soup to nuts guide
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How to Setup a Managed
Servic es Business
A soup-to-nuts guide for aspiring MSPs.
Dev Anand
ZOHO Corp.
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If you are a VAR or a system integrator thinking of starting your
own managed services business, then this book is for you. Get
the complete picture of how to register your business & manage
federal procedures, raise working capital, cut costs on operations,
win customers, and run a successful MSP business. Understand what
works and what doesn’t from the case studies and best practices
compiled from hundreds of successful managed service providers.
Dev Anand
ZOHO Corp.
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From the authorAs the number of SMBs increase every day, the demand for managed
service providers who could offer vital IT services at a fixed and
inexpensive price point also increase. This is a great opportunity
for existing VARs, System Integrators, and IT Consultants to start a
managed services business.
In an effort to make this transformation smooth we present you this
book - soups to nuts guide to starting an MSP business. It will give youthe current trend in managed services, the sweet spot for startups,
steps to register your business, plan your finances, and run an effective
MSP business. We have interviewed lot of our existing customers and
have compiled the best practices such as how to win new customers,
why you should sell virtualization and power management, taking
note of newer technologies such as Amazon Web Services and Saas
based office tools etc.
We sincerely thank our customers and partners who helped us inmaking this guide a more effective one by sharing their views and
data. We would love to know your views, send them to devanand@
zohocorp.com or bharanikumar@zohocorp.com.
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v
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 01 Overview
at s anage erv ces 1
Current trend in Managed Services 1
Who should become an MSP?
y o s ave a etter c ance o success SME Managed Services to boom in next five years (2009 - 2013)
Managed Services Market Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
at are t e c ances o sma s surv v ng compet t on
CHAPTER 02 Before getting started – Identify your market first
Start small Think local
ou e c ec your c o ce
Get the list ready
Generate leads online
CHAPTER 03 Identify what they need (what services can you offer them?)
Know what (services) your customers need 11
Sample 1
ase stu a ys roup anag ng an s w t enter us
CHAPTER 04 Getting Started. Register your business first.
Checklist for registering a business 1
tep 1: e ect ng an appropr ate us ness structure
Step 2: Registering your business 1
On line registration 1tep : ta n ng mp oyer ent cat on um er (
Step 4: Choosing your tax year 1
ort ax ear 1
ot n x stence nt re ear 17
Step 5: Choosing your accounting method 1
tep : u m tt ng orms - an - e y your emp oyees
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vi
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 05 Finances
Plan your finances 1
Salary 1
t er ro es an respons t es n a typ ca rgan zat on
on-salary components ease
perat ons
ardware
o tware
Marketing
Cost of running a 5 member organization
o s ow on r ng …
Raising working capital
CHAPTER 06 Operationsan or your operat ons
Reducing internal operations headache
Reducing external operations headache
enter us ar et ace
Case stud : mart
CHAPTER 07 Legal
ega ocuments
CHAPTER 08 How to migrate from VAR to managed services? WAR on the VARs
The most compelling reason for change
anag ng c ange
CHAPTER 09 Winning new customers
There ain’t no such thing as a FREE LUNCH
wo t ngs t ey want you to ta a out
1: Show them savings
a arycom
2: Tell them they can mind their own business now
CHAPTER 10 Virtualization sells. Sell Virtualization.
What is virtualization?
ow v rtua zat on e ps your customers
Top 7 virtualization benefits that you can sell to your customers:
ow muc t ey can save 1
Case study: Cornerstone IT
Server Virtualization solutions
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER 11 Advocate power management – Go green
What is power management?
Why should you practice power management?
ow muc can you save
Power management in Windows Tools that automate Windows power management
CHAPTER 12 Package your pricing
Importance of pricing
Basic pricing models
ac age t e pr c ng
CHAPTER 13 Build a service catalog, it helps
What is a service catalog? 1
erv ce cata og n 1Sample service catalog as viewed by your end users
Internal view of your service catalog
CHAPTER 14 Build a remote backup service offering. Try Amazon S3.
wo reasons w y you s ou o er remote ac up
In-house backup Vs remote backup
ow to u a remote ac up serv ce o er ng
Backup vendors
Case study: NetStandard, Inc
mazon S3 adoption is growing
ow it works?
r c n g
CHAPTER 15 Reducing Hosting Cost with Amazon
Key Components in Amazon Web Services
ow wor s
nstance pt ons
r c ng
How EBS works 7lastic IP Address – for redundancy
ata rans er: ccess ng
How Amazon EC2 differs from Traditional Data Centers
AWS Console and Elastic Fox
ost ng enter us on mazon ou
Steps to run MSP Center Plus on Amazon EC2 + EBS
teps to run +
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viii
Table of Contents
Steps to restore your installation if MSP Center machine crashes
teps to run enter us on mazon + +
Steps to backup your EBS data to S3 7
Steps to restore your S3 snapshot into EBS
CHAPTER 16 Make friends with SAAS. Resell Google Apps / Zoho
ourney o messag ng an co a orat on too s
Google Apps
ene t o
Zoho Apps
Google Vs Zoho 1
CHAPTER 17 How to retain customers?
top t e ea y uc et mo e
our reasons why customers switch managed service providers ustomer survey – a great too to reta n customers
Automated customer survey
CHAPTER 18 How to build a motivated team?
ng e essent a ngre ent
Case study: What a young and motivated team can do?
Setup a test lab for your engineers to try new things
CHAPTER 19 Which is better? Hosted or In-house?
oste or n- ouse
CHAPTER 20 Which is better? Multiple tools or integrated tool?
Disparate tools Vs Integrated MSP Platform 1
ntegrat on s t e way to go
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
1
Overview
What is Managed Services?
According to Wikipedia, “Managed Services is the
practice of transferring day-to-day related management
responsibility as a strategic method for improved
effective and efficient operations. The person or
organization that owns or has direct oversight of the
organization or system being managed is referred to as
the client or customer. The person or organization that
accepts and provides the managed service is regarded as
the Managed Service Provider.”
Current trend in Managed Services
Today, managed services are offered to everyone right
from common man to large enterprises. If you buy a
Dell Inspiron laptop or a Dell Vostro desktop you get
1 year of online backup for free. Also Dell offers remote
troubleshooting as a service for a fixed price.
What is Managed
Services?
Current trend in Managed
Services
Who should become
an MSP?
Why do MSPs have a better
chance of success?
SME Managed Services
to boom in next five years
(2009 - 2013)
What are the chances of
small MSPs surviving
competition?
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How to setup a managed services business
3
Also by centralizing the operations MSP actually shares the cost of the software/tools across anumber of customers and manages a very low cost-per-device compared to an individual business
owner who has to do all by him. So in short when a business owner finds it difficult to manage
IT at $400–$500 per device per month, a smart and efficient MSP could do it for $100–$150 per
month making it a win-win situation.
SME Managed Services to boom in next five years (2009 - 2013)
Industrial reports suggest that SMB managed services market is very wide open now when
compared to that large enterprises. Ranging from all leading MSPs to VARs, all are eying
SMB managed services market as their next big growth opportunity. SMBs, industries of 20to 99 employees, managed services market have the potential to reach $1.6 billion by 2013.
The US SMB IT managed services market alone grows to $4.3 billion by 2013. It’s really a huge
market to chase.
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Overview
4
Small industries and large enterprises are not so great for offering managed services because
they either lack budget or have resources to do it in-house. The best bet to pitch managed
services is to businesses with 20–99 employees because they form the largest population of
businesses who are tight in budget as well as dependent on IT.
Managed Services Market Survey
good potential to grow in the coming years. Majority of the MSPs who participated in the survey,
elieved that in 2009 their revenues will increase by 25% on an average. This was on the average 28%
operating pro it margins t e s anticipate in . e projecte growt rate o manage
services usiness was , accor ing to t e survey. A so majority o t e s sai t at t ey ave ma e
heir revenues by focusing on a single industry. The most popular industry for MSPs was Financial services
(37%) followed by health care (36%), professional services (30%) etc in 2008. In 2009, it was Manufac-
uring (78%) followed by government/educational/non-profit (52%), health care (42%) etc.
ccording to the survey, pricing techniques, services offered, understanding customer needs etc.
(discussed at later part of the guide) are the key factors that were responsible for their success.
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How to setup a managed services business
5
ccording to the survey, pricing techniques, services offered, understanding customer needs etc.
(discussed at later part of the guide) are the key factors that are responsible for their success.
37%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
34% 36%45%
30%37%
27%
78%
24%
52%
F i n a
n c i a l
S e r v i c
e s
H e a l t h
C a r e
P
r o f e s s i o n
a l S e
r v i c e
s
M a n
u f a c t u
r i n g
G o v e r n m
e n t / n
o n p r
o f i t / e
d u c a
. . .
Popular Indust r y ty pes for MSPs
2008 2009
What are the chances of small MSPs surviving competition?
Managed services business is still very much a regional game. If you offer enough value to your
customers it is unlikely that a national player would eat into your business simply because a localplayer can be quick as well as cost-effective. It’s no different than the situation below. Guess who
would you call? Obviously Joe, right? You might buy a car that is made in any part of the globe
but when it comes to service, and especially break-fix, proximity plays a big role.
