Nehring Technology Advice for MSPs on MDM: Start Today
Nehring Technology, based in Stephenville, Texas, has been providing business technology solutions since 2006 and became a managed service provider (MSP) in 2010. The company’s mission is focused on enhancing and improving business technology through proactive maintenance and support. This is the final installment of a six-part series investigating how MSPs can successfully integrate mobile device management into their service offerings.
In our last installment, Nehring Technology continued their MDM education and marketing efforts, and strategized sales efforts for 2013, which included a big initiative to expand outside their local market. Since then, Justin Nehring (pictured), President of Nehring Technology, has discovered even more benefits of MDM and LabTech as a whole.
Seamless Integration
While MDM has many benefits for customers, Nehring enjoys benefits as well. LabTech MDM is built directly into the LabTech remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform, so they didn’t have to learn a new product. “It has been a tremendous time saver to have MDM integrated within LabTech and to have an existing support solution to lean on,” said Nehring. “It helps that we can talk to people we already know.” Nehring says the benefits of integration aren’t just limited to the technical side of the business. “It’s also easier on the folks in our billing department, because it also integrates with ConnectWise. When our clients log a ticket on their mobile device, it goes all the way through to the ConnectWise PSA.”
Advice for Other MSPs
Over the past few months, Nehring has learned a lot about MDM. If he has any advice for MSPs who are considering adding MDM to their service offering, it is to start today. “Start evaluating MDM solutions, and if you’re a LabTech Partner, utilize those five free MDM agents that they give you,” said Nehring. “If you’re not on LabTech, you really need to look at it. A lot of partners don’t know if it’s worth spending the time and effort on MDM, but if you are serious about your business, you’ll take the five agents and run with them,” Nehring added.
Besides the security solutions that MDM provides, using MDM as part of your own solution will also add credibility to your sales strategy. “All of your techs should have MDM agents on their devices. This way, they can learn it now and leverage it as a selling tool,” said Nehring. “When you’re using MDM internally, you’re eating your own dog food. You can show clients that you are running on the very MDM you’re selling, and it builds confidence when you’re out there doing sales,” he added.
Nehring continues to stress the importance of MDM education. Because customers are in a “don’t know what they don’t know” stage, they need to understand why they need their mobile devices protected. Many MSPs are sitting on the fence – they are unsure if they want to offer MDM, but they’ve got to move now. “If you wait, you could wind up with a hole in your service offering to be exploited by another IT service provider,” said Nehring. “Or your clients might choose to get their own MDM platform that doesn’t integrate with your complete system, causing more headaches for you.”
The Future of Nehring Technology
The future is bright for Nehring Technology. As they continue to sell their “NT Method” of IT service delivery and leverage the automation of LabTech, they are able to offer their clients more and more value added services, such as MDM. “LabTech has made MDM so affordable for us that we can sell it as a value add and take a little hit on it knowing we are making our customers that much more protected,” says Nehring.
Guest Blogs such as this one from LabTech Software are part of MSPmentor’s dedicated InfoCenter sponsorship program. Check the MSPmentor MDM InfoCenter for complete MDM industry coverage.