As an MSP, chances are monitoring is a core part of your services. You may think you are doing it well and making the most of this opportunity, but you are likely leaving money on the table. You can make more monthly recurring revenue (MRR) by offering deeper monitoring and adding network monitoring to your repertoire.
Consider the following:
– 88 percent of MSPs offer monitoring, but much of this is superficial and does not embrace the network. This leaves money on the table
– $26.5 billion in revenue is lost annually from IT downtime
By incorporating smart and deep monitoring, you can make more money and keep your SMB clients from losing their shirts in the event of a network crash.
First, ask yourself – what are you missing? What could have been prevented? Are you meeting your SLAs? (Even if you do not have them – you really do. They may not be written down, but your customers have an auto-SLA calculator built into their wallets.)
When an event occurs, ask yourself if this was something you should have seen coming. Could you have responded quicker?
Much like break-fix has evolved into managed services – monitoring is transitioning from basic up/down monitoring to more-advanced monitoring services. Complexity and the migration of users to the internet in terms of data and applications plays a key part.
Change Means Opportunity
We benefit from constant change, whether it is the underlying technology, platform, where data resides, the types of data, applications, or users and how they want to access that information. Some of those changes are because of new technology or updates in our infrastructure, some are a result of changes from a user (or user behavior), and some from good old growth.
All of those “changes” are opportunities. One could say that someone should be monitoring them. Somebody needs to understand what the changes are and their impact. As I like to say, “One should get paid to monitor those changes.”
Most of us are doing basic monitoring. We are the eyes and ears into our environments. Think about how these environments have changed over recent times and increased in complexity. Now imagine all the changes to come.
All this leaves room for additional deeper monitoring. To take advantage of this with clients, you must be the FIRST mover.
Great Monitoring Drives MSP Growth
In the 2017 Kaseya MSP Global Pricing Survey Report, we examine what differentiates high-growth MSPs from their peers.
A key factor is that the highest-growth best MSPs monitor more. Simply put — more is better. More monitoring gives you additional opportunities for revenue.
Most offices have a minimum of four or five devices to monitor – router, switch, firewall, printer, and a UPS. Those of you with larger customers can layer on the next layer of protection. Larger offices generally have some sort of fax machine, a multifunction printer, wireless access point, and VoIP.
If you aren’t doing basic network monitoring, get that basic network device monitoring in place now. It will set you up for additional monitoring.
The key is to go beyond just endpoints – look at storage, network, packets, and more. There is a pattern here for higher-growth MSPs – monitoring more complexity equals higher growth.
However, while basic monitoring is a good start it leaves too many gaps. And that leaves clients with sub-optimal experiences, which quickly leads to client complaints.
The Move to Network Monitoring
It is important to have basic monitoring in place — what we call up/down. Taking your network as a core example – first ask if your network is fundamentally available. At the most basic level, is it working?
Various solutions give you that basic view, but simply being up doesn’t mean it’s responsive. How often have you heard from your customers “my computer is slow,” or “the internet is slow”? Often followed but those words we all hate to hear, “Oh, it’s been like this for a while.” The fact is your customers DO notice these issues, but they do not know how to communicate it other than to say the “computer is slow.”
Businesses are growing and changing. The typical office is getting more complex. As an MSP you are expected to keep up. Years ago most of the devices were easy to find and did not change very often. Today, the average office has more complex networking needs, shared devices, Wi-Fi access points, and the expectation that internet access is available everywhere.
When it comes to revenue, therefore, there is one mantra to keep in mind:
You cannot bill for devices that you don’t find.
As we highlighted before, those in the higher-growth MSP bucket are making the effort to find those platforms, applications, and devices. To locate those platforms, determine where customers are “working.”
Making Dollars and Cents of the Network Monitoring Opportunity
The following example is a typical client scenario that steps through how you can increase your MRR from network monitoring.
First …
Dollars and “Sense”
A conservative example of the opportunity presented by selling Monitoring as a Service to your clients
Assuming:
➢ You sell Monitoring to 10 of your clients
➢ An average of 5 devices per client for a total of 50 devices
➢ Charging clients $40 a device or service/month
➢ An expected 15% overhead cost to sell/support the service
The result from just one customer is the following:
Dollars and ROI
A conservative example of the opportunity presented by selling Monitoring to your clients
You can expect:
➢ $24,000 total new client revenue (annual)
➢ $19,000 in net profit (Year 1)
➢ An ROI of ~ 400%
➢ A break-even after selling monitoring for only 11 devices
And that’s just the beginning. Contact your Kaseya rep to lean more. To find out how Kaseya Traverse can help you build Network Management as a Service (NMaaS) here.
