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From Promises to Proof: How To Demonstrate Value to Your Customers
Table of Contents
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. 3
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 13
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From Promises to Proof: How To Demonstrate Value to Your Customers
Executive Summary
Managed services is one of the fastest growing sectors of the technology industry. This trend towards more
predictable, proactive IT services is providing tremendous opportunities to IT service providers, particularly
those targeting the small- and medium-sized business (SMB) market.
This move towards managed services is occurring for two reasons. VARs, system integrators (SIs) and IT
service providers are under severe pressure from high customer turnover, low technician utilization rates and
shrinking margins to change the way they do business. As a result, more and more IT service providers are
moving away from time-based, break-fix service models and transitioning to managed services — value-based
engagements that provide predictable and proactive business-focused IT services.
The second impetus in this trend has been SMBs. They want IT service providers that can deliver better
services, more efficiently, and can help mitigate compliance and security risks, all at more predictable costs.
And because SMBs make up 48 percent of overall U.S. IT spending, according to a recent Forrester report,
they wield considerable power. By 2007, Forrester expects SMB spending to eclipse enterprise IT spending.
The challenge with managed services, though, is that while they offer customers true value by seamlessly
fixing problems before they impact a customer’s business, demonstrating and proving this value has
traditionally been problematic. The simple reason for this is that many of the aspects of managed services are
delivered in an automated, behind-the-scenes fashion; customers don’t see what it takes to keep their business
running smoothly.
To combat this problem, MSPs must regularly report their activities and successes to managers at all levels of
the customer organization — technician, operations and executive — as well as to authorities outside the
organization such as auditors. While each audience cares about different issues, they all need to understand
the value that managed services provides both on a daily IT basis and for a company’s long-term operational
and fiscal health. Such reporting needs to be fully integrated and flexible to ensure that different managers
receive the information that matters most to them in a format that is both informative and actionable. When
successful, a consistent reporting effort can literally transform a customer’s perception of managed services
from a vendor who promises value to a partner who delivers value.
While most reporting solutions targeting MSPs are focused on operational technical reports, one solution
delivers the reports needed by the different stakeholders in the organization. N-compass™ MSP Performance
Reporting solution from N-able Technologies® provides extensive reporting capabilities that allow you to
leverage predefined IT services, managed VoIP and security reports, incorporate data from multiple sources
and create unique customer reports. The ability for an MSP’s customer to easily view and understand IT
performance data helps them make better, more informed decisions for the successful operation of their
business. Also, by showing customers that their IT infrastructure is performing at an optimal level under the
MSP’s management, customer satisfaction increases – and, most importantly the MSP has the history and
credibility to take on the role of trusted advisor.
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From Promises to Proof: How To Demonstrate Value to Your Customers
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From Promises to Proof: How To Demonstrate Value to Your Customers
When IT problems are so well managed that they rarely reach the radar screens of C-level executives, the
―pain‖ once caused by regular IT failures is quickly forgotten. Indeed, the irony of managed services is that a
job well done may cause customers to wonder just what they’re paying for. And as the service delivery gets
even smoother and more sophisticated, the less visible the value becomes.
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From Promises to Proof: How To Demonstrate Value to Your Customers
When it doesn’t work, are we getting the service that we are paying for?
What do we have to do to keep it working?
How can we minimize cost impacts?
Reports must also take into account the context of the data, such as a baseline to understand what the
numbers mean. A baseline is an external standard by which you can compare and trend your data. This allows
an MSP to compare a customer’s one-month call activity against their 12-month running average, for example.
Trended usage levels like these help support purchase requests and budget forecasting. Baselines also allow
MSPs to compare key business service availability against the average for all customers to show a customer
how they compare to the average.
As the table below illustrates, different reports can address different levels of concern. At the highest level,
reports should provide a broader scope of activities and results, with a longer-term view of trends and cost
savings. As the audience grows more technical, reports should feature more granular information that arms
technicians with actionable information capable of prompting more immediate response.
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From Promises to Proof: How To Demonstrate Value to Your Customers
Strategic Tactical
Executive Cost of downtime N/A
Strategic planning
Relationship building
Operations Reporting against SLA Summarized activity reports
Validate current spending Incident reports
Budget planning Security activity reports
Capacity and growth Recognize short-term threats
planning to business activity
Technical N/A Detailed reports
Specific incidents
Designed to guide immediate
activity
Executive-level reports
These can speak to issues that hit an organization’s bottom line and address a company’s ability to serve its
own customers while dovetailing with overall strategic goals. From an MSP’s perspective, these reports should
help drive future spending on MSP offerings. Over time, they can be used to build a business case for
additional customer investment in your services. Executive-level reports might include:
Analysis of costs by business service. How can we improve our business through the use of
technology?
―What if‖ scenarios. How would investment in this area impact downtime costs?
Comparison to baseline. How do our failure areas or cost categories compare to that of our
competitors, or to our historical averages?
