We had a wonderful time setting up and running the contest and we hope you’re equally thrilled about the goodies coming your way as well.

We truly appreciate all the time and effort sysadmins everywhere dedicate towards keeping IT systems up and running, which is basically the lifeblood of any business. We know how you’ve been working your fingers to the bone and burning the midnight oil during these uncertain times to plug the proverbial rift in the space-time continuum to get businesses back to the new normal.

In light of your sterling efforts, we’re sending some ultra-cool futuristic gear your way that’s sure to make your day!

The first 1,000 entrants get amazingly lit T-shirts and sticker packs that have already been dispatched via mail.

And now for the big one! The lucky draw winners that have each won a time capsule valued at over $500 are:

• Scott Sorenson of Chapin, SC
• Joshua Slick of Jackson, NJ
• Roy Kasenchak of North Babylon, NY
• Andy Kuhn of Ramsey, MN
• Cary Wagner of Post Falls, ID

Congratulations to all the winners! We hope you all enjoy the prizes.

Note: All entrants have been notified about the results via email.

If you need any assistance or would like to know more about using our hoverboard to get back to the new normal, you may request for a demo here.

The post The Results Are In! Congratulations to Our “Back to the Future of IT” Contest Winners! appeared first on Kaseya.

However, for MSPs to scale and generate recurring revenue, reaching the right prospects, turning them into customers and retaining them for longer periods is essential.

Let’s take a look at three effective marketing channels MSPs can leverage to get qualified leads and grow their business.

1. Mastering Email Marketing

Email marketing presents a feasible channel for MSPs to engage their prospects or upsell to their existing clients without spending much. You should create and leverage email campaigns and sequences that pair with or reinforce all other active outbound marketing efforts.

Create different email campaigns for different goals. If you’d like your prospect to download a piece of content, make sure the subject line and the content in the email drives home the point. If you want your prospect to request for a demo, make sure the intent of the email is clear. Personalize the emails. Your email should look like its written by (and to) an individual.

Few things to consider when setting up emails:

• Segregate your contacts by industry, size of company or by other factors to make sure the right contacts get the right emails.
• Test your email sends to determine the time at which the open rate is high and set your future emails to the same time for maximum opens.
• A/B test your email campaigns. A/B testing is a way of working out which of your two campaign options is the most effective in terms of encouraging opens or clicks.

2. Making the Best Use of Organic Social Media Marketing

Take advantage of the presence of your prospects on social media. If your prospects are mostly on Twitter, become an authority in the MSP space. Use hashtags efficiently, watch for trending topics and engage in Twitter chatter to establish the brand. Follow influencers, bloggers, media and other relevant Twitter users that could impact your business.

If you have prospects who are business owners or IT technologists, managers and technicians, try and find them on LinkedIn and follow them. Make connections, share their posts and engage in conversations with them to build rapport. Keep your LinkedIn feed updated with regular posts about how your products can help your customers.

Facebook is one of the most used social media platforms in the United States. About 70 percent of adults use Facebook in 2020. Facebook posts can be used to spread awareness about your MSP. You can create Facebook groups and communities and invite your prospects and customers to join. While Facebook might not seem like an ideal platform to form business connections, why ignore it when can give your business the exposure it needs.

3. Elevating MSP Marketing Efforts With Digital Advertising

Digital advertising can be intimidating for MSP professionals. If you’ve never implemented digital advertising campaigns before and don’t know where to start, the jargon it employs could sound like gibberish. However, the trick to getting used to digital ads is to be hyper-focused and to take small, manageable bites out of a much larger pie.

But first, make sure that the messaging on your company website is clear, aesthetically pleasing, easy to navigate and has definite call–to–actions (CTAs) for every piece of content.

• Learn How to Set Up Google AdWords – Google ads, also known as pay-per-click (PPC), drive leads to your website and are highly targeted towards search terms (keywords). Use keywords in ads that would signify the type of service you are providing and leverage the best content you have to offer on your website for the highest conversion rates.

