The Modern Office and You5 Ways to Capitalize on Cloud Opportunities

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The age of Cloud Computing is gaining momentum. First made popular by Internet pioneers such as Google and Amazon, the Cloud presents an attractive option to businesses everywhere. As one industry analyst points out, “Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software.” In lean economic times, the Cloud breathes new life into companies who might not have been able to afford to upgrade or add new technology projects to their budgets.

As the number of Cloud services and offerings have increased, more and more small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) are taking notice. This change in the technology model has given large vendors access to the SMB market– a space they traditionally avoided. As a result, many managed service providers (MSPs) are nervous about the effects Cloud Computing will have on their business. Many MSPs are concerned that the Cloud will completely change their business structure and limit the number of services they can provide for clients. As clients begin moving all IT services to the Cloud, the larger fear is that MSPs will completely lose clients and be considered irrelevant. However, the Cloud should not be viewed as a threat to MSPs, but as an opportunity. Your clients will need help as they enter the Cloud and nobody knows your clients better than you do.

Introduction

- Shawn Moralnd, Co-owner and President, Navakai

modern officeWhat is the Modern Office™?

The Modern Office is the current standard office setting, redefined and evolved to take full advantage of the wide array of modern technologies your clients use every day. The Modern Office represents the opportunity for you to further establish yourself into the clients’ workflow. Get as many anchor points in the Modern Office as you can and watch your profits soar. www.ConnectWise.com/ModernOffice

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Most SMBs do not fully understand all of the capabilities and technologies the Cloud makes possible. Plus, SMB owners want to get moving right away and they are more willing than ever to outsource. They are adding technology rather than payroll. This is where MSPs come in. With proper planning, MSPs can capture new business and build new revenue streams without adding a single new client. How? As your clients’ trusted advisor, MSPs can step in and take control of the Modern Office and act as the doorway to all things IT. As the relationship manager between the big Cloud companies and your clients, you become an essential component to your clients’ success.

Introduction

- Shawn Moralnd, Co-owner and President, Navakai

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Table of Contents5 Ways to Capitalize on Cloud Opportunities

Chapter 1How the Cloud is Shaping the Modern Office

Chapter 2How to Thrive in the Age of Cloud Computing

Chapter 3Additional Strategies

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Chapter 1

How the Cloud is Shaping the Modern Office

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As the age of Cloud Computing evolves, more vendors are floating software and services right over to your clients. Business applications are now available to SMBs without the need for large hardware, software, or professional services investments. As SMBs look to increase efficiency and profitability, Cloud Computing offers a cost-effective way to add modern technologies to everyday business processes. The Cloud gives your clients access to more services than ever before. However, they still need technical assistance to help manage their integration of Cloud technologies. Many vendors simply do not have enough resources to support the specialized needs of SMBs.

Additionally, SMBs do not have the personnel or knowledge to manage all of the new vendor relationships they may add through the Cloud. This is where you, the experienced and knowledgeable MSP, can take advantage of a fantastic opportunity.

For MSPs, there are TWO KEYS to success with the Cloud:

• Create relationships with vendors so that SMBs are not tempted to bypass your relationship and go direct to the Cloud.

• Focus and improve on key contact points, or sales opportunities, with each client.

In the Modern Office, it is not just about acquiring the latest gadgets—businesses are seeking solutions that help them meet strategic goals. As your clients’ IT provider, you should seek an active role in helping them define their long-term technology strategy. This ensures you are involved in strategic planning from the start and can help guide your clients in making choices that are best for their business.

Chapter 1 How the Cloud is Shaping the Modern Office

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3

quick tipEmbrace the CloudConnectWise helps you be a part of the Cloud Computing Age. We offer software that helps ensure dependable help desk delivery and consistent billing for these new services. You’ll also have access to best practices and toolkits that help you sell additional services including vendor management, printer management, VOIP, and more.

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Follow these tips when talking to your clients:

1. Determine where the client wants their business to be and work together to build out an appropriate solution.

2. Avoid talking about technology, including services and PCs, because devices will be anywhere and anything (e.g. mobile, IP, hardware as a service, etc).

3. To achieve clients’ desired outcomes, your recommendations may include a combination of cloud services or other offerings.

4. As technology decisions are made and carried out, encourage your clients to rely on you as the “point person” for all IT vendors and technology.