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
Before you get
started – Identify your
target market first
Start small. Think local.
Today some businesses have a global oot print But none
o them were started that way Invariably everyone started
as a small local business with a very small ootprint That’s
exactly how you should be starting your MSP journey
too So, irst deine your geographic coverage o your
business Are you going to be the new MSP o Orlando
or New York?
It’s important to start local because it’s easy to serve
10 customers in one city than hal o them in multi-cities
Costs incurred in meeting them or winning a new busi-
ness and onsite visits would work out cheaper with local
customers in the long run Moreover at the initial stages
o starting a business you should spend a lot o time on
meeting customers than travelling
2
Start small. Think local
Double check your choice
Get the list ready
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Before you get started – Identify your target market rst
8
Double check your choice
Don’t just start a business in a city X just because you live there Double check i the city/
state has enough number o small and medium businesses matching your target customer proile
The best way to go about doing this is get the published data on government websites/journals
The bar graph below shows the number o businesses in each US state
Get the list readyOnce you have deined your desired ootprint start building the list o such potential businesses
There are many ways to get this done
1. Go to the local chamber o commerce in your region and get the list o registered businesses
2. Gather public inormation through Google local
3. Explore associations or verticals such as inance, auto, healthcare in your regionand pick up businesses
4. Rent lists rom direct marketing organizations5. Participate in industry speciic trade shows and meet people
6. Mine data rom your old businesses to see i any potential businesses
7. Get the sales leads rom online Business Sales Leads providers
The list you collect will serve as a master database o people you need to contact in this new
business You can maintain this list in a sophisticated CRM or a contact management tool which
you would urther use or campaigns or you can simply have them in an excel sheet or reerence
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How to setup a managed services business
9
Generate leads online
A simple and quick way to generate leads is through online leads vendors (see list below)
Just open an account with any o these vendors and start marketing your services You can get the
leads list sliced-and-diced matching your target customer proile For example you can get the list o
leads in Caliornia, within SFO, with employees ranging rom 100–200 and speciic to an industry
with a certain revenue range
Online leads vendors Price
ead 411
lead411comStarts rom 29 mont
o ea s
www goleadscomStarts rom 995/month
n o
n ousaContact the vendor
apdata
www zap ataContact the vendor
astcoe Databases
eastcoedatabasescomStarts rom 99 mont
e op ea op
thetopleadshopcomStarts rom 17/month
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Before you get started – Identify your target market rst
10
Some o these tools provide an inbuilt CRM so that you can send emails to the target customers
right rom the website without having to install your own contact management or customer
relationship sotware such as ACT Companies such as Goleadscom oer a ree search which
gives you the count o the search you do (not the lead list but the total count o leads matching
your search criteria) which could be good trial beore you pay or any o these tools
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
Identify what they
need (what services
can you offer)
Know what (services) your customers need
Businesses require dierent kinds o services depending on
their IT inrastructure For example a design house with
50 employees would require basic desktop management
whereas a bank with 100 employees would require special
security services, server management, and application
management The diagram below depicts the services
required against some o the critical IT components
It’s quite natural that each customer has dierent
requirements First understand the IT requirements o
a customer like what services he/she requires whether
3
Know what (services) your
customers need
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Identify what they need (what services can you offer)
12
server monitoring, security management, asset management and what type o monitoring
required whether 24/7, 24/5 or 12/5 etc, Also understand i he wants to have SLAs and i so
what type o SLA whether availability SLA (uptime), perormance SLA (packet loss & latency) or
helpdesk SLA (response time in replying to the tickets) Ater understanding these requirements
provide your customers the optimum servicesBy providing the services that do not meet the demands o a customer drags you rom
identiying the ault in his/her IT and in such cases chances are more or the customer to quit
your service For instance, i ABC Corp wants to manage their IT, irst take a blue print o their
IT and identiy how many servers, desktops, routers etc, are available Then decide on what
services to oer and what type o monitoring is required
Sample
For example let’s assume that ABC Corporation operates in your region with 132 employees
The services that they require are shown below
SELLINGCase study AaSys Group. Managing 75 Banks with MSP Center Plus
AaSys Group is a leading managed service provider in Florida. They have
been using MSP Center Plus to manage more than 75 banks in and around
Florida region.
AaSys’ services include everything from consulting, networking, to maintenance
for banking organizations. As part of their network services, AaSys manages
t e server in rastructure across t ese an s t at run to t ousan s o servers
and infrastructure devices.
gue a utze AaSys Group, Inc wwwaasysgroupcom
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
Get Started. Register
your business first.
I you already have registered your company you may
skip this section…
Checklist for registering a business
Selecting an appropriate business structure
Registering your business
Getting your EIN
Choosing a tax year
Choosing your accounting method
Submitting the orm I-9 and W-4 illed out by
your employees
4
Checklist for
registering a business
Selecting an appropriate
business structure
Registering your business
Obtaining Employer
Identification Number (EIN)
Choosing your tax year
Choosing your accounting
method
Submitting forms I-9 and
W-4 filled by your
employees
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On line registration
Another easy way o registering your business is through online incorporation service providers
You can directly log in to their website and ill your details and get your business registered
Some o the available online incorporation service provides and their charges are given in theollowing table
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Get Started. Register your business rst.
16
Step 3: Obtaining Employer Identification Number (EIN)
Ater registering your business obtain an Employer Identiication Number (EIN) An EIN is a
unique nine digit number issued by Internal Revenue System (IRS) to the business corporations or
tax purposes EIN is also known as the Tax Identiication Number (TIN), Federal Employer Identi-
ication Number (FEIN) or Federal Tax Identiication Number (FTIN) When the nine digit num-
ber is used or identiication rather than employment tax reporting, it is usually reerred to as a TIN,
and when used or the purposes o reporting employment taxes, it is usually reerred to as an EIN
To obtain an EIN go to the ollowing link https://sawww4irsgov/modiein/individual/index
jsp and ill the application Ater all validations are done you will get your EIN immediately upon
completion This application will be available during the ollowing hours:
Monday - Friday: 6:00 am to 12:30 am Eastern time
Saturday: 6:00 am to 9:00 pm Eastern time
Sunday: 7:00 pm to 12:00 am Eastern time
Step 4: Choosing your tax year
You must igure your taxable income on the basis o a tax year and ile an income tax return
A “tax year” is an annual accounting period or keeping records and reporting income and expenses
An annual accounting period does not include a short tax year The tax years you can use are:
Calendar year - A calendar tax year is 12 consecutive months beginning January 1 and
ending December 31
Fisca year - A iscal tax year is 12 consecutive months ending on the last day o any
month except December A 52–53-week tax year is a iscal tax year that varies rom 52 to
53 weeks but does not have to end on the last day o a month
Online Incorporation Service Provider Charges
ncorporate ast
wwwincorporateast com
Registration price varies according
to the state 165 or processing and
reg strat on n or aFlorida Incorporation Service
or a ncorporat onserv ce com72 or reg strat on (on y n or a
y ew enture
wwwmynewven urecom
159 or processing + state iling ee
(For iling in Florida 159+ 80)
Incorporate Time
ncorporatet mecom
Registration price varies according to the
s a e 160 or processing and registration
in Florida
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How to setup a managed services business
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Unless you have a required tax year, you adopt a tax year by iling your irst income tax return
using that tax year A required tax year is a tax year required under the Internal Revenue Code and the
Income Tax Regulations You have not adopted a tax year i you merely did any o the ollowing
Filed an application or an extension o time to ile an income tax return
Filed an application or an employer identiication number
Paid estimated taxes or that tax year
I you ile your irst tax return using the calendar tax year and you later begin business as a sole
proprietor, become a partner in a partnership, or become a shareholder in an S corporation, you
must continue to use the calendar year unless you get IRS approval to change it or are otherwise
allowed to change it without IRS approval
Generally, anyone can adopt the calendar year However, i any o the ollowing apply, you
must adopt the calendar year
You keep no books or records;
You have no annual accounting period;
Your present tax year does not qualiy as a iscal year; or
You are required to use a calendar year by a provision o the Internal Revenue Code or
the Income Tax Regulations
Short Tax Year
A short tax year is a tax year o less than 12 months A short period tax return may be required
when you (as a taxable entity):
Are not in existence or an entire tax year, or
Change your accounting period
Tax on a short period tax return is igured dierently or each situation
Not in Existence Entire Year
Even i you (a taxable entity) were not in existence or the entire year, a tax return is required
or the time you were in existence Requirements or iling the return and iguring the tax are
generally the same as the requirements or a return or a ull tax year (12 months) ending on
the last day o the short tax year
Step 5: Choosing your accounting method
Each taxpayer (business or individual) must igure taxable income on an annual accounting period
called a tax year The calendar year is the most common tax year Other tax years are a iscal year
and a short tax year
Each taxpayer must also use a consistent accounting method, which is a set o rules or deter-
mining when to report income and expenses The most commonly used accounting methods are
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Get Started. Register your business rst.
