managed services, monitoring services and basic it support services - pros and cons and how to...

www.ConfluenceCorp.com | @ConfluenceCorp 3/25/12

Managed Services, Monitoring Services and Basic IT Support Services – Pros and Cons and How to Choose #12NTCITsup

Lisa Rau


Agenda

• Definitions • History • Background on IT Support Business Model / Types of Plans

/ Models – HaaS; Fully managed; On-site Hourly; Everything in between

• Where is the industry heading? • What type of model might be right for you? • Pros and Cons • What are others doing? • How do these types of plan work? • Selecting the Model / Questions to ask • Case Study

2


Takeaways

• What different support models (managed, monitored, basic) entail

• What the pros and cons of the models are

• How to select a model that is right for you


Introductions

• Lisa Rau

– CEO and co-founder, Confluence (www.confluencecorp.com)

– Computer Scientist

– 20 years experience in IT / support services industry

http://www.confluencecorp.com/


Introductions - Confluence

Mission:

– To help our nonprofit clients achieve the greatest strategic value from their technology resources

• Founded 3/01

• Close to 500 clients nationwide

• Over 30 full time staff and consultants

• 95% of our work is for the nonprofit sector


Breadth of Services • Open source implementations

– CiviCRM, Joomla, Drupal, custom web software

• Strategic technology consulting

• Website design, development support

• Salesforce implementation

• Interface Design

• Full branding, print and graphic design

• Infrastructure Support

6


Services Breakdown

7


Introductions – Lisa Rau • CEO and co-founder, Confluence

(www.confluencecorp.com)

• Computer Scientist – BS, MS in Computer Science from UC Berkeley

– Ph.D. from University of Exeter specializing in Information Retrieval and Artificial Intelligence

– 20 years experience in IT / support services industry

• VP on the Board of the YWCA of the National Capital Area

• Peer Reviewer, for MD Nonprofits’ Standards of Excellence Program

8

http://www.confluencecorp.com/


Definitions

• Managed Services vs. “Break / Fix”

• Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)

• Managed Service Provider (MSP)

• Professional Services Automation (PSA) – Ticketing, Dispatch, Configuration, Escalation, Billing

• Customer Premises Equipment (CPS)

• Network Operations Center (NOC)

• "Hardware as a Service"

• Small Medium Business (SMB) < 1,000 staff

9


History

• Before 2000, everything was “break / fix”

• In between: – Preventative, scheduled maintenance visits

– Combined with break/fix as needed

• Enter – Managed Services – Transfer day-to-day tasks to Services Provider

– Fundamental Dimensions • What Devices are covered

• What Services are provided

• Monitoring only, or monitoring and fixing

10


RMM from LabTech

• Remote, proactive monitoring of computer and network health

• 24x7 issue detection and reporting

• Efficient issue resolution from a remote location

• Comprehensive set of IT management tools accessible


RMM Attributes from LabTech

• Remote agents connect – Without VPNs, firewall issues or router

configurations

• Can perform tasks for clients while offline • Enables technicians to fix problems without

logging directly into the affected machine • Problems can be resolved remotely

– From the agent and console – While a client is still using a computer or server


What Devices are covered

• Anything “smart” • Server • Desktops • Firewalls • Surge Protectors • Software systems, including remote access • Website(s) • Network (LAN or Internet) • PDAs (which ones??) • Printers / Copiers / Other Peripherals?


What Can be Included

• Alerts – Uptime

– Storage

– Connectivity

– Backup

– Security (virus and patches)

• Security (Anti-virus)

• Patch Management

• Backup

• Options

– Backup

– Spam filters

– Mail bagging

– Web hosting


IT Support Business Model

• Types of Plans / Models

– Fully managed

– On-site Hourly

– Everything in between

• Next up: RMM in the Cloud

• Prices are dropping / Competition is here


"Hardware as a Service" models

• Differs from leasing in that support is included in hardware cost

• Buyout provisions

• Even MORE predictable IT expenses

• Benefits in speed of provisioning


Sample Offerings in the RMM Market Space

• All are the same; all are different – Kaseya

– LabTech (purchased by ConnectWise)

– N-Able

– Citrix GoToManage (formerly Paglo)

– Level Platforms

– Windows InTune

• N-Able says nearly 80% of SMB devices are unmanaged


Magic Quadrant – Gartner Client Services


Where is the Industry Heading?

• Gartner in 2009

– Forecast had RMM growing at +30 percent CAGR rate through 2012

• Significant pricing pressure in RMM services made the offerings more attractive and available to SMBs

• Vendors have found the SMB to be their fastest growing market segment

19


Where is the Industry Heading?

