Too many managed services providers (MSPs) are seeing tried-and-true revenue streams vanish as clients migrate to the cloud. Providers that manage desktop applications, for instance, can lose business when these customers move from on-premises versions of Microsoft Office to Office 365.
Instead of letting customers make this move under your nose, you should be pro-active. If they want to migrate productivity apps to the cloud, you might as well help in the move, and then offer ongoing Office 365 management services. This puts you in a leadership position, offers solid migration fees, creates a solid new source of recurring revenue, and puts you in a whole new business.
Overcoming the Dark Side of Office 365
Clients looking to move to Office 365 are blinded by the benefits, but may not understand the whole story. They think there are huge cost savings since the hardware to support in-house copies of Microsoft Office is no longer needed. It also sounds like the cloud software manages itself, a true no-touch operation. But Office 365 replaces one set of problems with what is often a larger headache.
It takes keen and constant oversight to manage Office 365 effectively – much more than most small or mid-sized businesses understand.
In fact, moving to Office 365 without the help of a knowledgeable partner is a disaster waiting to happen. Office 365 is every bit as difficult to manage as traditional versions of Office. And many customers have learned this lesson the hard way, even moving back to older versions of Office when they can’t handle the new stuff.
Fortunately third-party solutions, such as Kaseya’s 365 Command, have come to the rescue. This Management-as-a-Service solution helps MSPs ensure Office 365 runs smoothly and economically by offering a suite of features for migration, user management, backup, configuration, and much more.
Here are the top 6 reasons MSPs should offer 365 Command-based services:
1. Grow Profit
MSPs need to provide the best possible level of service to their customers while lowering their delivery costs to increase profit. Many MSPs are seeing revenues based on managing internal Microsoft Office servers disappear as Microsoft Office 365 is increasingly adopted. MSPs need to recapture, and even increase revenues, by building value-added services around the migration, management and backup of Office 365.
2. Create Solid Recurring Revenues
One reason companies turn to cloud services is to unload as much capital expense, overhead and maintenance as possible. On the flip side, it is tough for MSPs to make money simply by offering Office 365 to clients on a cost-plus basis. Here the one-time commission of 5-8% doesn’t make up for the loss of revenue from no longer managing traditional Office installs.
With 365 Command, you, as an MSP, provide critical management features to clients that Office 365 itself does not deliver. This value-add becomes a brand new service added to your portfolio. And the new revenue continues as long as the client has Office 365.
3. Efficiently and Cost-Effectively Manage Client Services
As MSPs evolve, especially moving from managing on-premises Exchange servers and Office installs to selling true cloud services, they struggle to make the equation of cost (staff) to revenue work. With 365 Command, MSPs have a complete solution that reduces costs while increasing the scale of their Office 365 migration, management and back-up service solutions. 365 Command dramatically reduces the cost of building value-added services around the migration, management and backup of all Office 365 applications.
365 Command allows you to promote advanced control over Office 365. You provide additional security measures and advanced reporting your customers cannot achieve on their own from Microsoft’s Office Admin Portal. With 365 Command, MSPs have granular control in setting up role-based permissions. Meanwhile, role-based administration and auditing reduces administrative risk for you and your clients.
365 Command also allows you, the MSP, to satisfy all your clients’ Office 365 needs through one console with robust multi-tenancy features. You’ll handle more clients with the same staff; and achieve greater efficiency with less cost. Best of all, there is no need to learn to write and run complicated PowerShell scripts as in the past. You can log on once and gain access to all your Office 365 clients, and easily track your management services for billing.
4. Expand Services
MSPs need to constantly innovate and offer new profitable services. 365 Command lets MSPs sell value-added services around the migration, management and backup of Office 365 at a lower cost than their competition. In fact, in the 2016 Kaseya MSP pricing survey, selling new cloud services was ranked as top priority for successful MSPs.
5. Gain Competitive Advantage
MSPs can either embrace the changes cloud services bring and adapt, or keep trying to do business the old way. Making the shift to the cloud now gives you a competitive advantage over less-forward thinking competitors.
With 365 Command in your portfolio, you provide added value to your customers and affordable management options for their cloud-based Office 365. Not only do you make Office 365 work, you make it truly shine.No other solution provides the breadth of functionality and ease of use that 365 Command offers, especially at such an affordable price.
6. Gains and Retains Customer Loyalty
By providing this one-of-a-kind management service, your customers gain all the advantages that cloud services offer. Clients save money on IT infrastructure and training. And that makes them happy — and a happy customer is a loyal customer. As a general rule, MSPs report increased customer loyalty and retention as a result of offering Office 365 management services
Other benefits include:
- Margins as high 95%
- Migrate mailboxes cost effectively
- Monitor, report, and manage your own organization’s Office 365 users, services and mailboxes
- Get a 20% discount on the retail seat price of the 365 Command service with no minimum monthly charge per customer.