18
Form W-4 is a ederal tax orm is required by IRS and must be illed out by new employees
beore they receive their irst paycheck Filers must indicate the number o personal allowances
they are taking, including dependents, to determine how much money will be withheld or payroll
taxes To download the orm, visit the ollowing URL http://wwwirsgov/pub/irs-pd/w4pd
the cash method and an accrual method Under the cash method, you generally report income
in the tax year you receive it and deduct expenses in the tax year you pay them Under an accrual
method, you generally report income in the tax year you earn it, regardless o when payment is
received, and deduct expenses in the tax year you incur them, regardless o when payment is made
Step 6: Submitting forms I-9 and W-4 filled by your employees
The Employment Eligibility Veriication Form I-9 is a US Citizenship and Immigration Services
orm It is used by an employer to veriy an employee’s identity and to establish that the worker is
eligible to accept employment in the United States The United States government requires that
all employees and employers attest to employee eligibility to work by illing out and maintaining
a Form I-9 or each employee To download the orm, visit the ollowing URL http://wwwuscis
gov/iles/orm/I-9pd
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
Finances
Plan your finances
While running your business you would be spending
majority o your money on people, acility, hardware,and sotware Some o the major components that you
would have to account or while planning your inances
are given below
Salary
Salaries range rom $50k to $70k per year or a typical
MSP technician in Florida
5
Plan your finances
Cost of running a
5 member organization
Raising working capital
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Finances
22
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Other roles and responsibilities in a typical MSP Organization
Role Activities
Sales & Marketing team
Makes cold calls
Generates leads
oses sa es
ccount anager
ng e po nt o contact w t t e customer
Comprehensive knowledge on all the services that you oer
Prices o the services oered
nsures a t e necessary contract, ocuments are rece ve
rom the customers
nsures whether the bills are sent properly and the customer
pays t em n t meConducting meetings to discuss and solve customer issues on
contract, s etc
ng neers
Perorm Root Cause Analysis (RCA) on the customer issues
ang ng etwor con gurat ons accor ng to c ent ssues
Perorm Core hardware and sotware upgrades
Upgrading Switches, Routers OS
ep oy ng cr t ca patc es
Taking Periodical backups
Client Services
rov e support to c ents on a aspects o account administration and client support
Preparing all the necessary documents or the customer’s
account esta s ment an ma ntenance
nsure whether right services are provided
elpdesk
Attends the customer requests, via voice or mail
Provides solutions to the customers
ss gns t c ets to perat ons support or ana ys s
perat ons support
Works on the tickets raised
na yses t e customer’s ev ces remote y ixes the issues
a ses erv ce equest, or ons te v s ts
ec n c ans
tten s t e serv ce requests
Goes onsite or replacing hardware, changing network
connect ons etc
a ses mes eets or ons te c a ms
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Finances
24
Non-salary components
Typically the non-salary components such as insurance, 401k etc account to $10,000 per employee
per year
Lease Lease rates vary rom state to state The average lease rate is around $5–$10 per square
eet per month
Operations
Operations include telephones, internet, power, housekeeping, stationary, ood etc For a typical
small business the cost o operations would be around $5000 per employee per month
Hardware
Hardware includes the equipments required to run business such as computers, servers, networkinggears, and telephones On an average it would cost around $2000 per employee (onetime) or
setting up the hardware
Software
Go through the below table to know the various tools that are available in the market, what solution
they provide and how much do they cost
Software Solution offered Price
MSP Center Plusmspcenterp us
Integrated MSP Platorm 25 device/year
OpManager OnDemand
on emanHosted monitoring tool Contact the vendor
aseya
www kaseyacomDesktop/Server management 120 device
Microsot system center
m croso tcom systemcenterDesktop management Contact the vendor
onnect seconnectw se
Proessional Serviceutomat on (
Contact the vendor
-able
n-a ecomNetwork monitoring $99 user/month
enith
zenithinotechcomes top management ontact t e ven or
(Continue)
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How to setup a managed services business
25
Solarwinds
solarwindscometwor mon tor ng 2475 - 100 devices/year
Whatsup Gold whatsupgoldcom
Server and applicationmon tor ng
65 device/year
Autotask
autotaskcom
Proessional Service
utomat on (
275 - 5users/month
55 additional user/month
Dell EverDream
ever reamcomes top management ontact t e ven or
og e n
ogme nRemote control 6995 device/year
cr pt og cscr pt og c
Desktop management 2379 device/year
o to my
www go omypccomRemote control 1495 device/month
www realvnc comRemote control 50 per host
eve at orms
levelplatormscomNetwork monitoring Contact the vendor
(Continued)
Marketing
Marketing and business development expenses vary rom company to company but it is sae to
assume at least a minimum o $100,000 per year to be spent on this avenue
Cost of running a 5 member organization
Let’s assume that you have 5 employees and you have a small oice where you run your operations
center then the cost incurred per year would be as shown below
(Continue)
Item Description Cost (annual)
Salary
System Administrators – 3
Backend operations support
a es an mar et ng – 1– 1
380,000
[3* 80k, 1* 50k, 1* 90k]
on-salary components
such as insurance etc
On an average around 20k per
emp oyee s spent on t ese
non-salary components
100,000
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Finances
26
Item Description Cost (annual)
Minimum 100 square eet is required
per employee At an average rate o 1per sq t per mont or ease you w e
shelling our 750 per month on lease
9,000
perat ons
Other acilities include telephones,
a r con t on ng, nternet,
housekeeping, power etc
60,000
ar ware
omputers or operat ons ( ystem
admin-3 & backend operations-1) team
aptop or sa es
Servers or hosting product
Networking gear
13,500
[4*2000, 1* 1000,
2500, 2000]
o tware
Includes the remote management and
us ness so tware you nee to run t e
business (Reer the table Various tools
ava a e n t e mar et
5000
Marketing and
advertising expenses
Advertisements, Website, Meeting
customers, Tradeshows etc 100,000
Total 667,550
(Continued)
Go slow on hiring …
alary accounts to 70% of your expenses.
Expenses
Software1%
Marketing14%
Hardware2%
Operations
8%
Lease / rental8%
Nonsalary14%
salary53%
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How to setup a managed services business
27
ence it is important that you go slow on hiring and have enough customers on board before you start
iring. i you reac t at p ase you s ou oo or some ruga ways to run usiness. ome o our customers
have handled this phase very frugally in different ways ranging from work-from-home to virtual offices.
Type Description Cost incurred
Working rom home
you are yet to acqu re a s ng e
customer then the perect way to get
started is by working rom home
tart w t u ng a we s te or your
business and try some ree tools
0
Rented datacenter + wor rom ome
I you are conident o ew customers
s gn ng up w t you t en you m g t
invest some money on either hosted MSP sotware or you run a MSP
p at orm n a rente atacenter
10 per device per month
r
600 per month or
hosting + cost o on-
premise sotware
our own are- ones
Network Operations
enter operat ng out o
a o ce
you are operat ng n ata sens t ve
verticals such as banking you might
have to invest more in building your
own networ operat ons center
Approx 2500 or server
hardware Plus cost o
so tware us 1 extra
or bandwidth, power, and
ot er operat ons
Raising working capital
Stop worrying about the working capital required to run your managed services business Today
various Banks are ready to oer working capital Wells Fargo bank oers working capital loans
rom $5,000 to $100,000 or new business that is less than 2 years old They require your busi-
ness inormation such as business name, TIN, annual revenue, name and contact details o the
business owner, business banking account numbers etc They oer loan terms up to 5 years
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Finances
28
You can also approach or SBA loans The SBA is a ederal agency that helps established businesses
grow and helps new businesses get started SBA loans are not directly provided by the SBA, but
provided by commercial lenders SBA guarantees a portion o the amount to the lender in case the
borrower ails to return
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
Operations
Plan for your operations
Operations can be broadly classiied into two types–
internal acing and external acing Internal acing teams work on a day-to-day basis to oer a smooth working
environment or the external acing teams The two
large external acing teams are the customer service
and sales Though there are many roles described here
many o them would be perormed by one or two in
some cases
6
Plan for your operations
Reducing internal
operations headache
Reducing external
operations headache
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Operations
30
Reducing internal operations headache
To reduce your operations headache you can outsource some o the non-core activities such as
payroll processing One o the leading irms that oer HR as a service is Trinet
Departments Description
ustomer erv ce
This is the core team o a managed services organization
acilitates smooth management o customer IT
ncompasses eng neers, support sta , e p es , ons te
echnicians etc
Sales and marketing
eams t at wor on r ng ng customers to t e ta e ten
involved in account management, marketing campaigns,
a vert sements etc
Purchaseacilitates purchasing o hardware, sotware, oice
equ pments, an everyt ng t at s oug t rom outs e
Sysadminan es ay-to- ay trou es oot ng as we as strateg c
IT enhancements such as security, backup, bandwidth
planning etc
ayro an emp oyee ene tsandles monthly salary processing, employee tax
p ann ng, an ot er act v t es re ate to emp oyee ene ts
ousekeepingnsures a clean and hygienic oice atmosphere taking care
o every aspect o c ean ng an rep en s ments
uman esourcesan es emp oyee atten ance, eaves, sa ary es,
emp oyee sat s act on etc
egalrotects t e company’s r g ts an ot er nvestments
legally by veriying all contracts and agreements signed
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How to setup a managed services business
31
Services offered by Trinet Description
erv ces
nc u es a act v t es suc as payro , uman cap ta
guidance, employee related state and ederal tax iling
and recordkeeping etc, employee assistance, health and
ene t rograms
Human Capital Servicesers recru t ng, measur ng an rewar ng per ormance,
career transition and counseling etc
International HR Through global relationships oers HR services incountr es wor w e
nsurance
Oers extensive range o insurance coverage such as health
nsurance, or ers’ compensat on, u ng an persona
property nsurance
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Operations
32
Reducing external operations headache
To reduce your external operation headache and cut cost better outsource your external
operations to India With a vast pool o skilled engineers there are a number o Indian IT service
provider organizations waiting to do this or you or say $10 per device per month Most o
these companies have well established processes and also boast o their employee proiles – most
o them with 2–5 years experience being sysadmins and network admins, with CCNA, MSCE
certiications
: Cost o setting up an operations support team in US Vs outsourcing Total
