The end of this month marks my 18-year anniversary covering the B2B IT space. Even if your business has only been around for half that time, you’ve no-doubt seen remarkable changes in technologies along with the way customers consume technologies.
Like many IT providers, you’ve probably struggled to adapt your business model as customers move their software, platforms, and infrastructures to the cloud. And, if you’ve held firmly to an “on-premises IT is best” sales strategy, you might be reading this article as a last-ditch effort to stay in business.
The State of Managed Services
According to a 2017 State of North American Managed Services research report from The 2112 Group, the average channel partner earns up to 30% of its revenue and as much as 20% of its profit from selling managed services. Furthermore, 64% of channel organizations surveyed said managed services was the most significant growth driver for their company, outpacing even professional and value-add services in growth contributions.
One of the most startling findings from the report is that while managed services are now considered a norm among the majority of channel IT companies, most IT providers still appear to be just dabbling in it. For example, think about one of the core IT services any IT services provider should be selling regardless of the size of the company or vertical market they target — managed security as a service. According to the research report mentioned earlier, 85% of IT providers that identify themselves as MSPs don’t offer any form of security services today.
So, is security the exception to the rule? What about other core services such as backup and disaster recovery (BDR)? According to an earlier study by Intronis in conjunction with the 2112 Group, 44% of more than 350 channel partners surveyed admitted that they are not proactively selling BDR services to their clients. Instead, their strategy is to wait for a customer to experience a data tragedy and then talk to the prospect/client about BDR. Yikes! And these are the core services MSPs should be offering. What about the other 30+ complementary technologies?
Why XaaS Journal? Why now?
XaaS (“Everything as a Service”) Journal was created to educate B2B channel IT providers about building recurring revenue businesses, including:
- Identify the best market opportunities and verticals for selling 40+ services
- Discover the obstacles that must be overcome and pitfalls to avoid
- Pinpoint top vendor partners in each service category
- Price your services and compensate your salespeople for optimum profitability
- Build a bulletproof marketing strategy
- Get first-hand business tips from MSP peers
Sure, there’s lots of other channel IT publications out there. Some do a great job of giving you up-to-the-minute news about vendor acquisitions and announcements. Others keep a close pulse on the latest technologies shaping the future (e.g., AI, IoT, chatbots). But, until now there hasn’t been a publication focused exclusively on the one challenge facing the majority of channel IT companies — moving away from the traditional break-fix business model, transitioning to a services-based recurring-revenue business and capitalizing on the as-a-service trend. Hence, why XaaS Journal.
Even though the as-a-service/managed services model isn’t new, research suggests it’s at the beginning stages of an exponential growth spurt. A report from Markets and Markets predicts it’s going to increase by more than $105 billion (to nearly $258 billion total) between 2017 and 2022, representing a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 11.1%. Hence, why now.
Together with Mike Monocello, a former VAR turned B2B chief editor and publisher with nearly 20 years of experience engaging IT professionals and covering key technologies and verticals, we want to educate you on a topic we know is top of mind for many channel organizations.
Whether you’re a break-fix VAR who’s looking to get started selling managed services or you’re already selling managed services and looking for the next complementary service to add to your line card, XaaS Journal was created for you.
We designed our website to help you get what you need as quickly and efficiently as possible. Just getting started? Check out “Beginning MSP’s Self-Assessment for Selecting Products & Vendor Partners” for assistance. Already have a specific service in mind you’d like to explore further? Select the specific service from the “Services” drop-down box, navigate to the particular service page and explore content explicitly related to that service — get a 411 overview of the topic, plus find top vendors, key verticals, relevant associations, quick start how-to guides, related services, success stories (coming soon), product reviews/comparisons (coming soon) and more.
Next Steps
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If you have feedback, questions or want to participate in an article, feel free to drop us a line. We’d love to hear from you and are excited to begin this journey!
Sincerely,
Jay McCall
jay(at)XaaSjournal(dot)com
Mike Monocello
mike(at)XaaSjournal(dot)com