Operation-level reports
These should include information that illustrates how operations personnel can validate current spending and
avoid short-term risk. These personnel are consistently evaluating whether or not they are receiving the level of
service for which they are paying. They are keenly interested in such metrics as success or failure of certain
objectives (as defined by the SLA), summarized activity levels or trended usage levels that might support
purchase requests or budget forecasts. Operations-level reports might include:
Service level reports. Are we succeeding or failing on certain objectives as defined by our SLA?
Summarized usage reports. How do our activity levels or usage trends impact purchase requests or
budget forecasts?
Short-term recommendations. How do current-vs.-historical costs influence our plans for future capacity
upgrades?
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From Promises to Proof: How To Demonstrate Value to Your Customers
Technician-level reports
These reports should provide data that help inform immediate IT needs. Technicians care most about
information that allows them to clearly prioritize tasks. As a result, technician-level reports tend to include
granular, specific information:
Notifications
Detailed reports on specific incidents / devices / services
Short-term trend reports
As we have seen, different audiences seek out and require different information to assess the value of an
MSP’s offerings. But to communicate value in the most effective way, reporting tools must be flexible. For
instance, in the SMB market, executive and operational concerns may be addressed by a single audience. To
provide the right mix of information, MSP solutions should offer integrated reporting so reports can be
customized, differentiated, informative and interesting.
While most MSP management tools lack these features and level of integration, N-able Technologies has
developed a solution capable of helping elevate MSPs to the coveted role of a trusted advisor.
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From Promises to Proof: How To Demonstrate Value to Your Customers
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From Promises to Proof: How To Demonstrate Value to Your Customers
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From Promises to Proof: How To Demonstrate Value to Your Customers
Cost of downtime – a critical investment metric. Cost of downtime is a critical measurement(?) to determine
when further investment is required in key systems. N-central allows you to enter a cost value into every
service group, a grouping of lower level IT elements that forms a mission-critical business service like email. N-
compass uses this value to show how downtime, when aggregated over time, can cost a business.
Service level agreements – a summary of customer expectations. You and your customers outline
expectations in SLAs. These documents outline what services will be rendered, what service levels will be
provided, what recourse your customer will have if they are not met, and what the cost of the services provided
will be. N-compass reports can demonstrate if you are delivering on your contracts and meeting or exceeding
your SLAs.
Program levels – comparison of available MSP programs. Quite often you will have several standardized
programs that you market to your customers. N-central and N-compass support the subdivision of your
customers into groups so that you can assign baselines, SLAs and other key information to them. This gives
you the ability to measure service levels on a program-level basis, allows comparisons across program levels,
and allows you to assign standardized SLAs at each level making reporting more relevant and easy to use.
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From Promises to Proof: How To Demonstrate Value to Your Customers
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From Promises to Proof: How To Demonstrate Value to Your Customers
Conclusion
For MSPs aiming to serve small- and medium-sized businesses, the ability to capture and retain lasting
customer relationships is proving to be a determining factor for long-term profitability. Only by clearly and
consistently communicating your value to your customer can you hope to attain the role of trusted advisor–a
position that will help protect you from losing business to lower-priced competitors. An integrated, offline
reporting solution such as N-compass from N-able Technologies can ensure that your customers always
perceive your value in the ways that matter most to all managers within the customer organization. With N-
compass, everyone understands your value, so you can focus on delivering even more to your customers in
the future.
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From Promises to Proof: How To Demonstrate Value to Your Customers
Disclaimer
This executive brief may include planned release dates for service packs and version upgrades. These dates
are based on our current development plans and on our best estimates of the research and development time
required to build, test, and implement each of the documented features. This document does not represent any
firm commitments by N-able Technologies Inc. to features and/or dates. N-able will at its best effort, try to meet
the specified schedule and will update this document should there be any significant changes. N-able reserves
the right to change the release schedule and the content of any of the planned updates or enhancements
without notice. Publication or dissemination of this document alone is not intended to create and does not
constitute a business relationship between N-able and the recipient.
N-able Technologies is a market driven organization that places importance on customer, partner and alliance
feedback. All feedback is welcome at the following email address: feedback@n-able.com.
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From Promises to Proof: How To Demonstrate Value to Your Customers
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 N-able Technologies.
All rights reserved. This document contains information intended for the exclusive use of N-able Technologies’
personnel, partners and potential partners. The information herein is restricted in use and is strictly confidential
and subject to change without notice. No part of this document may be altered, reproduced, or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of
N-able Technologies.
Copyright protection includes, but is not limited to, program code, program documentation, and material
generated from the software product displayed on the screen, such as graphics, icons, screen displays, screen
layouts, and buttons.
N-able Technologies, N-compass, N-central and Monitor Manage Optimize are trademarks or registered
trademarks of N-able Technologies International Inc., licensed for use by N-able Technologies, Inc. All other
names and trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
www.n-able.com
info@n-able.com
1-877-655-4689
MA-NCP-2.0-WP-1.0-ENUS-RES
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