• Insight Research Group – 2011: Managed services market would experience double-

digit growth through the next four years

– U.SS. managed services market will balloon from $29 billion in 2010 to $47 billion in 2015

• Visiongain – 2011: Global MSP market will reach $86 billion by 2016,

from an estimated size of $55 billion in 2010

• CEO of MSPAlliance: “service providers are going to need to learn to change their services to adjust to the shifting technology demands of their customers”


RMM Models / Vendors

• Some develop and sell a PSA software

• Some are owned by a company that also develops and sells a standalone RMM (Remote Monitoring and Management) software

• Some include complete PSA in their RMM software


What is Right for You?

• Focus on mission, not IT

– Managing contractors is a skill

• Service Level Agreement

• Predictable Pricing

• Users preferences

– Personal touch

– 1-800- Help Me Now

22


Pros and Cons – Managed Services

• Items are always out of scope – Personal smart phones – Computers over X years

• Multi-year Commitments • Theory:

– It costs more to fix a problem after it occurs – Down time is a cost – No travel time charges or delays – Multi-tasking – perform one operation of multiple

machines at once

• As more migrates to the cloud, less needs to be managed by a MSP


Advantages and disadvantages of these different approaches?

• Capital expenses vs. Operating Expenses

• Control

• Security

• HaaS

– Guaranteed Refresh

– Lease vs. Buy


Cisco’s View of Key Benefits of Managed Services

• Reduces costs, including traditional service fees, hardware, IT • operations, and transport • Eases adoption of new business processes • Increases levels of support and network availability without

additional staff • Makes the IT budget more stable and predictable • Provides access to the latest technology with limited risk • Provides access to an enhanced skills base • Makes it easier to adapt to changing business conditions • Enables the IT group to focus on the core business


Scenarios for RMM – Presenting Problems

• Staffing IT professionals • Staying up-to-date with evolving

technologies and IT skill sets • Managing and maintaining current

infrastructure, hardware, and software • Securing data, transactions, and

communications • Operating in real time / 24-hour demand


Scenarios for RMM

• The scope or scale of current business operations is changing

• Preference to dedicate resources to core competencies and mission critical processes – Rather than network support activities

• Managed services is viewed as a good strategy for gaining efficiencies and reducing costs

• Concern with ability to keep up with the latest security threats and to meet privacy or security regulations


How to Select a Vendor

• Trust

• Cost

• Lock-in

• Up-front cost

• Guarantees

• Inclusions and Exclusions

• References

• Match between your culture / their process – Single POC or “free for all” help desk?


What to Look For

• Service Level Agreements – Response time and remedies

– Response time triggers

• Tailored proposal

• Documentation provided

• Tools Used (length of time, not home-grown)

• Bench strength

• Visit NOC


What to Look For

• Transition plan

• Account management plan

• Staff training, investment, retention

• Staff certifications, credentials, experience

• Other services

• Customer focus

• Responsiveness and proactive IT leadership – This is actually hard!


What are Others Doing? • 2010 Southwestern PA Nonprofit Tech Survey;

Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management, Robert Morris University - 260 organizations


What are Others Doing?


What are Others Doing?

• NPower 2009 Survey of 1,019 nonprofit respondents • Outsourcing IT support:

– One third completely outsource their IT needs, – One third uses a combination of external and internal support – Rest has either opted out of or are considering outsourcing

• Independent of method, one third are either not satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their current technology setup.

• The main issues with current IT support solutions include: – Responsiveness (56%) – Cost and quality of service (1 out of 4)

• A lack of available resources is a major contributor


How do these types of plan work?

• Agent installed on managed devices

• Images of machines centrally managed

– Reimage rather than debug approach

• When all support is included

– Vendor incentivized to fix problems quickly

• No, hourly contractors do not want to create work, even when paid by the hour


What is included in them?

• SERVICE PLAN ON DEMAND SERVICE BLOCK HOUR PLAN MANAGED SERVICES • Rates Standard Reduced Fixed • 1 Hour NW Eval FREE FREE FREE • Remote Local Support Hourly Hourly Unlimited • Onsite Support Hourly Hourly Unlimited • VOIP/Phone Syst Support Hourly Hourly Unlimited • Weekly Monitoring NO YES YES • Online Tracking NO YES YES • Server Maintenance NO NO YES • Exchange Maintenance NO NO YES • Inventory Reports NO NO YES • Patch Management NO NO YES • File Restore Test NO NO YES • Discount on Projects NO NO YES


Pricing Analysis Considerations

• You know to know your current costs

• Try to “apples to apples”

– Number “incidents” included

– Help desk

– Hours of support included

• Smaller is usually Cheaper

• Expertise is usually more expensive in hourly rate but not overall terms


How to Evaluate Expected Cost

• 4-6% of revenue spent on technology - YMMV

• $1,000 - $3,000 per machine

• Best predictor of future is past

• Hourly support is minimum cost if each hour is productive / not preventable


What kind of monitoring makes sense and what is a waste of time and why?

