CompTIA Research

Summary of “Managed Services Best Practices for Profit-Minded Service Providers ”

About the Study

The increase in new technologies and the Internet have led to significant efficiencies in the service process. Subsequently, an increasing number of Managed Service providers have capitalized on the opportunity to service the needs of channel players.

CompTIA commissioned Kotler Marketing Group and ServicesRevenue™ to conduct a study on best practices of Managed Service Providers. The study was conducted using a telephone interview process to a panel of 18 experts who had been profitably offering a range of managed services for three years or more. Interviews were administered between June 15 and July 31, 2007. Extensive analysis was conducted to explore the operations, planning, and sales and marketing of successful profit-minded managed services providers.

Key Findings

A sample of the best practices identified of successful Managed Service Providers:

• Make the commitment to “Stay the Course” – a provider must persist in building long-term relationships with customers, make adjustments to adapt to customer feedback
  
  
• Anticipate employee resistance and be prepared to overcome – persuade employees, particularly technicians and salespeople of the new managed services business model
  
  
• Leverage the Delivery Capabilities of Others – partner with other providers Sell what you can deliver – build an honest relationship with customers and start with manageable offerings
  
  
• Target a specific customer base – focus on a well-defined customer base
  
  
• Use reports to communicate the value of services to customers
  
  
• Pilot your first or new managed service to at least one customer
  
  
• Set up a sales compensation model for staff
  
  
• Integrate with the customer as a partner – interaction and ongoing interaction with customers
  
  
• Promote your services (externally and internally) – continue marketing services
  
  
• Brand your service for differentiation - differentiate and brand service offerings in a way that is meaningful to target customers
  
  
• Seek and secure executive level support – compel customer employees to cooperate and clears budgeting barriers to moving forward with propositions
  
  
• Guard against scope creep – resist customer pressure to go beyond original scope of services
  
  
• Train and retrain sales staff and technicians.

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