You can also create paid ads on social media channels for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

• Twitter Advertising – Twitter ads have the potential to reach your clients and a whole network of prospects, with many technologists sharing, commenting and discussing technology news. The analytics program Twitter offers is great for any business. It has a campaign dashboard that allows you to track your impressions, results, and cost-per-results, conversion tracking, and provides you with easy ways to promote your tweets. Achieve your business goals through Twitter here.
• Facebook Advertising – Facebook ads, contests and promoted posts can help you generate leads for your business. You can learn more about Facebook advertising here.
• LinkedIn Advertising – Selling on LinkedIn can be the most beneficial for MSPs as compared to other platforms since it is easy to target the decision makers using their industry, job titles and company names. Learn how to get started with LinkedIn ads here.

For these MSP marketing tactics to work, it is necessary to identify your niche in the space. If your company specializes in cybersecurity or backup services, focus on messaging that uses these keywords and sells these services. You can later upsell your clients with other services.

Putting effort into marketing an entire gamut of IT managed services can confuse your potential prospects and result in poor marketing return-on-investment (ROI).

Kaseya Powered Services

Kaseya Powered Services (KPS) is a program that is designed to equip and empower MSPs with valuable assets and tools in the channel in order to go-to-market successfully and profitably. The program includes proven marketing and lead generation strategies, professional sales enablement material, and training and coaching for effective execution.

For example, you can learn how to sell your remote management and monitoring (RMM) services by downloading the marketing toolkit here.

You can also get more marketing insights in detail that can help you set up your marketing plan by downloading our MSP Sales and Marketing eBook.

The post MSP Marketing:  3 Channels to Build Your Sales Pipeline appeared first on Kaseya.

As companies grow, so does the number of endpoints on the network. Network structure may also get more complicated, making them harder to manage. Managed Service Provider (MSP) technicians may get overburdened with the task of monitoring these complex IT networks.

According to the 2020 MSP Benchmark Survey Results Report, when asked about the network monitoring services MSPs provided to their clients, most MSPs (about 82 percent) provided Local Area Network/Wide Area Network (LAN/WAN) services. Monitoring of on-site physical devices is done by 78 percent of MSPs whereas monitoring of on-site virtual devices is done by 68 percent of MSPs.

Many organizations use WAN links to interconnect local area networks (LANs) at geographically dispersed sites. As companies grow, it takes more IT time and resources to manage these WANs and LANs.

Today, companies need close to 100% percent network and system uptime, without which they could incur a significant loss in business productivity. Listed below are some best practices that your MSP can implement to streamline network management functions and troubleshoot issues to maintain uptime and customer satisfaction.

5 Best Practices for Effective Network Monitoring

1. Establish a Network Baseline to Set Alerts

Know how your client’s network usually behaves. Establish a baseline based on the network’s normal behavior and quantify network performance when it’s running smoothly. Having a baseline in place enables network admins to set appropriate alert threshold values. These alerts can help the team be proactive about troubleshooting potential issues, before a network failure occurs. For example, if server CPU utilization exceeds the threshold you’ve set, then you can investigate the issue before the server overheats and fails.

2. Use Tools That Provide End-To-End Network Visibility

Your network monitoring tool should have complete visibility into your client’s network to identify potential issues and help determine the root cause of an incident. A network topology map shows how all of the devices on the network are connected. This includes agent-based devices—workstations and servers, and agentless (SNMP) devices. It should be able to display the up/down status of endpoints on the network—for availability monitoring, so it’s easy to see where problems are occurring.

3. Implement Proper Configuration Management

Many network issues stem from incorrect configurations. Standardize network configurations for device classifications, such as LAN switch, WAN switch, etc. Configuration management allows network admins to make sure that configuration changes don’t break something that currently works. Unauthorized changes can create security risks to your network that may result in data breaches and disruption of business continuity. Configuration management helps prevent unauthorized changes, which helps keep your network more secure.

If you are required to change configurations for audit purposes, keep track of all the changes. You may even back up the changes made to the network, in case you need to restore a previous configuration.

4. Set Up an Alert Escalation Matrix

Your technicians are constantly under pressure to prioritize and respond to network issues. There might be cases where issues go unnoticed and unresolved due to multiple technicians working on different aspects of network management. Create a plan that specifies who is alerted when a specific type of problem occurs. In addition, your plan should include how alerts for issues should be escalated to other personnel based on severity, elapsed time, and service levels.