• Vendors will have set up their own thresholds and conditions

– What’s important to you may be different from what vendor thinks is important

• Monitoring consumes bandwidth

• Time to look at alerts is factored into pricing


Case Study by Customcpuview.com

• Typical nonprofit: – 30 user desktops – Three servers (one Mail server, one Database server and

one File/print server) – One router, one switch and one network printer

• Self-managed: – Hire one full-time staff – a decent network or IT

administrator – At $45K, with benefits, sick, vacation, payroll tax, training – $10K for internal management – Training $12,975 – $60,475 annually and ~$10,000 one time expense


IT support on break fix or hourly model:

• Third-party vendor to manage IT infrastructure • $100 per hour with an average call time of 1.5 hour per

call and $25 travel charges. • One call per server per month • Eight calls for workstations per month • Two calls per month for Firewall, Switches and Network

Printers • $2,275 per month or $27,300 / year • Average 40% of the IT issues are managed by the

vendor, • Balance being handled by end users


Managed Services:

• Proactive monitoring of servers

• Preventive maintenance on desktops

• Maintenance of Network devices

• End-users can call help desk

• $59 per month per desktop

• $199 per month per Server

• @$49 per month for Network devices

• Annual cost $30,168


Summary – Sample Comparison

• Self-managed: $60,475 and $10,000 setup

– $35K lost productivity

• Break fix support: $27,300

– $70K lost productivity

• Managed Services: $30,168

• $14K lost productivity

• Lost productivity computed @ $35 per hour


• Soft ROI factors - Self-managed

• Average time to response is dependent on workload.

• Percentage of IT problems addressed 100%

• Loss of productivity per year, per employee 25 hours, 1000 hours total, estimated dollar cost $35,000.

• Type of support is reactive

• Performed during business hours


Soft ROI Factors - Break Fix Support

• Average time to response is one day depending on workload

• Percent of IT problems addressed is 40% – End users try to fix some issues by referring to their

colleagues to avoid the cost of calling for IT help

– Sometimes live with the problem

– Loss of productivity per year, per employee 50 hours, 2000 hours total, estimated dollar cost $70,000

– Type of support is reactive

– Performed during business hours


Soft ROI Factors - Managed Services

• Average time to response is a guaranteed 2 hours • Percent of IT problems addressed is 100% • End users report all problem • With remote control, problems resolved

immediately for 93% of issues • Loss of productivity per year, per employee 10

hours, 400 hours total, estimated dollar cost $14,000

• Type of support is Proactive monitoring • 24×7 basis


Managed Services

• Advantages – Proactive management of IT infrastructure – 24 x 7 monitoring by a group of experts – Remote Management reduces mean time to repair – Comprehensive management system for Desktops, Servers, and

Networks – Reporting portal – access to inventory, availability and performance – Enterprise Class IT management platform using Industry best practices – Predictable monthly billing – SLA based

• Disadvantages – Dependency on third party – Slightly Higher cost – Most work performed off-site so Customer does not see the

tech\engineer


Break Fix Reactive Support

• Advantages – Classical Model / Easy to Understand – Friendly vendors – Eliminates headache of hiring staff, training and system

maintenance

• Disadvantages – Reactive treatment – No 24×7 monitoring – Pay as you use (unpredictable bills) – Pay when systems are “Down” – Lack of expert group support – Delay in attending to problems due to physical travel to-site – Dependency on third party


Self Managed

• Advantages

– In house IT management process

– Choice of management tools

• Disadvantages

– IT management not a core business activity

– Retaining IT experts may be difficult

– High cost of training manpower


Takeaways – Sanity Check

• What different support models (managed, monitored, basic) entail

• What the pros and cons of the models are

• How to select a model that is right for you


TIME FOR QUESTIONS!!

50


Evaluate This Session! Each entry is a chance to win an NTEN engraved iPad!

or Online using #12NTCITsup at www.nten.org/ntc/eval

INSERT

QR CODE

HERE

managed services, monitoring services and basic it support services - pros and cons and how to...

Technology

support services industry

definitionsmanaged services

services breakdown32512

different support models

service models

rmm servicesmade

rmm attributes

rmm marketspace