number o devices to be managed is 500 and number o operations support personnel required is
5 At an average salary o $55,000 per operations guy per year, you would be shelling out $275,000
on salaries or 5 operations members And at $10 per device per month you would be able to
get almost similar job done by an Indian partner or $60,000 per year Moreover, i you have
multi-year contracts the dierence becomes high when you include salary increments every year
MSP Center Plus Market Place Many MSP Platorm vendors oer operations support as part o
their package itsel And ew others such as MSP Center Plus brings
together a market place which enables you to browse through a list
o ZOHO Corp certiied IT operations provider and pick one that
suits your business model
It makes lie easier or you as you don’t have to go through
the pains o identiying a partner and managing the relationship
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
Legal
Legal Documents
Legal documents deine the contractual relationship
between you and your customer They provide the exact details on the rights and limitations what you and your
customer have with each other Whenever acquiring a
new customer make it a process to get sign rom the
customer in the legal documents In the long run only
the legal documents are considered valid when any
issues arise between you both
Agreement o Services is the important legal document
that you and your customers should sign whenever you
acquire a new contract The services agreement document
should cover what are all the services are committed to
oer, who is the liaison person, intellectual property rights,
security standards, third party non disclosure agreement,
validity period o this agreement and termination process
o this agreement
7
Legal Documents
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Legal
36
Agreement for Services
his Agreement for Services (AGREEMENT) (’the Agreement) is signed on _____________________,
2008, by and between:
____________________________
And
1 Purpose and scope of this AGREEMENT:
his AGREEMENT is between ___________________ (hereinafter referred to as YYYYYYYY) and
______________(hereinafter referred to as XXXXXXXX), wherein, will provide monitoring services
o _______________________ to monitor their LAN and WAN infrastructure based on the tentative
roposal ______________________________
2 Natures of Services provided:
he services provided by _________________________ to _________________________are limited
o monitoring services only. In addition _____________________ will provide alerting services in the
orm of Emails and/or SMS’s only to selected staff from _______.
3 Liaisons for the __________________:
_________________________________ will nominate one or more person/s who will be the
iaison person/s (“Manager/s”) for specific employee provided by ______________________ to
_____________________ during the term of the trial period consultant shall interact and coordinate
with the Manager/s.
Validity period of this AGREEMENT:
is A is va i or a perio o _____ ays. e A can e exten e wit mutua
agreement between ________________________ and ________________________.
__________________ s a provi e agree upon monitoring services to
__________________________ for a maximum period of _______________ commencing ____ weeks
rom the date of signature of this agreement. After the stipulated period of ____________ days,
monitoring services s a e automatica y terminate y ___________________________________
Network Management Server.
5 Commercial:
fter the completion of trial period and on the basis of assessment, nature and complexity of the work
__________________________ shall issue a comprehensive monitoring and management solution with
he commercial aspects to _____________________________.
Intellectual Property Rights confidentiality agreements:
so tware, systems, i eas, concept, esigns, ocumentation or any ot er materia pro uce y t e
_____________________ during the trial period to __________________________ will either be
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How to setup a managed services business
37
Intellectual Property of __________________ or that of its Customers. ________________________
wi not ave any rig ts to suc materia escri e as a ove.
r arty on- sc osure greement:
_______________________ will keep all the data, sources and information confidential and will notisc ose or re ease it to any ot er party.
_______________________ and their employees/sub-contractors shall not disclose any information
elated to ______________________ IT infrastructure to anybody not even to any related party unless
asked by ________________________ to do so. The vendor/sub-contracting agencies who will be
involved during the set-up for monitoring services will be held responsible for the conduct of their personnel.
____________________ and their representative shall not disclose __________________ or its Clients
rivate information. This private information includes but not is limited to identified client data,
employee personal data, security posture, vulnerability status, and attack status. This clause will remain
alid even after the termination or expiry of this AGREEMENT.
8 ecur ty tan ar s
alicious software such as viruses can cause considerable damage to information & IT assets.
_________________________ shall ensure that effective anti virus measures are followed across Client.
____________________ shall agree to enhance its guard against intrusions and failures that may
affect confidentiality, availability and integrity of information and may damage information assets.
_______________________ shall not be held responsible for any threats and damage which may
emerge out of virus/malicious attack or natural or unforeseen disaster.
______________________ s a meticu ous y try to monitor _________________________
infrastructure, in event of an alert not being generated by ________________ Monitoring Server dueo any unforeseen reason, ________________ will not be responsible for any loss of data/service that
_______________________ accumu ates.
Termination of this AGREEMENT:
Either party can voluntarily terminate this AGREEMENT by giving ________ days notice to the other
arty. If __________________ terminates this AGREEMENT voluntarily,
_________________________shall provide all the documents and reports generated during the
stipulated period of monitoring.
READ AND AGREED
On behalf of On behalf of
__________________________ ______________________________
Signed: __________________________ Signed:
Name: __________________________ Name:
itle: __________________________ Title:
ate: __________________________ ate:
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
8
WAR on the VARs
The most compelling
reason for change
Managing change
How to migrate from
VAR to managed
services?
WAR on the VARs
Gartner predicts that 40% o the VARs will go out o
business i they don’t switch to managed services Shrinking
margins on hardware sales, competition rom direct
channels, and increasing competition pushes VARs to
lookout or other avenues to sustain business Analysts
and experts continue to express their opinion that the
MSP model suits best or traditional VARs who sell low
margin products, taking backups, replacing hardware
etc and receive unpredictable revenue rom break-ix
maintenance gigs
The most compelling reason for change
Traditional VAR business oten takes a cost-plus approach
where the proits come rom the margins on every
hardware/sotware sale This model is so ineective that
you always work hard or the hardware vendors and end
up with stagnating/declining proits irrespective o stellar
revenue growth
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How to migrate from VAR to managed services
40
In contrast, the MSP model gives you a steady stream o recurring revenue and also enables
you to increase proits over the years
Managing change
There’s no magic potion to migrate your business model rom VAR to MSP It needs a cultural
change that cuts through every process and every employee in the organization You as the presi-
dent o the company need to manage this change and ensure a smooth transition rom traditional
business to the new managed services business
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How to setup a managed services business
41
Key doctrines that you should set or yoursel or change:
Doctrine What you need to internalize Benefit
am not selling
ro ucts anymore
e are no more a pro uct–
reselling company e are a
serv ce prov er y every act
our ocus automat ca y s ts
rom vendor relations tounderstanding the end
customers an n ng ways
to add value to their business
w t your serv ce
My employees won’t be
e per our
We are no more selling human
hours We are selling a pack
age serv ce at a xe cost per
month
Cuts your employees ree to
work on several customers Vs
gett ng oc e w t ust one
customer at a t me
We will not be
react ve… ut proact ve
e are no more a rea - xcompany We will be proactive
o the maximum possible extent
Being proactive helps youidentiy problems beore they
ecome us ness mpact ng
downtimes
We are selling o the
ruc s an uy ng
remote tools
o more truc ro s o
everything remotely and will
save human capital or valuable
an a e v s ts
rotects your nvestment on
emp oyees as t ey spen more
time working than travelling
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
9
There ain’t no such thing
as a FREE LUNCH
Two things they want you
to talk about
Winning new
customers
There ain’t no such thing as a FREE LUNCH
When PowerPoint presentations, lengthy discussions,
and beer ail to help you win a new business, oering a
FREE TRIAL does We have seen this in most o our
successul managed service provider customers where
they throw-in 6 months o FREE monitoring along
with a hardware installation or a server upgrade At the
end o the trial period you gain enough insight about the
prospects’ networks, servers, vulnerabilities, traic pat-
terns and potential problems that you are ully equippedto show value and win a managed services contract
Two things they want you to talk about
Business owners are interested in just two things 1) savings
you bring in to the organization and 2) hassles you take
away rom them I you can strongly display these two
values i am sure you can win any business deal
#1: Show them savings Money is the most inluential inluencer worldwide
So when you approach new customers, do your home-
work Calculate how much the customer spends right
now on managing IT and show how much he would
save i it is managed by you
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Winning new customers
44
For example, let’s assume a company with 200 devices and two resources to manage it – a network
administrator and a system support assistant The bare minimum cost incurred in managing thedevices in house would be around $136k per year
Item Details Cost
Salary
n an average t e company wou e spen ng
around 54,000 + 55,000 = 109,000 every
year on sa ary
109,000
n rastructure or
managing the devices
Other expenses spent or Network
Administrator + System support assistant such
as systems, amen t es, ac erry etc
10,000
Sotware applications
u t p e too s or manag ng
Server monitoring tool, desktop management
tool, remote management tool etc
ssum ng an average cost-per- ev ce o
per month 200 devices x 746 X 12 months
17,904*
Total 136,904
Assume that you can manage these 200 devices at $30 per device per month That makes it $72,000 per year At a 10% hike every year the cost o doing it in-house would touch around $635
k in our years I the customer takes the managed services route he would save around 55%
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How to setup a managed services business
45
In-house Managed Services
rst ear 136,904 ,
Second Year 150,594 72,000
r ear 165,654 ,
Fourth Year 182,219 ,
Total 635,371 288,000
Savings $347,371
n percentage
Salary.com
a aries pai or re ate jo responsi i ities. or your re erence.
