the common good. Its also and core business processesimportant to be wary of high-maintenance customers who may not be worth holding onto and may drag down yourmore put-together clients.Keeping on top of trends and innovation in the industry allows you to be nimble and flexible so you can take Top Needsadvantage of market opportunities. And it keeps you locked in with the needs of your customers and it virtually of MSPseliminates any thoughts they may have of replacing you. I High customer satisfaction rates6. Target the Suits I Low administrative expensesMany MSPs have solid relationships with the boots on the ground, the guys who plan and operate their customers ITstrategies. Thats great, but dont forget to embrace users and the management team. Talk to users about their IT needs I Strong profitsand get a feel for the business so you can help the company achieve its goals. Be seen as a technology partner in the I Industry credibilityboardroom rather than a service provider beholden to the IT department. Its also important to manage expectations I Scalable foundation for long-term growththrough monthly and quarterly meetings, making sure everyone is on the same page with ITs role and capacityplanning. These regular meetings can go a long way toward ensuring management knows the good work your team Source: Kaseya Worldwide Customer Survey, 2012is doing and how you can help the company in the future.Properly engaged, users can be an asset, used to conduct basic maintenance on distributed machines so youdont have to. Set up policies that allow them to make authorized configuration changes, downloads, patches andapplications (and make sure you block unauthorized changes as well). User self service saves you time, saves userstime, gives them a stake in the health of their system and ensures consistent IT service across the organization.

8. Kaseya | A Starter Guide to IT Managed ServicesPart 3: Choose the Right ToolThe managed services business model is enabled by the technology you use to deliver IT services to your customers.However, there are dozens of solutions. How do you choose the right one for your unique needs?IT systems management solutions come in several flavors based on thesoftwares architecture.Point ProductsSingle-feature point productssuch as an asset management solution, a help desk solution or monitoring softwareare a common option for smaller network deployments or for IT professionals with a lot of patience for integrating dis-parate management solutions. They work well for what they are engineered to do but should not be an option for aprovider that is serious about managed services. The initial cost may be tempting, but you have to weigh that againstthe long-term overhead burden from implementing, learning and maintaining multiple tools.AppliancesAppliances are advertised as simple to install, simple to configure and simple to useessentially a tempting way toshort-cut the complexities of initial IT systems management deployment. But they tend to sacrifice functionality andflexibility for ease of use and cost. Feature sets tend to be more limited than comparable toolsets, which can leave youwith gaps in service when it comes to implementing a complete and proactive IT systems management strategy.Agentless SoftwareAgentless management solutions typically provide a richer feature-set than appliances and dont require that softwarebe deployed on each system. Instead, management functions and services are provided over the network (or even overthe Internet). However, agentless software is completely dependent on network connections. If the network goesdown so does your management solution. Uncertain reliability could take away the visibility into your network and in-hibit your ability to manage systems just when you need those capabilities the most.

9. Kaseya | A Starter Guide to IT Managed ServicesAgent-Based SoftwareAgent-based software solutions can provide the kinds of feature sets, reliability and robustness required by just aboutany sized customer from small SMBs to large enterprises. By placing natively written agents on each managed device,MSPs are given the greatest level of control to perform any task necessary. Some of the leading solution providers offerlightweight agents (