Customer engagement in the MSP market is not great, says Tim Walker (pictured), Managing Director, Aura Technology Ltd. His business is relatively new - just 18 months old- and specialises in offering both consulting and solutions around managed services. Speaking at the Managed Services and Hosting summit last month in London, he outlined the ways his business is winning with customers.
“We know the issues from both from our consultancy business and the competitive market. It is based on irregular and sporadic customer meetings – actions not followed up, poor documentation, which all means it depends on an individual relationship between the MSP person and client. If that account manager moves on, then the business moves as well. There is no multi-level embedded relationship or strategic engagement in many MSPs.”
Gartner had talked about differentiation earlier in the day at the Managed Services and Hosting summit where Tim Walker was speaking, and this aspect was one of the reasons he set Aura up, he said, along with other experts, including Peter Hughes as technical director and Richard Flanders as Head of Customer Strategy. “It was based on some consultancy work we did 18 months ago – we saw little or no differentiation among the companies tendering for those bids. We decided to set up something different, looking at the mid-market, 50-500 employees in certain verticals - manufacturing and professional practices such as legal. This means we can build in the pro-active services that we offer. And that has won us clients.”
The differentiation is based around a strategic engagement and the business objectives and strategic goals of the clients.
“The team running the business has experience of managed services and engaging strategically, and this has made us stand out in the market. There is a need for differentiation, simply because of the numbers of managed services suppliers of all types. We think there are only about 20 really good MSPs, and they seem to have a number of factors in common,” he told the meeting.
Firstly they have a clear understanding of why they are in managed services, and how to grow it, and they have a high degree of productisation – they have people responsible for products and their development. “One of the things we have taken from our relationship with Datto is the speed of development and quality of their responses when they take products to market.”
A number of MSPs have struggled when taking things to market because the founders stay engaged with the selling process while also looking after the products, he says. That is a hard thing to do but splitting roles needs to be done for fast expansion.
“We implemented Autotask PSA and consolidated the applications, gaining command of the processes. We had been looking at historical data and needed a live view. So we decided to build the business around Autotask and Datto as our preferred backup to take to the market. We learned a lot from their events, and they give us the ability to learn and share insights with other providers.”
“This works and works for us; if you implement even part of this you will stand out from most MSPs in the market. As Gartner says, the reasons for a review with the client gives you a direction of travel with them for the next few years, giving you a better share of the spend.”
The process of engagement works by meeting the key stakeholders in the customer, then focus groups with staff members, snapshots with staff. “We are not involved in an application review, we partner to deliver this with other experts.”
“Our findings and recommendation take about 4-6 weeks to prepare, covering everything about the user experience, and working independently from the organisation, looking at their IT support and management, both internally and externally, looking at the infrastructure, including business continuity.”
Looking at the businesses of a similar nature and size, Aura can show them what their ranking would be in a few years if they followed the recommendations. “With a concise, easy to digest plan, and using a traffic light system to highlight issues, we find this works with the board, not giving them 150 page reports, but a jargon-free report that takes a couple of hours to present, and keeps them interested.”
“Then we have a process to continuously engage the clients. In the midmarket this gives them the required predictability, they know when they will meet with us, and what the agenda and outcomes will be. It allows us to keep the momentum moving – this equals increased customer satisfaction and giving them a better platform and experience.”