(Continue)
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Winning new customers
46
#2: Tell them they can mind their own business now
No kidding Managing the IT (and the IT guy) or a small business owner is really a headache
It distances them rom their core competency and takes away considerable amount o time
(Continued)
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How to setup a managed services business
47
Imagine an architectural design house with 100 employees and one IT guy Day-to-day
operations involve uploading images to the server rom the user machines, backing up the images,
and ensuring all machines are up and running all the time Though it looks simple, over a period
o time it brings lot o problems or the business owner
Problems in managing the IT guy:
Problem Description
work environment in SMEs
ma organ zat ons a to prov e guys w t a c a
lenging and dynamic work environment Being geeks
at eart t ese guys norma y pre er to wor n arge
enterprises where they get to be hands on with cutting
edge technologies and be update
Business owner has limited scopeor ncreas ng t e sa ary or t e
T guy
n e arge enterpr ses t e guys n s ave very
limited chance to improve Their work is more o arepeate n us ness owners a so ave very m te
scope to oer high salary as their business model varies to
hat o large enterprises
Business owner needs to spend his
valuable time in motivating and
gu ng t e guy
It becomes mandatory or the Business owner to mo-
ivate and guide the IT guy though he doesn’t play a
ma or ro e n expan ng s us ness
It’s very clear that Business owners don’t want to have an IT guy As a MSP you could manage
their IT and let him have a ull ocus on his core business
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
10
What is virtualization?
How virtualization helps
your customers?
How much they can save?
Server Virtualization
solutions
Virtualization sells.
Sell Virtualization.
What is virtualization?
Computer virtualization reers to the abstraction o computer resources, such as the process o running
two or more logical computer systems on one set o
physical hardware The concept originated with the
IBM mainrame operating systems o the 1960s, but was
commercialized or x86-compatible computers only in
the 1990s With virtualization, a system administrator
could combine several physical systems into virtual
machines on one single, powerul system, thereby
unplugging the original hardware and reducing power
and cooling consumption
Though there are a lot o innovations happening
in the desktop virtualization, we will limit the scope o
this document to server virtualization In server virtu-
alization a single server box is partitioned into multiple
virtual servers running dierent Operating Systems,
thereby achieving higher server density The biggest
advantage o server virtualization is that with the excep-
tion o sharing the core resources, each virtual server
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Virtualization sells. Sell Virtualization.
50
acts as its own entity Problems with an application on one server do not aect others, and it is
possible to reboot a speciic virtual server
How virtualization helps your customers? Virtualization is the key to increasing eiciency, ease o management, and most importantly saving
costs in datacenters Even i your customers don’t ask or virtualization, explaining the advantages
o it would help you persuade them towards virtualization I you don’t have virtualization in your
service catalog, add it today
Top 7 virtualization benefits that you can sell to your customers:
Benefit Description Value
Reduced number o ys ca servers
y v rtua z ng you can re uce t e
number o physical servers at your
customer datacenter drastically
e uce ma ntenance
cos s
Reduced space
e uce energy
consumpt on
e uce num er o oxes re uces t e
energy consumedReduced energy costs
u t p e on a
single hardware
y v rtua z ng you can run mu t p e
operating systems on a single boxReduced hardware costs
e uce ownt mes Reduced number o boxes increaseseective monitoring
ncrease e c ency
Rapid new servers
ep oyment
eve op a stan ar v rtua zat on
setup and duplicate when building a
new server
Reduced deployment
me
(Continue)
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How to setup a managed services business
51
How much they can save?
Assume that a customer has 5 Dell Power Edge R200 servers or running MicrosotNet,
GlassFish, WebLogic, Tomcat, and Silverstream applications separately By virtualizing youcan run all the 5 applications on a single Dell Power Edge 2900 server Go through the below
given calculations to know how much your customers can by choosing virtualization
asy saster recovery
By virtualizing you can take periodical
snaps ots o servers so t at n case o a
sudden shutdown, you can restore thesnaps ot an r ng up t e mac nes
e uce ata oss
mproved Reliability and
va a ty
Application problem in one VM does
not a ect t e ot er
mproved overall
serv ce ava a ty
(Continued)
Category 5 dedicated servers
Dell Power Edge R200
1 virtualized server
Dell Power Edge 2900Savings
ardware cost 5 * 749 = 3475 1499 1976 ave up to
ower = 1 ave up to
lectricity cost
cents
in Florida
1 1
74/100 = 1,456
1
74/100 = 785761 ave up to
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Virtualization sells. Sell Virtualization.
52
SELLINGCase study Cornerstone IT
One of our MSP customers in New York had a customer asking them for a server upgrade. The customer
was a ea ing aw irm in ew or w o is a so a mem er o o a A iance. e aw irm as een
employing this MSP for hardware upgrades since early days when the MSP was originally a VAR resellinghardware and software.
After a preliminary evaluation the MSP found a greater
scope to Virtualize the environment which consists of 30
physical servers running in different rack holdings. When
presente wit t e cost an space savings t e customer too was
impressed and gave approval for virtualization.
he final implementation was a 5 server single rack
holding setup with the exact same set of services being
offered. Needless to say the MSP was also offered a remotemonitoring opportunity by the customer because of the faith
t ey ave in t em now.
[Seen in picture: Thomas Moreo (standing) and Neil Falla
of Cornerstone.IT]
Server Virtualization solutions
Some o the Server Virtualization solutions available in the market:
Vendor Solution
rtuozzo onta ner
para e scom pro ucts v rtuozzo
ware ware ervers
vmwarecom/products/vi/esx/
croso t rtua erver
microsotcom/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/
Microsot n ows erver yper-
wwwmicrosotcom/windowsserver2008/en/us/hyperv aspx
tr x Xen Server Standard & Enterprise Edition
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
11
What is power
management?
Why should you practice
power management?
How much can you save?
Tools that automate
Windows power
management
Advocate power
management –
Go green
What is power management?
Automatically turning o computer components such as
monitors, hard drives, CPU, and RAM ater a period o
inactivity is reerred to as power management All com-
puters and laptops sold today have power management
options inbuilt to switch to standby or idle mode when
no operations are done This little eature enables lot
energy savings For example, the total power consumed
by a typical PC (P4, 175 GHz & 17" CRT monitor) is
175 watts/hour but during sleep mode it consumes only
35 watts/hr
Why should you practice power management?
It’s just unbelievable to know that CO2 emissions rom
just 15 computers are equivalent, in energy terms, to the
gas consumption o one car Moreover, Gartner reports
that Inormation and communications technology (ICT)
is responsible or 2% o the global CO2 emissions, an
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56
amount equivalent to aviation Factors that contribute to the 2% are in-use phase o PCs, servers,
cooling, ixed and mobile telephony, local area network (LAN), oice telecommunications and
printers across millions o businesses all over the world Enabling power management on these
devices will be a global imperative in the near uture
As an MSP you have the option to be a thought leader and start practicing power management and green computing in your customer environment or two reason – 1) it saves mother earth and
2) it saves huge amount o money or your customers
How much can you save?
A company with 500 computers can save anywhere rom $30,000 to $60,000 per year on energy
bills Assume you have a customer in FL who runs 500 Dell Vostro 200 Minis with Intel Pentium
Dual Core E2160 processor and a 17” monitor Given the retail price o 974 cents per kW hour
in Florida, your customer would be burning 12264 kW hours per year and paying $60k on
energy bills i all the computers were switched on 24*765Watts + 75Watts X 8760 hours / 1000 = 12264 kW hours [Thermal Design Power o
E2160 is 65Watts For monitors its 75Watts]
12264kW hours X 974 /100 X 500 = $59,725
I the company ollows standard business hours o 9AM-6PM Monday to Friday, the total
working hours contribute just 27% o the overall available time
And in these 45 hours, reports indicate that, only 60% o the time the desktops are actively
used Rest goes in breaks, phone calls, meetings, and discussions I someone enables strict power
management or the above case, it will result in a savings o approximately $50k per year
$59,725 X 073 = $43,599 (or non-working hours)
$59,725 X 027 X 04 = $6,450 (or 40% idle time)
Total: $43,599+$6,450 = $50,049
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Depending on whether the computers were powered on 100% o the time or 50% o the
time, the savings could vary rom $50k to $295k per year
Power management in Windows
Windows offers two power management options - standby and hibernate. In standby mode the computer
goes to a low power mode, with all applications and files remain open. Only the RAM part of it will be
active to maintain whatever resides and consumes very minimum voltage.
