IT industry entrepreneurs can understand their clients’ business challenges better than their own and typically work faster to resolve any emergency or major concern – as long as they get paid. Of course, that’s common regardless of the industry or geographic region solution providers operate in. Many business owners follow the philosophy that 100 percent of their attention must be focused on their customers and can fail to set aside time to properly plan for future growth and improve their own operations. As the old saying goes, “A carpenter’s house is always the last to get repaired.”
Successful channel organizations understand the importance of overcoming that. They learn that just a few key internal investments will often bring a healthy return, improving their bottom line as well as the quality and delivery speed of the services they deliver. Those providers continually strive to boost process efficiencies by honing critical procedures and adopting proven IT business enhancement tools. To them, good results are simply not satisfactory. Strong revenue growth and solid operational results are a great foundation, but they continue to focus on making improvements.
As competition from other resellers and direct-sale vendors grows, it puts added pressure on the IT services pricing model. In the most recent CompTIA IT Business Confidence Index, 49 percent of respondents (IT industry executives) expressed concern that their price sensitive customers are becoming increasingly reluctant to spend additional budget on technology products or services. With a still struggling economy and little consensus on when conditions will change, it’s simply not an optimal time to increase IT service prices. So, in order for providers to grow or simply maintain their current profit levels, they need to increase their operational efficiencies and cut any avoidable expenses.
While automation can help towards that goal, the real enhancements come from streamlining and organizing the processes that drive that machinery. After all, business tools are only as good as the information and programming that drives them. When solution providers automate the ineffective or inefficient processes, the resulting system will be just as disorganized – even if it completes each step faster.
Of course, if VARs and MSPs put extra time, effort and resources into improving their methodologies and workflow before converting them to computer programs, they can expect to see a rise in productivity and/or a reduction in their operational costs. Without proper planning and the right tools, neither outcome will be easy to attain.
While there is an endless supply of software and cloud solutions that can help IT businesses streamline and speed up their operational processes, every solution provider can benefit from these four:
Remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools: These systems are essential to run a managed services organization, but many MSPs fail to take advantage of their full capabilities. Rather than using just the basic configurations to watch their client systems, savvy providers implement and configure all the time-saving features and process-improvement functionalities, including advanced remediation and site communications programs.
Management dashboards: Whether part of a professional services automation system or stand alone, these applications deliver real-time business information to help VARs and MSPs make key business decisions. With instant access to key performance indicators (KPIs), a solution provider can see the results of procedure adjustments.
Professional services automation (PSA): Rather than rely on homegrown tools and spreadsheets to manage their business operations, most in the IT industry have adopted these purpose-built solutions. With integrated ticketing, billing, resource management and project management capabilities, they simplify and speed up a variety of client-facing and back-office procedures.
Business continuity program: While it may sound bizarre, solution providers don’t always have their back-up disaster recovery (BDR) plans up to date, which can severely impede their operations when major or even minor catastrophes occur. Whether they lose a single file or their entire building, if they can’t quickly and completely restore lost business data, their productivity, sales and many other capabilities are at significant risk.
Solution providers should consider each of those solutions to be more than mere tools, but best practices to help increase their operational capabilities and reduce their long-term expenses. Though the upfront monetary and labor/training costs might seem considerable to a growing IT services company, the long-term increases in productivity and decreases in payroll will more than make up for it.
These types of business improvements have become a key driver for the CompTIA communities. Their members frequently collaborate on a variety of best practice initiatives and continually develop and update solution-provider-oriented training and education programs to support a number of IT specializations. The CompTIA community disciplines include managed services, security, cloud, mobility, managed print services, IT services and support and convergence technologies, as well as groups for Canadian and UK-based channel professionals.
Regardless of their technological or geographic focus, members spend a considerable time developing new ways to help solution providers streamline and refine their way to greater profitability. Join in the discussion to see what your business is missing out on.
Brian Sherman is founder of Tech Success Communications, specializing in editorial content and consulting for the IT channel. His previous roles include chief editor at Business Solutions magazine and senior director of industry alliances with Autotask. Contact Brian at Bsherman@techsuccesscommunications.com.
