Outsourcing requires a huge degree of trust from customers who are demanding more complex IT systems in today’s digital economy. No matter what size of company if mission critical systems fail, it will have a negative effect on their business. Many have strict industry compliance and regulatory needs which adds to the burden.
To maximise the opportunity, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) need to understand the customer’s business and their needs. Not all customers require the same level of support or indeed place the same value on it. Indeed, many small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) will not have a specific budget for maintaining their IT infrastructure. Many SMBs still only opt for break-fix and responsive engagement, buying IT products and particularly services only when they need them. However, they also present an opportunity to get closer to the customer and become their trusted advisor. Customer intimacy breeds opportunity to add more services and is one of the greatest benefits of becoming an MSP. Indeed, the more entanglement the MSP has with the customer and the more knowledge that is subsequently attained, the more likelihood it is to increase the recurring revenue from the account. For example, if the MSP offers a service such as network monitoring, it might well be possible to expand that service into back-up services. A flexible and modular service offering will make it easier to expand the services and increase the success rate in converting ad hoc customers into a monthly fixed fee contract. For this reason, most MSPs offer a broad range of value-added services to meet a wide variety of needs including monitoring of IP-enabled devices, data backup and disaster recovery, enterprise-class endpoint security, auditing and compliance, data storage, performance reporting and much more.
Monitoring performance
Of course, MSPs can also make use of remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools to improve operational efficiency and the productivity of valuable technical engineers by reducing the number of on-site visits, minimising non-urgent calls and speeding up response times. Any number of IT processes can be automated through an RMM platform, including updating patches, resetting passwords, running defrags, deploying applications, managing assets, updating client device software, self-healing (i.e., the automatic correction of common IT issues), and checking networks and devices for regulatory compliance. The more tasks that can be automated, the greater the efficiency and productivity of the MSP.
Detailed reporting on monitoring and performance provides valuable feedback for the customer as well as justifying the requirement for the service. With many functions carried out remotely or proactively, some issues or interventions may go unnoticed by the customer. Reports on back-ups, patching, server status, disk usage and summaries on tickets raised and closed, and the like help to maintain an on-going dialogue and are influential in maintaining and even elevating customer satisfaction. They can also stimulate conversations that can lead to new business, demonstrating the need for upgrades or new and better solutions that have come onto the market. In addition, field service management software enables MSPs to collect and assess large amounts of data across their client base. This can help to detect a repeated pattern in equipment failure and help to resolve a potential problem before it becomes an issue.
Many of these services are delivered via a Network Operations Centre (NOC) or Technical Assistance Centre (TAC) where monitoring and control or network management is carried out with help desk support services. Problems can be identified and resolved at the NOC/TAC or escalated to engineers to carry out on-site maintenance. Whilst some MSPs have the facilities to offer all of these services, the professional services provided by Exertis are often used by resellers as a full white label service or as a back-up to a service provider.
Exertis provides a full range of professional services which resellers can white label designed to equip resellers with the skills, knowledge and confidence to service and support their own customers. These include straightforward ‘break-fix’ through to a 24/7/365 complete managed service that also provides pro-active, vendor agnostic monitor and incident response services. Exertis, uniquely, delivers all services with fully qualified engineers and support staff and from our own ISO27001 certified, Technical Assistance Centre (TAC)
New and emerging technologies also provide opportunities for service providers.
Many industries are using IoT devices and sensors that can alert engineers to possible problems and subsequently avoid breakdown of equipment. Predictive maintenance is becoming more and more important. With real time monitoring and analysis of machine data, field service engineers can intervene and prevent failures and reduce costs caused by downtime. With the increase in data that is achieved through monitoring, artificial intelligence can help sift through the data and provide valuable insights that would take humans far longer to analyse. In addition, virtual assistants/chatbots can also be deployed to help customers with submission and updates on support tickets. This can free up time for the service desk, eliminating admin tasks. As AI becomes more mature, the efficiency and cost savings are reason enough for a managed service provider to want to incorporate machine learning capabilities into their operations but as customers’ technology needs become more complex, increased automation through AI can provide a competitive advantage by adding value and increasing customer satisfaction.
Keeping pace with technology can be equally difficult for technicians and engineers. Augmented reality could help engineers that might lack certain skills or need additional help to fix a problem on-site by guiding them through the repair. It’s an emerging technology which could be of great interest to MSPs.
Resellers that have become MSPs have already experienced considerable change to their business models. As technology evolves, they will need to ensure that new technology trends become integrated into their own operation and enable them to add even more value to their service.
Exertis Monitor: Helping resellers with their service proposition
Exertis can provide a vendor agnostic service capable of monitoring your customer’s critical IT infrastructure. From our TAC, we utilise industry leading monitoring systems and emerging new vendors to provide a clear picture on device availability, performance and security. Any IP enabled device can be included in this service with availability monitoring as a minimum. Devices allowing SNMP or CLI access can benefit from additional features. With certain types of device, we can provide more detailed metrics, some of which are highlighted below:
- Switches – availability, performance (Memory, CPU), hardware health and configuration changes. Some manufacturers can also be monitored and reported on for known firmware vulnerabilities and configuration compliance against standards such as PCI or ISO.
- Server – availability, performance (Memory, CPU, Disk, Processes), asset inventory including software, drivers and updates, application specific monitoring and future growth forecasts.
- Hypervisors – the benefits of Server monitoring above, with the additional monitoring of resource allocation and usage. Specific configuration and performance recommendations to get the most out of your existing virtual infrastructure.
- Storage – availability, performance (Memory, CPU, Disk), capacity and latency monitoring and IOPS monitoring and reporting.
UPS – availability via management interfaces, battery level and load monitoring
All services are delivered from our TAC, with all staff completing BPSS checks prior to gaining access to monitoring customers’ systems or data.
Connectivity for services is primarily achieved through an IPSec VPN to our endpoint addresses and, depending on the service requirements, this will generally be sufficient for all service components.
For further information on Exertis Monitor or our other professional services, call 01256 707070.