5. Enable Auto-Remediation of Network Issues

Traditional network monitoring consists of monitoring endpoints and detecting issues. Take a proactive approach by enabling auto-remediation of common issues with your remote monitoring and management tool before they impact client operations. Take the load off your busy technicians and resolve incidents more quickly.

In today’s highly competitive business environment, network and system uptime is critical to your clients’ business. Select the best RMM and network monitoring tools to keep all your clients up and running.

Kaseya VSA provides complete network visibility with its Network Visualization feature that includes a network topology map showing how all devices on the network are connected. This includes both agent based and agentless devices. It also enables you to see endpoint (asset) up or down status at a glance.

A QuickView window appears when you click on an endpoint in the topology map. From the QuickView window you have access to detailed asset information. You can also take advantage of VSA’s remote endpoint management tools — Live Connect and Remote Control to access the endpoint and troubleshoot issues. Quickly resolve IT incidents.

Learn more about the Network Topology Map by downloading the feature sheet “Find and Fix IT Incidents Faster With Network Topology Map.”

The post Effective Network Monitoring and Management: 5 Best Practices appeared first on Kaseya.

Kaseya VSA, a powerful RMM solution, has all the capabilities – high visibility and control, seamless remote access, automated patch and vulnerability management and more – that an MSP needs.

Is it the best RMM out there? We’ll leave it to you to decide. However, in this blog, we’ll be looking at some key features of Kaseya VSA that gives it an edge over its peers.

1. Powerful Automation

“The level of what you can automate in VSA is far superior to SolarWinds N-central”, says Elliot Stirn, IT Managed Services Supervisor at Circle Computer Resources. Not our words, mind you. This comes straight from our customer who recently switched from SolarWinds to Kaseya VSA.

Kaseya VSA enables MSPs to take automation to the next level. With a powerful scripting engine and fully customizable automation capabilities, MSPs can update/install applications on thousands of endpoints, patch their vulnerabilities on time, set alerts and reporting as per their needs and run agent procedures on multiple devices simultaneously.

Kaseya VSA offers more than 500 pre-built scripts, which include agent procedures, monitor sets, reports, templates and other types of automation, at Kaseya Automation Exchange, a community where all these scripts are shared and exchanged. These allow MSPs to automate to their heart’s content.

2. Ease of Deployment and Scalability

SolarWinds N-central has a Policy Manager that is device-centric and requires a developer understanding of their product to implement (if\else and then statements). Kaseya VSA has a checkbox graphic user interface (GUI) approach that is implemented at the global or customer organization level without the need to manually recreate policies, thereby ensuring quick and consistent deployment of configurations.

Kaseya VSA is highly scalable and can monitor up to 50,000 endpoints with one instance. However, SolarWinds N-central is extremely slow around 5,000 endpoints, hence the ability to scale as you grow is low.

3. Robust Reporting

Kaseya VSA has a very extensible reporting engine that allows MSP clients to get the data they need and can be customized with additional templates available in the Kaseya Automation exchange. With accurate and visual reporting, MSPs can highlight their service delivery in technology business reviews with their clients.

SolarWinds N-central report templates are minimal, not very customizable and not pretty.

4. Seamless RMM and PSA Integration in Mobile App

With the Kaseya Fusion Mobile App, MSP technicians get the functionalities of both Kaseya VSA and Kaseya BMS (the professional services automation/ticketing solution) together. This means they can not only remotely manage endpoints with the app but also manage tickets on the go.

With the Kaseya Fusion Mobile App you can:

• Get real-time visibility into your IT environment
• Manage all service tickets on the go
• Document and quickly access relevant information as it happens

SolarWinds N-central’s mobile app “MSP N-central Mobile” caters to RMM functionalities only.

5. Ease of Navigation Within Workflows

Kaseya VSA integrates seamlessly with other solutions such as PSA (Kaseya BMS), IT documentation (IT Glue), backup and recovery (Kaseya Unified Backup) and more. It allows technicians to switch between applications with just a click of a button. Comparatively, SolarWinds N-central puts you in a box without allowing you to work in the workstream that you want to.

In conclusion, Kaseya VSA is a feature-rich RMM solution that enables MSPs to increase their IT efficiency, bolster security and reduce operational costs, making it one of the best RMM solutions out there.

Learn more about why Circle Computer Resources replaced SolarWinds N-central with Kaseya VSA here.