In hibernate mode the computer writes off the entire contents of its real memory as one big “hiberfil.
sys” and stored in the C drive. Once the writing gets completed, all power is removed from the computer, as
i you ave s ut own. Again w en power is initiate , t e computer oots an starts t e app ications in t e
startup and reads the “hiberfil.sys” file available in C drive. It proceeds to load the entire contents back.
(Continue)
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58
Tools that automate Windows power management
Most MSP Platorms in the market today support automating power management This helps
MSPs to go conidently to the customers and implement power management with ease For
example, MSP Center Plus enables you to conigure power management options ONCE and
deploy them to thousands o remote computers in just ew clicks
(Continued)
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
12
Importance of pricing
Basic pricing models
Package the pricing
Package your pricing
Importance of pricing
Pricing decides revenue I you price low, you lose
money, i you price high you lose customers It’s abalancing act Managed Services is a big and everlasting
opportunity and there is no need to rush up on pricing
your clients There is no need to jump on conclusions
and give away discounts to your customers as it is to
capture your share in the market
Analyze your client irst and look at their business,
whether he is a Bank or a Healthcare irm You should
price your services based on the value you create and not
entirely on cost Converse with your customer and under-
stand his business needs This helps in establishing the
value o your oerings to the customer Based on this,
price and sell your service
Basic pricing models
Per device – This is airly simple and most
MSPs utilize this They develop a lat ee or
each device type that is supported in the
environment Eg, $69 or Desktops,$299 per server, $29 or network printers etc
This model is easy to quote and monthly
billing is simple
Per user – Very similar to per device model,
but the lat ee is billed per end user per month
and covers or all devices used by each end user
Includes, oice PC, laptops, PDAs etc
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60
All you can eat – This is extremely lexible and includes all remote support, on-site
support and provide 24/7/365 support or service The primary goal is to provide the
customer with ability to budget their IT support cost over a year’s time
Package the pricing
Provide a variety o pricing options that cover dierent customer’s needs Say, Silver, Gold and
Platinum Packages
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
13
What is a service catalog?
Service catalog in ITIL V3
Sample service catalog as
viewed by your end users
Internal view of your
service catalog
Build a service
catalog, it helps
What is a service catalog?
It’s a good practice to build a service catalog or your
business irrespective o whether you are big or small
Service catalog is a list o services you oer to your cus-
tomers According to ITIL V3, the service catalog must
be easily accessible and should be recognized as the irst
source o inormation or users seeking access to a ser-
vice It must include not only the value proposition and
pricing, but also the ordering and request procedures
or users, as well as standard ulillment practices andservice level agreements (SLAs) or IT service teams
Service catalog in ITIL V3
Service catalog was introduced in ITIL v2, but it didn’t
oer much in depth ocus In most o the cases, the
paper-based Service Catalog document went unread
and unused by customers Also IT industries which
implemented SLM, had their catalog more speaking
about the technical metrics associated with network andsystem management rather than the services oered on
those perormance metrics
The new ITIL V3 Service Design book ound the
solution It removes Service Catalog responsibilities
rom Service Level Management (SLM) process and
promotes the Service Catalog rom a simple listing
o services into its own process the Service Catalog
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62
Management (SCM) process The Service Catalog is the output o the SCM process and includes
all the services oered
ITIL also suggests that users must be provided with a sel-service portal in the Service Catalog,
as their primary interace or requesting new IT services and obtaining status o service requests
Thereby it introduced a new process called Request Fulillment process to standardize the handlingo service requests The Request Fulillment process acknowledges the act that most o the work
done by IT is repetitive and ineicient In order to optimize, ITIL V3 recommends integrating
Request Fulillment with Service Catalog This transorms static display o IT services into an
actionable sel-service tool useul to both business users and IT and this results in the introduction
o Actionable service catalog
Sample service catalog as viewed by your end users
Below is the end user view o a sample service catalog
Internal view of your service catalog
Below is the internal view o your service catalog
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
14
Two reasons why you
should offer remote
backup
In-house backup Vs
remote backup
How to build a remote
backup service offering
Backup vendors
Amazon S3
Build a remote backup
service offering.
Try Amazon S3.
Two reasons why you should offer remote backup
Sources say that 40% o companies that don’t have
disaster recovery plans go out o business in the event o
a storm or any other natural calamity That’s the num-
ber one reason why you should oer remote backups
It ensures business continuity to your customers at
some o time when nature strikes Secondly, the tools
that do automated backups have improved a lot making
it really hassle ree to build a service oering on top o
them without making any signiicant investment
In-house backup Vs remote backup
Many o you might ace this situation when you try to
sell your own remote backup services Your customer
already runs an in house backup either on a tape or a
disc But don’t panic, there are some interesting acts
that help you convert such customers to your remote
backup service Reports say that o the companies that
do in house backup there are lot o chances or things
to go wrong as discussed below
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How to build a remote backup service offering
The options available to you can be broadly categorized into two – 1) simple reselling o someone’s
backup service where the data resides in the vendor’s datacenter and 2) building the service all by
yoursel - buy backup sotware and store data yoursel
Backup vendors
Some o the popular backup vendors who oer solutions to Managed Service Providers:
Vendor Details
Ahsay a saycom
Ahsay™ Backup Sotware Service Provider Edition allows you
o u y ran t e so tware nto your own a e an to e part
o your total data protection and disaster recovery solution
Portal enables you to brand the client sotware, management
conso e, an ac up o reports on t e y
Vembu StoreGrid
vem u
tore r e ps you to ac up your c ents ata to a server
managed by you or to a cloud computing and storage
latorm like computing
(Continue)
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Secure Resolutions
secureresou t onscom
eso ut ons ac up an ata ecovery support oca
backups as well as those over the Internet to their secured
datacenters All data is encrypted on disk and in transit
emote ac ups
www remotedatabackupscom
Remote Backups provides easy to use, secure and reliable
backup solution that takes backups o the data and stores in
t e r secure ata centers an m rrore
Compu Vault
compuvau t
ompu au t automat ca y an secure y ac s up a your ata
- data that resides on every machine on your LAN, i required
And it backs it up directly to the osite storage vault in a secure
ata center, requ r ng no a y user nteract on ompu au t’s
data backup and recovery services are automated and centrally
manage to e p you protect your cr t ca ata
Storagecrat
s oragecrag com
StorageCrat’s wide range o products that oer disaster
recovery, s ac up, ata protect on an secur ty so ut ons
Managed Service Provider (MSP) oers Partner Program to
give MSPs, VARs and other resellers a way to sell
a ow rotect™ s - ase ac up an saster recovery as
a managed service
Backup Solutions
backupsolutionscom
BackUp Solutions provides online backup services which are
secure, automated and easy to use They have proessionally manage , m rrore an g y re un ant ata centers w t a
9% historical uptime over the last seven years to ensure 24/7
availability o their customers’ iles whenever they need them
ova
novas ar
ova us ness ssent a s prov es ata protect on
sotware solution or small and medium businesses and
protects all their critical inormation
ac up tec no ogy www iasobackupcom
IASO Backup Bank oers you a ull online backup service
so ut on, at a xe mont y rate our ata s ac e up v aInternet to our highly secured datacenter, oering the backup
unctionality and service level your organization requires
torage uar an
www storagegaurdiancom
Storage Guardian is a complete, secure, on-line data
management serv ce or enterpr se-w e s, nc u ng
automated backup, ault-tolerant o-site storage, and ast
data recovery
(Continued)
(Continue)
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Vendor Details
s gra
www as gracom
s gra e evau t ng s comp ete y ntegrate to support your
business Asigra Televaulting or Service Providers is a WANplatorm solution or delivering backup/restore service as a
ut ty t ncorporates everyt ng you nee to ep oy,
provision, and start selling your storage service
ron ounta n
ronmounta ncom
ron ounta n’s ve au t s a comp ete server ata ac up
and recovery solution or remote oices o large enterprises
an sma me um-s ze us nesses om n ng proven
disk and online technologies, LiveVault radically simpliies
the protection o all your company’s servers, including ile,
ata ase, app cat on an xc ange servers - v rtua y e mnating the risks and burdens o traditional backup methods
(Continued)
SELLINGCase study NetStandard, Inc.
NetStandard, Inc. is a leading managed service provider in
Kansas and a long time MSP Center Plus customer. Recently
ey ave starte o ering remote ac up as a service ca e
DataSafe to their customers.