In order to successfully manage these new service offerings, MSPs can rely on a Professional Services Automation (PSA) solution to automate service workflows and ensure proper billing. A PSA solution fully integrates CRM, sales, help desk tickets, projects, managed services, SLAs, dispatching, time, and expenses to streamline IT companies and help them become more accountable, efficient and profitable. The right PSA solution will provide your company with a solid foundation to provide exceptional customer service. With effective service management, your company remains relevant and valuable to clients.

Chapter 1 How the Cloud is Shaping the Modern Office

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3

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Chapter 2

How to Thrive in the Ageof Cloud Computing

ConnectWise.comChapter 2 How to Thrive in the Age of Cloud Computing

Chapter 1 Chapter 2

Industry analysts have reported that small businesses are ready to outsource and they want to work with other small businesses.

SMBs are also looking to implement technology faster than ever before—in other words, they do not want to wait for traditional IT resolution times.

If you want to thrive in the age of Cloud Computing, start by helping clients build out and manage their modern office. There are different areas in this eBook that MSPs can use as sticky points, or anchor points, to maintain and increase their value to clients.

In the Modern Office, it’s all about taking charge of SMB data and endpoints. Here is an in-depth look at four important relationships your business should seek to control as well as a discussion of other sales opportunities in the Cloud Age.

1. Help Desk Chances are, your business already provides this service to your clients. Now, it is more important than ever to refine your help desk functions and strengthen your expertise. Because Cloud offerings appear to have limited customer sup-port, you need to ensure that your service team can step in to offer personal, responsive service when needed.

You can take control for clients by managing vendor relationships and tak-ing care of all their trouble tickets. Be the client’s gateway to all things IT. Find ways to increase communication with your clients so that your business is top of mind when they are thinking about technology. Build your expertise, dem-

Chapter 3

ConnectWise.comChapter 2 How to Thrive in the Age of Cloud Computing

Chapter 2

onstrate value, and do what it takes to become the primary resource your clients turn to for help. Make sure you employ best practices for effective service delivery to boost success. For example, use a dis-patcher to pick and choose which tickets to manage first and increase engineer utilization.

2. Vendor Management If you are like most MSPs, you have received phone calls at some point for problems with equipment or services that are not in your support agreement. Improve your stickiness to clients and become the point person for all vendors. Let’s face it, customers want to deal with one person—take ownership of your clients’ data infrastructure and use best practices to document vendor information, help desk support, and proactive maintenance and management. Start with managing printer, phone and broadband company relationships and add a con-sistent revenue stream to your business. For example, if you charge $99 a month to manage an account for your client, that’s $1,200 more per year for every customer.

3. VoIP Meets Cloud Voice over IP (VoIP) is another source of recurring revenue for MSPs. Similar to many other services in this industry, everything is going digital. Hosted voice presents another Internet opportunity with serv-ers, data and endpoints that MSPs can manage and run on your same network infrastructure. Seek to partner with vendors in the Cloud to control phone relationships. You can help clients control monthly costs by introducing unified messaging services between email and voicemail.

4. Co-Managed IT Some of your clients may completely outsource all their IT functions while some keep a small IT staff in house. An important tactic to im-prove your stickiness with these clients is to establish a solid partner-ship with internal IT departments. Some PSA solutions offer MSPs the ability to share tools with their clients. By helping your clients’ IT de-partments become more successful, you can help eliminate turf wars and build a synergistic relationship. With co-managed IT, the MSP can remain on point for help desk and provide streamline support ser-vices.

Chapter 1 Chapter 3

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Chapter 3

Additional Strategies

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There are numerous contact points that you can control with your client. Look for new technologies and services that enable you to not only add recurring revenue but also help further cement your business into your clients’ overall IT picture. Key contact points include:

5. Remote Monitoring and Automation

6. Software as a Service (SaaS)

7. Hardware as a Service (HaaS)

8. Printer management

9. Telepresence

10. Digital signage

11. Surveillance

12. Professional services

13. Storage backup and disaster recovery services

14. Email management and administration

15. Security

16. Infrastructure

For more information about the strategies listed above, download the Modern Office Poster (www.ConnectWise.com/ModernOffice).

