Best Buy Geek Squad’s Managed Services Partner Program
Best Buy (Symbol: BBY) is set to launch a Geek Squad managed services partner program. Ironically, the move does not necessarily involve mindSHIFT, a managed services provider that Best Buy acquired in 2011. Instead, the Best Buy Geek Squad partner program will promote managed services that telecom resellers can promote to their end-customers. Al Afflitto, strategic partnerships manager at Best Buy and Geek Squad, will lead the effort. Here are preliminary details.
The Geek Squad partner program for managed services will target the SMB marketplace. It will offer standard price-per user and advanced price per user options for desktop support, servers, firewalls and other infrastructure services. The advanced option will include unlimited truck rolls, according to Afflitto.
Channel Partners Conference
The Geek Squad partner program is set to launch at this week’s Channel Partners conference (March 26-29, Las Vegas). Initial target partners will involve master agents for carrier services, noted Afflitto. Those partners will leverage a Geek Squad branded program, and the partners will gain joint marketing collateral, and other promotional materials. Geek Squad will pay commissions to its managed services channel partners, much in the way that partners earn commissions from carriers, Afflitto.
But here’s the twist: Geek Squad will ultimately deliver the managed services to the end-customers, managing billing and customer invoicing along the way. Plus, Best Best has 20,000 field agents — W2 employees — and nine call centers to deliver 24×7 support.
In some ways, Geek Squad will certainly compete against traditional MSPs in the SMB market. But there could be a silver lining here: As Best Buy promotes Geek Squad’s IT services to small businesses, it could help SMB customers to realize the value of managed services.
Oh, and one final thought: What if Geek Squad offered SMB customers some cloud services — from Best Buy’s mindSHIFT business? Here are the early details on that scenario.
Sounds awesome! Oh wait, how did that work out for CompUSA and all the service providers that believed a consumer-focused, retail-based company could deliver services? Sorry to be a complete sceptic but I’ve never seen a company that made money on small margins sold in volume actually win the trust and services business of SMB owners or the channel that serves them.
Love it. If it’s anything like their retail/home service it’ll be tremendously easier to make a good impression.
Geek Squad had a great reputation before the takeover.
[email protected]: I’m not guaranteeing success for Best Buy but I do think the Best Buy situation is somewhat different than the CompUSA situation.
Reasoning: CompUSA was a broken, badly run business before it pushed into services. Best Buy is a pretty well run company that purchased a good MSP (mindSHIFT), and Geek Squad has done reasonably well in the services market. Challenges ahead? Absolutely yes and you could be right about yet another retailer struggling in the services market. But I do think Best Buy has a stronger story than CompUSA ever had. True confession: I actually like Best Buy a lot as a retailer. I always despised the shopping experience at CompUSA.
[email protected]: I have to concede… I didn’t track Geek Squad before Best Buy’s purchase of the company. I don’t think Geek Squad vans are a big threat to MSPs, but I do think Geek Squad is the one retail IT services brand that consumers recognize…
Best
-jp
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