The post 5 Reasons Why Kaseya Makes It Easy to Leave Your Current RMM Vendor appeared first on Kaseya.

Whatever the reason may be⁠—whether it’s due to the lack of in-house expertise or the general lack of understanding of the business model⁠—MSPs will have to overcome their shortcomings and adapt as the market shifts toward cloud and automation, and accommodate enterprise needs to be successful in the competitive market.

Let’s take a look at five services that, when leveraged properly, can generate substantial revenue for MSPs.

1. Professional Services

In the 2020 MSP Benchmark Survey, Professional (project) Services represented an average of 13 percent of the revenue for the MSPs surveyed. Professional services included contract and billing, project management, customer relationship management and help desk.

MSPs can automate these services with the Professional Services Automation (PSA) software, offloading tasks from clients and generating a sustainable revenue stream. PSAs greatly help in centralizing MSP operations, saving time and protecting business margins.

2. Backup and Disaster Recovery Services

While backup and disaster recovery services represent an average of six percent of the total revenue for the MSPs, nearly 56 percent of them experienced a revenue increase in the past year through backup services.

This implies that the demand for backup services among MSP clients is definitely growing. These days, IT system failure or downtime can cost businesses millions. With limited IT staff and expertise, they rely on MSPs to support their backup and disaster recovery needs.

According to the survey, only about half (48 percent) of the MSPs surveyed test their clients’ recovery capabilities quarterly or annually. This is too infrequent to provide strong confidence in the recoverability of their data.

For MSPs looking to build a strong revenue stream, providing their customers with robust backup and disaster recovery services that include automated recovery testing for guaranteed backup is imperative.

3. Private/Public Cloud Services

Public and private cloud adoption and support are among the top IT needs this year. However, MSP management of cloud environments has dropped from 70 percent in 2019 to 56 percent for public cloud, and from 59 percent in 2019 to 49 percent this year for private cloud.

Cloud support had become a necessity for most businesses today, especially due to the pandemic, where companies have had to transform digitally to accommodate their remote workforce. Not catering to this need could cost MSPs dearly since they could lose customers to their competitors.

Cloud services represent an average of a mere four percent of the total revenue for MSPs. However, MSPs can capitalize on the cloud demand and boost their revenue by tapping into services such as:

• Helping customers migrate data from on-premise servers to the cloud
• Becoming a Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) reseller
• Managing and monitoring cloud workloads
• Automating clients’ cloud infrastructure

4. Enhanced Security Services

Security services, such as Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), represent an average of three percent of the total revenue for MSPs.

In today’s age, where security breaches have become an everyday occurrence, traditional security layers, such as antivirus/antimalware or firewall, are not enough to keep an IT environment secure. This can also be seen in the survey, where 91 percent of MSPs acknowledge the importance of 2FA for both their internal and customer systems.

Keep your client’s environment secure by providing:

• Breach identification services, such as IDS/IPS, that involves network monitoring for malicious activity or policy violations.
• Access management services, such as 2FA, that provides two layers of security to access systems and prevent cybercriminals from hacking by taking advantage of weak or stolen credentials.
• Penetration testing, where you can attempt to penetrate your client’s network as if you were a cyber attacker, and build strong defenses based on the results

5. Compliance Assessment Services

Compliance is critical for many industries. With the increasing number of regulations, including the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the New York Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data (SHIELD) Security Act, data privacy has become a necessity for small and large organizations alike. Penalties for violations can be huge and non-compliance is practically a welcome mat for cybercrime, resulting in loss of reputation and financial disaster.

In the 2020 MSP Benchmark Survey, 66 percent of MSPs said that their clients struggle to meet compliance requirements while 60 percent said that their clients have sought their support for compliance services. MSPs can leverage this opportunity and turn compliance assessments into a revenue stream. For more information on how to conduct compliance assessments, click here.

The 2020 MSP Benchmark Survey Results Report enables MSPs to benchmark their performance against other MSPs around the world. Want to see how you stack up against your peers? Take the MSP benchmark assessment and analyze if you’re operating at maximum efficiency for maximum returns.

The post 5 Services for MSP Revenue Growth: Going Beyond Traditional IT Services appeared first on Kaseya.