Chapter 3 Additional Strategies

Chapter 3

Mobile Telecommuting Website Management Cloud Services

Telepresence

Email Managementand Administration

Surveillance

Digital Signage

Storage, Backup andDisaster Recovery

Printer Management

Help Desk

Remote Monitoringand Automation

Voice Networking (VoIP)

Software as aService (SaaS)

Security

Internal IT Department

Hardware as aService (HaaS)

Vendor Management

Infrastructure

Professional Services

Mobile Telecommuting Website Management Cloud Services

Telepresence

Email Managementand Administration

Surveillance

Hardware as a Service (HaaS)

Digital Signage

Storage, Backup and Disaster Recovery

Printer Management

Application Subscription

Help Desk

Network Monitoring and AdministrationRemote Monitoring and Automation

Voice Networking (VoIP)

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Security

Internal IT Department

Professional Services

Vendor Management

Infrastructure

Solution Why it’s important Solution Why it’s importantDigital Signage Keep all your employees informed of crucial business metrics and announcements by

leveraging digital signage in your office.Remote Monitoringand Automation

Employing a proactive monitoring system on your network ensures that problems are detected and resolved, often before you are even aware there was an issue. This keeps your business running without experiencing unproductive downtime.

Email Management andAdministration

Communication is critical to keep your business running. Relying on an email administration system ensures that you are in constant contact with your staff, clients and prospects without experiencing any downtime.

Security Securing sensitive data is mission critical for any business. Make sure that you have a system in place that fully protects your website and proprietary business assets.

Hardware as a Service (HaaS) Ensuring that your hardware is refreshed every few years will keep you in the latest technology. With a HaaS model, you will also encounter predictable payments instead of facing large capital expenditures to cover unexpected hardware purchases.

Software as a Service (SaaS) Automatic system upgrades ensure that you are always running on the latest software version while eliminating the painful process of updating software or maintaining versions that are no longer supported.

Help Desk Improve efficiency when everyone in your office has access to technical help when they need it.

Storage, Backup andDisaster Recovery

Your data is too important to put at risk. Automated, cloud backup systems provide easy storage and retrieval of valuable customer, financial and business data.

Infrastructure Proper planning and upfront engineering will allow your company to expand naturally while providing ample business solutions and technology.

Surveillance Protect your business assets with an effective surveillance system that can allow you to monitor your entire office 24/7, even from your mobile phone.

Internal IT Department Leveraging your MSP as an extension of your internal IT department provides the flexibility to react quickly to changes within your business.

Telepresence Foster innovation while drastically reducing travel expenses by implementing an effective telepresence solution. Increase the level and quality of communication among staff members and have more impactful conversations with your customers and prospects.

Printer Management Reduce downtime and increase the efficiency of your staff when all of your printing solutions are proactively monitored and repaired when issues arise.

Vendor Management By having your MSP be the owner of all IT vendor relationships, your technical issues will be resolved quickly and accurately.

Professional Services By utilizing the knowledge and expertise of professional consultants, you will be able to develop strategic technology roadmaps that fit your business and implement them to meet your long-term technology needs.

Voice Networking (VoIP) Implementing a VoIP solution will allow you to attain a significant monthly cost savings that can be applied to growth opportunities and revenue-generating activities.

Your Managed Service Provider (MSP) makes it their life’s mission to know your technology needs inside and out. Use that expertise to your advantage and simplify your business operations

by making your MSP the single resource to accomplish all your technical needs. Here are some of the many services that your MSP can implement for you to make your life easier.

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Chapter 2Chapter 1

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Conclusion Though many MSPs feel a sense of apprehension about Cloud Computing, there are actually countless opportunities for you. In fact, Cloud Computing needs MSPs to continue to provide SMB clients with essential services. Your goal? Focus on providing at least four or more of the opportunities we discussed in this paper to ensure you are well anchored into your clients. Each of these areas requires a solid plan to effectively integrate into the client business environment as well a ongoing management and monitoring.

Using a PSA solution, you can successfully and confidentlyadd new contact points into your client relationship. The functionality in a PSA solution will enable you to effectively manage your clients’ technolog needs – while providing you with a consistent time tracking and billing operation. As you continue to offeryour clients expert technology planning and assistance, your business will thrive in the age of Cloud Computing.

About ConnectWiseAvailable anytime, anywhere, 24/7, ConnectWise is the leading business management solution designed exclusively for technology organizations, such as software companies, hardware/software resellers, IT solution providers, MSPs and System Integrators. Created by technology professionals, ConnectWise provides industry-leading software for support and ticketing, CRM, project management, invoicing, time tracking, procurement, and sales quotes and proposals. But ConnectWise is much more than just software. ConnectWise offers access to discounted tech certifications, community, best practices, forums, a robust online university, and business and technical consulting. Over 65,000 professionals, in 5,000+ companies, rely on ConnectWise to provide a 360 degree view of their technology driven organization.

Knorr, Eric, and Gruman, Galen, “What Cloud Computing Really Means,” http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031