About DataSafeDataSafe is a system that sends your backup data from your
internal network over your Internet connection to NetStandard’s
DataSafe Vault located in our N+1 Data Center. The new
mi ennium as pro uce signi icant egis ation t at requires your
corporation to protect customer data and ensure the integrity of
accounting statements. DataSafe enables companies to meet the
data protection demands of this legislation including Sarbanes-
Oxley, Gramm-Leach Bliley, PCI and HIPAA. Netstandard uses
Asigra for backup.
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Amazon S3
Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) provides cheap and unlimited online data storage or
anyone with a credit card and an Amazon Web Service (AWS) account I you have an AWS
account, you can interact with the S3 service using specialized tools to upload and manage your
iles Amazon says that the same scalable storage inrastructure that powers amazoncom is the
one that powers S3
S3 adoption is growing
Since its inception in March 2006 lot o companies have started using S3 The number o buckets(unit o storage) in S3 has almost tripled in the last one year Photo hosting service SmugMug is
believed to have saved more than a million dollar by using S3 instead o their dedicated storage
servers Lots o storage vendors have started using S3 and other Amazon services Good example
is Vembu Store Grid Backup Sotware which oers EC2/S3 support in its upcoming version
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How it works?
It stores everything as an object, each not more than 5 gigabytes in size These objects are
organized into buckets and identiied within each bucket by a unique user-assigned key
Buckets and objects can be created, listed, and retrieved using a HTTP interace (REST) or
SOAP interace
Pricing
At $015 per gigabyte per month Amazon is the most inexpensive online storage option available
today Amazon wants you to pay or the storage, the bandwidth you (and your users) consume,
and or the number o requests you send to its servers
Storage
Per GB for first 50TB
Bandwidth
Per GB (in/out)
Requests
Per 1,000
n te tates 0 1 01 / 01 0
urope 01 01 / 01 0 1
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
15
Key Components in
Amazon Web Services
How EC2 works?
How EBS works
Elastic IP Address – for
redundancy
How Amazon EC2
differs from Traditional
Data Centers
Reducing Hosting
Cost with Amazon
I you are a start-up managed service provider, I would
recommend you taking a look at Amazon Web ServicesIt is very promising and it helps you host your sotware on
Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud), store the data on
a networked drive EBS (Elastic Block Store), and backup
the data on to the S3 (Simple Storage Service) with an
uptime guarantee o 9995% All this or less than $99
per month
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Key Components in Amazon Web Services
Amazon cloud basically has three components you need to know about:
EC2: Elastic Compute Cloud (your server in the clouds)
EBS: Elastic Block Store (your disk drive in the clouds)
S3: imple Storage Service (your storage platorm in the clouds)
Instance Size No. of EC2 units* Memory
equivalent
Hard disk
equivalent
Processor
Platform
ma 1 t arge 64 bit
xtra arge 1 1 64 bit
g
nstance
How EC2 works?
EC2 works on Xen virtualization technology Each virtual server is called a server instance andavailable in various sizes Sizes are deined based on EC2 compute units, which is the equiva-
lent o CPU capacity o a physical hardware EC2 now supports the ollowing operating sys-
tems - Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Enterprise Linux, Windows Server 2003, OpenSolaris,
Fedora, Debian, Cent OS, Gentoo Linux and FreeBSD
EC2 Instance Options
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How EBS works
EC2 provides the option to store the data o the instances on Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS),
an o-instance storage device (similar to that o a hard disk) EBS is independent o the lie o the
instances; thereby you can keep your data redundant Amazon EBS volumes are highly available,
reliable and are attached to EC2 instances and are exposed as standard block devices EBS volumes
oer greatly improved durability over local EC2 instance stores, as Amazon automates backup or
EBS volumes Not limiting with EBS and automated backups Amazon oers much more dura-
bility by providing the option to store the EBS volumes on Amazon S3 as snapshots and thereby
replicating the data across multiple availability zones Amazon does not encrypt the data while
storing it in EBS, but recommends to having an encrypted ile system on top o the EBS
Instances Windows (US) Linux/Unix (US) Linux/Unix (Europe)
ma 01 r 01 r 011 r
arge 05/hr 04/hr 0 4/hr
xtra arge 1/hr 08/hr 088/hr
g e um
nstance03/hr 02/hr 022/hr
g xtra
arge nstance1 r 0 r 0 r
Note: Amazon does not support Windows based applications in Europe region.
Amazon EBS Volumes Price in US Price in Europe
er o prov s one
storage per month01 011
er 1 m on requests 0 0
g
Medium Instance1 32 bit
igh CPU Extra
arge nstance1 t
* 1 EC2 Compute Unit = 1.0-1.2 GHz 2007 Opteron or 2007 Xeon processor
(Continued)
EC2 Pricing
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Elastic IP Address – for redundancy
To make your application redundant Amazon oers Elastic IP Address, a static IP address
designed or dynamic cloud computing The big advantage with Elastic IP Address is that you
need not depend on a technician to replace the host, or wait or DNS to switch to all o yourcustomers when a particular instance goes down, you can programmatically remap to another
instance, provided you have another instance running already An Elastic IP Address is associ-
ated with your account and not with a single instance, you can obtain one and use whenever you
require However, Amazon charges $01/hr when you are not using due to the limited availability
o public IPs and or eective usage
Amazon EBS to S3 Price in US Price in Europe
Per GB o data stored
er month$015 $018
Per 1000 PU requests(when saving a snapshot)
$001 $012
Per 10,000 GE requests (w en
oa ing a snaps ot)$001 $012
Elastic IP Address Price in US Price in Europe
Per non attached Elastic IP Address per complete
hour (when not using)$001 $001
First 100 remaps/month per Elastic
IP Address remap$000 $000
More t an 100 remaps/mont per E astic
IP A ress remap$01 $01
Data Transfer: Accessing EC2
Pricing also varies according to the data transerred in and out o the instances Data transerred
between two Amazon Web Services within the same region (ie between Amazon EC2 US andanother AWS service in the US, or between Amazon EC2 Europe and another AWS service
in Europe) is ree o charge Data transerred between AWS services in dierent regions will
be charged as Internet Data Transer on both sides o the transer However, usage or other
Amazon Web Services like S3 is billed separately rom Amazon EC2
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Data Transfer IN Price
A ata transer $01/GB
Data Transer OUT Price
irst 10TB per mont 0
ext 40TB per mont $013/GB
ext 100TB per mont $011/GB
Over 150TB per month $010/GB
Amazon charges $001 per GB in/out or all the data transerred between instances in dierent
availability zones in the same region ie, data transerred by an instance in an availability location
in Caliornia to another instance in Florida
How Amazon EC2 differs from Traditional Data Centers Amazon EC2 Traditional Data Centers
Fixed cost or the resources you use
Bi ing is ca cu ate on our y asis Bi ing ca cu ate on pre etermine ixe perio
asi y sca e up or own w enever require um er o resources is ixe an iicu t to
handle sudden computing requirements
u contro on your computing resources ou can
aunc /terminate instances w enever require
Fu contro over t e computing resources is not
provi e
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AWS Console and Elastic Fox
Amazon oers two User Interaces or you to manage your instances One is the http://console
awsamazoncom and other is a ireox add-on
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Hosting MSP Center Plus on Amazon Cloud
ou can now run MSP Center Plus software on the Amazon cloud. For your convenience we have created
an Amazon Machine Instance (AMI) of MSP Center Plus. This instance consists of a fresh copy of MSP
Center running on a 32bit Windows 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition with 1.7GB RAM.
Steps to run MSP Center Plus on Amazon EC2 + EBS
mazon doesn’t preserve the state of any of its EC2 instances, which means if an instance crashes your
data is lost forever. To solve this problem you can store DATA and other CONFIG files of MSP Center Plus
on an EBS volume which has better reliability (at least 10 times more than a conventional drive) so that
during a crash you can launch a new instance within minutes and associate the EBS volume to it.
Steps to run EC2 + EBS
1. Get an AWS account - www.amazon.com/gp/aws/registration/registration-form.html
2. Sign in to AWS Console - https://console.aws.amazon.com
3. Choose AMIs and search for an AMI named mspcenter (mspcenter/mspcenter.manifest.xml).
4. Run the instance (note down the instance id i-xxxxxxxx).
ou have now successfully started your MSP Center Plus on EC2. Now you need to configure MSP Center
Plus to store data on to an EBS so that your data is safe.
1. Create EBS volume: In the AWS console choose VOLUMES. Create a new volume and attach it
with your instance (that id you noted in step4 above).
2. RDP to your virtual machine with the default password oklgJordv1.
3. aunc t e is mgmt.msc start->run-> iscmgmt.msc . in t e Amazon isc at t e ottom o t is
wizard and follow instructions on screen. Name the new drive as E. Any other alphabet would
require other changes in configuration so name it as E.
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4. Configuring MSP Center to store data into that drive
1. top enter us.
2. Copy mysql/data and mysql/tmp folders from C:\ProgramFiles\AdventNet\ME\Central\ to
E:\data and E:tmp
3. Start MSP Center Plus.
Steps to restore your installation if MSP Center machine crashes
n case o a server cras you can restore your setup y oing t e o owing
1. Launch a new instance of MSP Center.
2. Go to Volumes tab and attach your volume with the new instance.
3. RDP to your machine and ensure that you don’t format the drive.
4. Open E:\mspconfbacku.bkf and restore it over C:\programfiles\adventnet\me\central\
5. Start MSP Center Plus.
Steps to run MSP Center Plus on Amazon EC2 + EBS + S3
If you feel that even EBS is not so secure you can back up the EBS in S3 so that in case of a failure of EBS
you can restore t e ata into a new vo ume.