VSA makes it easy for users to create IT automation scripts with its built-in Agent Procedure Editor. We have modernized and revitalized the Agent Procedure Editor in our latest release of VSA. Users access the Agent Procedure Editor in the Agent Procedures and Service Desk modules.

Think of the Agent Procedure Editor as your artificial intelligence partner taking on remedial tasks so you can focus on more important projects and tasks.

While most powerful automation tools require in-depth knowledge of scripting, the VSA Agent Procedure Editor is based on pre-built command lets (cmdlets) such as Powershell, that offer the ability to drag and drop commands with a fill-in-the-blank model. This gives you the power of automation with the click of a button.

With our latest release:

We introduced our brand new, innovative dark mode. This is part of our continuous UX enhancement strategy. You can toggle the interface between dark or light modes.

The Agent Procedure Editor is color coded to assist you with editing and has a new Quick Action toolbar for immediate action.

For maximum security, we eliminated dependency on Adobe Flash. Use the AutoSave option to ensure your work is saved. When you turn on AutoSave your progress will be saved every 2.5 minutes.

Enhanced Copy and Paste options optimize technician efficiency. You can copy and paste commands while editing multiple procedures.

To learn more about the new feature, request a demo for Kaseya VSA.

The post Kaseya VSA Launches New Agent Procedure Editor appeared first on Kaseya.

To become profitable, MSPs need to understand what drives their business and what doesn’t. And to do so, they must measure a few important metrics that when analyzed can help the MSPs achieve their business goals. 

8 Important Metrics Every MSP Must Monitor

1. Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) 

As the title states, this is the monthly revenue that when measured continuously, can forecast future revenue patterns that can act as a starting point of your expansion plans. 

With the help of MRR, you can predict financial security based on which you can take decisions that can help you scale exponentially. 

MRR = Average revenue per account × Total number of accounts. 

2. Profits 

Measure the profits of individual customers rather than overall profit. This way you can recognize which services/customers benefit you and which do not. Create a baseline with the data analyzed and price your services accordingly to keep your business floating. 

Profit = Revenue – Cost of goods/services sold (COGS) 

3. Overhead

This is the sum of all the operating costs whether fixed or variable which will provide you an insight into how much revenue you need to bring in to cover your costs and to not lose your money. This includes billable staff and non-billable items like – rent of your office, utility, training, cleaning, fuel, etc. 

Overhead = Fixed costs + Variable costs 

4. Utilization

To effectively track utilization of a resource, you need to track the real-time hours committed against a contract. Track individual utilization to ensure that every resource is accountable to their goals. 

Utilization Rate = Hours worked on customer/Total hours worked 

5. Earning before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBIDTA)

This is one of the most important metrics to measure the efficiency and profitability of a MSP business.  EBIDTA is measured to evaluate the worth of a business. It is mostly used to compare companies against each other and industry averages. However, Investopedia notes that EBITDA’s calculation can vary from one company to next, hence it shouldn’t be used as a one-size-fits-all, stand-alone tool for evaluating corporate profitability. 

EBIDTA = Net profit+ Interest + Taxes + Depreciation + Amortization 

6. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

This is the total worth of your customer over the entire period of the relationship. As the cost of acquiring a new customer is definitely more than retaining an existing customer, for a growing company, it is necessary to increase the CLV of its customers to become profitable. You can increase your CLV by switching the billing cycle from monthly to annually or by providing added value with better and higher-priced service bundles.  

Meeting your customer’s requirements and keeping them happy is the key to increasing CLV. 

CLV = Revenue from the customer – The cost of acquisition 

7. Product Margin 

For an MSP business, product margin is similar to profit margin, the difference between the cost at which the product/service is provided and the actual cost of the service. The greater the difference, the higher is the margin. A good profit margin varies based on the industry. However, generally, a 10 percent net profit margin is considered “average”, whereas 20 percent is considered “good” and less than 5 percent would be “low”. 

As per Investopedia, Gross profit margin = (Net sales – Cost of goods sold)/Net sales

8. Managed Services Agreement Profitability

The profitability of your managed services contracts is one of the most important metrics you must track. It involves measuring elements like

• Client Contribution (CC) – This indicates how much an MSP earns from each client excluding the cost of obtaining the client
• Client Effective Rate (CER) – This indicates how much an MSP earns from each client based on the time spent servicing them.

