Are MSPs Loyal to Their Platform Providers?
Do you love your managed services platform or are you ready to make the leap to an alternative provider? Before you answer, consider this:
- 25 percent of MSPs have switched platforms three times in the last three years
- 18 percent have switched twice
- 13 percent have switched four times
- And seven percent said they have switched 10 times or more
Do you love your managed services platform or are you ready to make the leap to an alternative provider? Before you answer, consider this:
- 25 percent of MSPs have switched platforms three times in the last three years
- 18 percent have switched twice
- 13 percent have switched four times
- And seven percent said they have switched 10 times or more
The data, based on a Channel Insider survey, begs the question: Are MSPs happy with their platforms? Generally speaking, I think most of the platforms are pretty mature at this point, and true MSP success depends on other factors such as sales, marketing and technology engagement strategies.
I think that this is a result of way too much emphasis on the platform. As the RMM platform providers have lead the way when it comes to marketing they have many people believing that the RMM tool will make you an MSP. The reality though, is that without a solid business plan it does not matter what tool you use, you will fail.
I have had many conversations with VARs that start by asking what RMM tool we use. As we sell a hosted version of Level Platforms to our channel many people think that they cannot work with us because they heard Kaseya or N-able were better. As you mentioned above Joe, the tools are all very mature now, and while they have their differences they are all very comparable in functionality.
My advice to them is to take the tool out of the conversation and let’s talk about what it means to be an MSP. Don’t buy a tool and then try and create a practice around it. Create a practice and then buy a tool that fits into your plan.
As I am sitting here typing this I am being constantly reminded of the FREE TRIAL from N-Able, (thanks to their ad running on your site). For those of you reading that decide to take them up on this free trial offer, I recommend that before you do you make a commitment in time. Plan on at least 40 hours over the course of the trial, not to look at the RMM tool but to create a managed services solution that will leverage the RMM tool. If you can’t make that type of commitment don’t bother with the trial.
Lane: Your first line nailed it.
Hi Joe, I’d say your information is accurate – we have switched providers twice in 2 years and are looking at a 3rd switch. Although the solutions out there are mature the mature ones are quite limited, there are several new players coming on the scene which should help things stay cutting edge and competitive. In our experience all the solutions do the nuts and bolts but are not necessarily as polished as we would like in certain areas. That said they have come a long long way in the past year. We currently have a vendor we love however they are one of the newcomers and as such miss some key components that we need for our business – this begs the questions – do we switch to a more mature solution or stay with the one we love and wait for them to play catchup – this is the struggle we’ve had all along between maturity and quality.
Jeremy: I’ve got a question for you and other MSPs.
Do you think APIs (application programming interfaces) that provide hooks between platforms will allow MSPs to standardize on a core platform and then start “snapping in” additional platforms?
-jp
I agree with Lane’s comments. I would also say that loyalty will be achieved as a result of providing tools/services that help you “build” your business, not just manage it more effectively. All of the tools will help you manage more effectively to some degree or another, but these capabilities were quickly commoditized. The tools that actually create revenue opportunities will earn long term loyalty.
Mike
http://www.everonit.com
http://www.smbitpros.com
What a great thread. Taking a look back at when I had my MSP business, I evaluated 7 RMM tools before I purchased one and then within 6 months, I left that one and went to Kaseya through SecureMyCompany.
I hear from a number of new and veteran MSPs everyday who are looking at the solutions that we offer at SecureMyCompany. They are frustrated with their current tool and want something else. One of the things that I tell the MSP is not to build their business around the RMM tool, but to build a business
and then use the tool to service their customers. Once they grasp this concept, the get a better understanding of the business of IT and how to be a successful MSP.
Stuart
http://www.securemycompany.com
Joe and other experts, are cloud issues affected with a platform switch? Just curious as to how that might be affected so please excuse my ignorance if I’m the only one that doesn’t know :-).
Stu
We are changing platforms because we feel that our current platform company has poor development processes and their support has deteriorated as a result. It’s been a challenging migration.
Our current software has more functionality than the product that we’ve decided to migrate to, but I think the new company has worked out the kinks internally and delivers an all around better experience with the software. We’ve found their support to be very good and they have learnt from their past mistakes regarding software roll-outs.
Our experience at Nimsoft, and our recent MSP partner survey results, indicates that a [functionally rich] monitoring tool/platform can most definitely make a difference.
Here are two of the 25 survey questions we asked our partners;
1. Using Nimsoft NimBUS, what new lines of managed services have you offered in last 18 months?
Network (routers/switches) – 58.1% (25 respondents)
VoIP/UCM – 23.3% (10 respondents)
Virtualization – 32.6% (14 respondents)
UNIX (HPUX, AIX, Solaris) – 32.6% (14)
iSeries AS400 – 7.0% (3 respondents)
Netware – 2.3% (1)
Database – 41.9% (18)
Common commercial applications; Exchange, AD, Citrix, etc. – 39.5% (17)
Industry specific applications, i.e. Finance apps, Healthcare apps, etc. – 30.2% (13)
End-user monitoring – 44.2% (19)
SLA monitoring – 74.4% (32)
2. For the question above, please indicate if these new lines of managed services increased quarterly revenue by more than;
50% – 6.9% respondents
40% – 3.4%
30% – 10.3%
25% – 20.7%
10% – 58%
We’ve been fortunate that none of our 170+ MSP partners have moved to an alternative platform provider, our first MSP partner came on board in 2003 and is going strong in 2008. I would argue that our partner retention is in large part due to the opportunity and competitive differentiator that our NimBUS monitoring product presents to MSPs, equally important for retention is our partner support where we consistently receive very high marks. Superior, functionally-rich product, and partner support excellence has created a win-win-win scenario for Nimsoft, our MSP partners, and our MSP partner’s customers.
Ken
http://www.nimsoft.com
@Ken: Just double-checking … you’re saying 170 of 170 (all) of your MSP partners have remained loyal and none have defected to other platforms?
@JeffA: Are you deploying the new platform internally or turning to a partner to host it for you? Just curious.
Hi Joe, yes, 170 of 170 of our MSP partners have remained loyal to Nimsoft, none have defected to another platform. 🙂
Ken
http://www.nimsoft.com
@Ken: 170 for 170? Hard to argue with that batting average…
We are deploying internally.
@jaurbach: Why are you deploying it internally? What’s the business driver for the move? Would love to hear more about your decision to deploy.
I’m just not willing to outsource our line of business applications to a third party at this time, due to the sensitive nature of the data that we are exposed to.
It wasn’t so much a financial decision when we switched products since we knew we had to make a change. Training is the biggest cost for us and we would have to do that anyway. Our monthly payment to the software company we now use is less than what we were paying with our original provider. We also feel like we are getting so much more…
I don’t look at the investment we made in the other product as a lost one. It got us this far….