If there’s one thing our industry is really good at, other than technology, it’s history. The channel tales from a decade or more are typically quite entertaining and help the younger generation understand many of the big transformations that have taken place over the past couple of decades. Life before managed services, the cloud and advanced security — when solutions meant anything with an IP address. Yes, there were computers and rudimentary networks back in the 80s.
Unfortunately, some in our industry haven’t significantly shifted their offerings and business models to reflect today’s business needs. Even those who have rarely go far enough to ensure their long-term relevance to customers. MSPs may offer managed and cloud services, but are they collaborating and communicating well enough to ensure their clients’ visions can be realized in the next 3-5 years (or longer)?
For every progressive IT services entrepreneur looking to shape his or her business for the future, there are many others failing to make that commitment. They may talk the talk, but a relative few take advantage of all the industry and business-related help and resources at their disposal. That’s hard to understand considering the number and breadth of today’s options. On the business front, CompTIA offers an entire catalog of training and education materials designed specifically for IT services providers, and the association’s new Channel Standards give them a roadmap to success. The nine worldwide CompTIA Communities provide a forum to discuss business challenges and gain insight from peers and industry experts.
Membership also continues to grow in other respected channel peer groups including HTG, Varnex, Tech Select and Trust X Alliance. Yet those communities still represent a small fraction of the professionals who make up this segment of the IT industry. Of course, there are many who have succeeded without belonging to a peer group or contributing to association discussions — but today’s IT services business entrepreneurs face significantly more complex challenges than those in the past.
Despite all the positive advances, many providers continue to fall behind. They’re not adapting fast enough to address their clients’ current business needs, or transitioning their models and services to improve owner equity. While it may be perfectly fine and profitable to offer some of that “born in the ‘80s” computer support, every IT firm has to start looking further ahead to survive.
2017 and Beyond
Relevance. If there is one word VARs and MSPs need to focus on this year, that would be it. When your customers know what you do and highly value the way you do it, the value of your service increases exponentially. It’s not rocket science, yet many in the channel fail to make that vital connection.
Product sales and basic services are no longer one of those critical “value adds” for your customers. Both can be easily acquired with a few clicks of a mouse and a credit card (or other method of payment). With the quality of cloud services continuing to improve in leaps and bounds, and plug-and play solutions making installation easy for almost anyone, few businesses will pay a premium to have someone else do it. Regardless of the quality of the service delivery.
In some cases, price trumps excellence. Customers who follow that philosophy may need to fall by the wayside in favor of a more forward-thinking, higher profit clientele. Basic services will always be needed, but those offerings should be bundled with higher value solutions and outsourced to respected partners if possible, and when it makes financial sense. The “model of the future” is a proactive approach. Every IT services provider needs to focus more on their clients’ long-term business objectives and design technologies that give those customers a competitive edge and/or drive greater efficiencies. VARs and MSPs must differentiate through innovation, not on price and repair capabilities. Providers of the future may offer:
- Procurement may be more profitable for VARs and MSPs than straight sales margins
- Hardware as a service offers benefits for both customers and providers, ensuring timely equipment updates and lower capital expenditures
- Advanced security and compliance assessments, testing and training to better protect their clients
- Big data/business intelligence applications and support to help customers get the most value from the information they collect
- IoT (Internet of Things) is still in its infancy in the SMB space, but infrastructure design and real-world solutions are both real opportunities for the channel today
- Social media is another critical area of need for many small businesses. MSPs often partner with others companies to design and manage these programs
- Cloud and SaaS management can lessen the time commitment and hassle of implementation and support for customers (and especially end users).
It’s time to admit the ‘80s are over. Is your company still following an IT business model developed during that channel era? If so, a successful future will require significant change. Business models and portfolios must continually transition to meet customer needs, and your client interactions will need to deepen and expand to develop better solutions for more complex issues and opportunities.
2017 is here. For those who haven’t made the leap from the past, let the journey begin today. Simply identify an area of need and search the CompTIA Channel Resource page for tools and training materials to get you started. Put the past behind and start building an IT services business that will bring you and your customers “back to the future…”
Brian Sherman is Chief Content Officer at GetChanneled, a channel business development and marketing firm. He served previously as chief editor at Business Solutions magazine and senior director of industry alliances with Autotask. Contact Brian at Bsherman@getchanneled.com