CER = Monthly fixed fees/Hours spent with the client

(Learn more about ensuring the profitability of your managed services contract here.)

Diligent tracking of the above metrics is required to grow your business, to remain profitable and to mitigate any financial damage that arises. To learn more about increasing the profitability of your business, download our eBook MSP Guide to Higher Growth: Pricing for Profitability.

The post 8 Metrics Every MSP Should Track to Be Profitable appeared first on Kaseya.

While most MSPs focus on the services, they miss out on leveraging the managed services contract to increase their profit margins, without which sustenance of their business would be unfeasible. 

So how do you ensure the profitability of your contract? 

Measure and Track the Services Provided 

The first step towards ensuring that your contract is profitable is to track the time spent working with your customers in your professional services automation (PSA) software. 

What cannot be tracked cannot be measured.  If you are still using spreadsheets, it is time to transition to efficient PSA software. Managing spreadsheets can be a humungous task leading to fragmented processes, missed deadlines and inaccurate invoices. 

If you are providing additional support to your clients for any ad hoc services, track the effort spent by your engineers. Bill the customer based on the contract terms and as per the resources consumed. 

Meet Your SLAs Regularly 

Honor your SLAs to avoid penalties. One of the flaws of MSP processes is not being able to track SLAs and addressing customer issues on time. 

Create an IT environment where any incident is tracked and re-mediated even before the customer is aware they have occurred.

Look for a PSA that provides help desk managers with real-time information about the status and progress of tickets and generals alerts along the way until the final resolution is complete. 

Select the Profitable Pricing Model 

Lower prices do not equate to more business. They only lead to employees spread too thin and a business that is barely getting by.

Evaluate your pricing strategy based on the needs of your customers.

Value-based pricing model, a strategy of setting prices primarily based on a consumer’s perceived value of a product, or service has been the most popular choice among our MSP Benchmark Survey Report respondents for at least four years. In the 2019 Kaseya MSP Benchmark Survey Report, about 38 percent of participants said that more than 50 percent of their revenue comes from a value-based pricing strategy. 

Ensure the Renewal of Your Managed Services Contract

Build trusted relationships with your customers. Acquiring a new client can cost five times more than retaining an existing client. Also, increasing customer retention by 5 percent can lead to an increase in profits of between 25 percent to 95 percent.

Have quarterly business reviews (QBRs) with your clients to demonstrate the value of your services. Use tools like Kaseya VSA that can show all backend fixes done by you that your client probably wouldn’t be aware of.

Kaseya VSA is a remote monitoring and management (RMM) solution that manages both your endpoints and infrastructure, enabling you to deliver better service and improve your team’s efficiency.

To learn more about Kaseya VSA, request a demo.

The post How to Ensure Profitability of Your Managed Services Contract appeared first on Kaseya.

This usually leads to a cycle of low-profit margins, hindered growth and the provision of low-value services.

So, how does an MSP provide high-value services to its clients and still make profits? The first step is to move away from hourly pricing under the ‘break-fix’ services model. And, move to subscription-based pricing, if you have not done already.

Pricing Models to be Considered

A few of the popular MSP pricing models are:

Per-device Pricing Model – A flat fee is charged per endpoint device supported in this model. Typically, the fee depends on the type of device. For example, as described in a TechTarget article year ago, the fee could be $69 per desktop or laptop, $299 per server, $29 per network printer, etc. The advantage of this model is that it is easy to quote and easy to adjust as the client adds more devices to their IT environment. Your endpoint management / RMM solution can provide updated asset information to your PSA tool to automatically prorate your monthly billing based on the number of devices under management.

Per-user Pricing Model – This is similar to the per-device model, but instead of a device, a flat fee is charged per user per month and covers support for all devices used by each user. This may mean that you are managing three or four devices per user if they have a company workstation or laptop, tablet, and smartphone. As noted in the recent MSP Success magazine article by M J Shoer, “The key to the per-user model is knowing how to support the operating environment as efficiently as possible, leveraging tools for automation to ensure profitability.” Of course, you might say the same is true for the other pricing models, too.

Tiered Pricing Model – In this model, the MSP offers several different bundled packages of managed services, with more services added to the higher-priced packages. For example, you might have a ‘basic’ desktop managed services package with remote management, patch management, and basic antivirus/anti-malware security, an ‘advanced’ package that adds more security services, and a ‘premium’ package that offers the ultimate endpoint security and after-hours support.

Of course, figuring out the right pricing strategy and price points for your MSP business is critical. According to an article last year in Channele2e, the best MSPs are charging around $125 to $150 per user per month. This is under the per-user pricing model.

Selecting Your Target Market

As an MSP, figuring out who you can serve the best will allow you to develop the right service and the right price for your target market.

Ask yourself:

• Am I in the right market?
• Should I go after a broad set of SMBs or specialize in a particular vertical?

To differentiate yourself from your competitors, consider targeting a specific market vertical, such as healthcare or financial services, and use that as a value driver.

Minimize Your Service Delivery Costs

Evaluate the direct and indirect costs associated with your current managed services – including the cost of lost productivity and lost revenue due to inefficient, manual IT processes.

Minimize your costs by:

• Leveraging IT automation to drive down operational costs by reducing or eliminating technician time for many common IT tasks. (Read this recent blog: How Automating IT Processes Saves Time and Reduces Costs).
• Documenting IT processes and procedures to enable your technicians to get work done quickly and accurately.
• Make use of IT management tools that deliver seamless workflows that allow easy transitions from one tool to the other and incorporate IT documentation at your fingertips. (See our Omni MSP Product Brief).

Learn more about MSP pricing by joining our webinar Maximizing MSP Profitability. Hear from our special guest speakers — Michael France and Dennis O’Connell from The Taylor Business Group!

The post Boost Profitability by Pricing Your Services Appropriately appeared first on Kaseya.

Some organizations, especially government agencies, are often slow at updating their technology and processes due to budget constraints and other factors. They may be stuck with their legacy processes and systems. But, no one can afford to delay implementing basic security measures to protect the business.

Another reason why enterprises may have weak access management processes is due to the poor alignment of cybersecurity and identity practices within the organization. According to a recent analysis by SecureAuth, about 59 percent of IT decision-makers were said to have kept cybersecurity and identity decisions separate in their company. This kind of siloed environment can veil security threats, risking the company’s systems and data. 

In today’s age where security breaches have become an everyday occurrence, password-only authentication is not sufficient. Organizations should be looking for more than a username and a password to protect their networks. 

Increase Security with Two-Factor Authentication 

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), a form of multi-factor authentication, provides a second layer of authentication to access your systems by requiring users to provide a password (something they know) and a mobile app or token (something they have). 

An effective way of implementing a 2FA is to generate an ever-changing code, usually sent to your mobile device (via text or call), after you have entered your username and password.

2FA is one of the easiest methods to prevent cybercriminals from hacking into your systems by taking advantage of weak or stolen credentials (passwords). The fact that you need two authentication elements to login increases the level of security significantly. It also allows employees to work remotely without the fear of being breached. 

Another important advantage of implementing 2FA is related to compliance with industry regulations. Regulatory standards such as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) require secure and authorized logins of users into company networks to help prevent data breaches. In fact, PCI DSS Requirement 8.1 clearly states the requirement to incorporate 2FA for remote access to the network by employees, administrators, and third parties. 

The Opportunity for MSPs 

Adding 2FA to their managed security services is an excellent growth opportunity for MSPs. It enables them to secure their clients’ networks from unauthorized logins and hackers. Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) usually have a small IT team with a limited IT budget, which makes it difficult for them to manage complex networks. In such cases, they may decide to outsource some or all of the IT function to an MSP rather than staff up to manage it themselves. In the case of IT security, an SMB may want the MSP to handle this and provide not only the technology but also the training of employees in the proper use of 2FA and other security best practices. In cases thike these, MSPs can step in and deploy a 2FA solution that enhances the security posture of the client company and keeps their data secure. 

Selling security solutions can be a tricky business for MSPs. Even with breaches hogging the news headlines every other day, many SMBs choose to ignore it as they don’t realize the risks they could face.

If you want to learn to build a security practice that increases your recurring revenue sales and profitability, register for our webinar How To Avoid MSP Security Pitfalls. 

The post Leverage Two-Factor Authentication for Maximized Security appeared first on Kaseya.