Steps to backup your EBS data to S3
If you wish to take a backup of your EBS volume to S3 do the following
1. Go to Volumes tab in your AWS console and CREATE SNAPSHOT.
Steps to restore your S3 snapshot into EBS
t times i your rive ai s you can restore it ac rom t e snaps ot you create in . teps or t at
1. Go to volumes tab in your AWS console and create new volume.
2. Choose the snapshot id from the list.
3. reate.
4. Follow steps to associate the volume with your instance.
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
16
Journey of messaging and
collaboration tools
Google Apps
Zoho Apps
Google Vs Zoho
Make friends with
SAAS. Resell Google
Apps / Zoho.
Journey of messaging and collaboration tools
I there is one thing that you can always sell to any new
business, that’s E-Mail No company can do without that
I am sure most o you would have tons o experience in
email and messaging tools such as Microsot Exchange
and IBM Lotus Notes These been the de-acto vendors
or many long years But today we have some inexpensive
players with interesting technologies such as Sotware-
as-a-service (SAAS) that oer similar unctionality We
recommend you to take a look at these players and
check i they are the new age email tools or your next
breed o customers
Google Apps
Google oers business e-mail, messaging, document
management, and inormation sharing through SAAS
Google receives 3000 registrations every day or Google
apps and more than a million organizations have regis-
tered so ar Google apps are available in two standard
and premium editions The standard edition includes
only Email & calendar, storage or mails, docs and sites
and oered at ree o cost or individual users and uni-
versities Premium edition includes Email & Calendar,
Email storage (25GB), 999% uptime SLA, docs and
sites, video, storage or mails and docs etc
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Make friends with SAAS. Resell Google Apps / Zoho.
80
Benefit of SAAS
Traditional business applications such as Microsot Exchange, Microsot Oice, and Microsot
SharePoint cost more when compared to this SAAS model For example to setup a highly
available email system or your customers it takes $300-$1000 per user per year But with Google
you can get it or $50 per user per year You can make use o SAAS and explain your customers
the beneits that they can gain using it Google has been sending targeted messages to solution
providers asking them to switch rom legacy systems to eicient SAAS based Google apps One
such video titled ecoming a Google Apps Solution Provider is available in YouTube which
everyone should take a look
Zoho Apps
Zoho oers Productivity & Collaboration apps and Business apps as SAAS Productivity &
Collaboration tools include E-mail, docs, chat etc while Business apps include CRM, project
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How to setup a managed services business
81
management, online database etc Zoho also oers the above services at ree o cost to individual
users and universities and charges $50 per user/year or enterprises
Google Zoho
Word Processor Google Docs oho Writer
Spreadsheet Google spreadsheet oho Sheet
ower o nt resentat ons Google Presentation oho Show
Web Clippings Google Notebook oho Notebook
mail Gmail oho Mail
Chat Google Talk oho chat
Wiki (Google acquired JotSpot) oho Wiki
Database Application oho Creator
n ne ata ase o o
ro ect anagement o o ro ects
e con erenc ng ( oog e acqu re arratec o o eet ng
Customer Relationship
anagement (o o
ersona rgan zer o o anner
Web hosting Google Page Creator --
eed Reader Google Reader --
Google Vs Zoho
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
17
Stop the leaky bucket
model
Four reasons why
customers switch managed
service providers
Customer survey – a great
tool to retain customers
How to retain
customers?
Stop the leaky bucket model
It doesn’t make sense i you win ive customers every
quarter and lose our As you are building a business
over a recurring revenue model, such leaky bucket
approach o losing customers is extremely dangerous
Moreover, with rising competition and deepening
recession, it is going to be ten times more expensive to
acquire a new customer than to retain one So better
learn how to retain your customers
Four reasons why customers switch managedservice providers
An Adage in Business management is that bad experi-
ences teach you the best lessons That’s why many MBA
case studies ocuses on what went wrong Today, running
a successul managed services business depends on hav-
ing strong partnerships with your customers According
to analysts, the major reasons why customers switch
managed service providers are:
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How to retain customers
84
Customer survey – a great tool to retain customers
Though there is no magic to retain customers you can still bet on age old techniques such as
periodic customer survey to gauge their satisaction levels and take remedial actions beore they
disappear Customer Surveys are very essential to identiy customer satisaction, requirements,
demands etc These surveys allow your customers to give their concerns and appreciations on
the services and support you oer The more number o customers praise and the less they
demand rom you, puts your level top in the market and vice versa
Top reasons why customers switch Description
mproper ac ag ng
The irst problem the managed service providers ace is
pac ag ng ey are mere y renam ng t e r
maintenance or outsourcing capabilities rather than
oering genuine managed services Others are creating
comp cate manage serv ce port o os t at con use
potential customers
r c n g
The second issue is pricing Rather than providing a
s mp e ee sc e u e or t e r manage serv ces, many
providers have created complex pricing algorithms that
rustrate prospect ve customers
os t on ng
The third challenge is positioning these services
properly In most cases, managed services are simply
promote as a way to re uce sta an ower operat ng
cos s While these beneits are essential, ew managed
serv ce prov ers can c ear y erent ate t emse ves or
show how they add value to their customers
oor sa esmans p
But the biggest obstacle to selling managed services is
poor sa es s s any manage serv ce prov ers re y
on traditional, transaction-oriented salespeople to sell
manage serv ces ese sa espeop e genera y are goo
at selling relatively standardized products or services
but inexperienced at selling ongoing managed servicere at ons ps at er t an s mp y se ng t e cost
savings o managed services, salespeople must learn
how to convince their enterprise customers o the
potent a us ness va ue o t e r o er ngs
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
18
Single essential ingredient
Setup a test lab for your
engineers to try new things
How to build a
motivated team?
Single essential ingredient
People are the single most essential ingredient to any
organization’s success and in managed services that is
the number one actor Basically you are converting
a hands-or-rent business into a process oriented and
eicient business and that makes building a dynamic
and eicient team very critical in ensuring success
Most importantly, these cross unctional teams should
unction as one so that they become an extension to the
client’s IT team and not just another company doingsome break ixes The teams should be motivated, agile,
and productive Without setting up this team there is
no scope or success whatever you do
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
19
Hosted or In-house
Which is better?
Hosted or In-house?
Hosted or In-house
With the advent o SAAS, the key question in everybody’s
mind is this – what should I choose? Hosted solution
or In-house one? We have seen dierent stories rom
each camp and to be honest there are advantages and
disadvantages in each model The SAAS model or
example is a near turn-key solution It takes away most
o the installation and other headaches but gets very
expensive as you grow
See the table below, it’s the pricing sheet by a Hosted MSP vendor (securemycompanycom)
Now, let’s compare this pricing with an in-house sot-
ware vendor such as MSP Center Plus The annual out
go or you or these solutions would be as given below
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Which is better? Hosted or In-house?
90
Ver ict : Start with hosted solutions to test the market and then move to packaged sotware
as you grow beyond 100 devices
# devices Securemycompany.com MSP Center Plus
5,970 1,250
1 10,752 2,500
22,380 5,500
35,820 10,500
1 59,760 18,000
149,400 37,500
298,800 62,500
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2
What is managed services
Current trend in
Managed services
Who should
become and MSP
Why do MSPs have a
better chance of success
SME managed services to
boom in next five years
What are the chances of
small MSP surviving the
competition
20
Disparate tools Vs
Integrated MSP Platform
Integration is the way to go
Which is better?
Multiple tools or
integrated tool?
Disparate tools Vs Integrated MSP Platform
Most MSPs don’t think long term and start using
disparate tools or every need This chaotic behavior
ends up in reducing productivity o the teams and
also hampers growth That’s where integrated MSP
platorms such as MSP Center Plus score high These
platorms oer all the essential remote management
unctionalities in a single UI
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Which is better? Multiple tools or integrated tool?
92
Criteria Multiple tools Integrated tool
ost
igh
Costs more as you buy
more too s
ow
Costs less as you buy a
s ng e too
ata ntegrat on
acks data integration ata
is spread across multiple
oo s an o ten resu ts n
inormation silos
Data is integrated asy
o access
me to reso ut oninding resolution consumes
more t meess t me consum ng
ser exper encer ng unp easant as t e
ser have to use multiple UIs All under single UI
Control o ontro as t ere s any record o who did what
omp ete contro as userslogin to the same UI
Integration is the way to go
Integrated oerings are not only COOL but are inexpensive and oer excellent productivity and
less hurdle in maintenance than a mix o tools
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Unleash the MSP in you.
Good luc k.
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www.mspcenterplus.com
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DISCLAIMER: ZOHO Corp. ManageEngine makes no claim on the accuracy of the vendors’data as they are based on the information available on the web. We recommend that you
establish authenticity by directly verifying with the vendors.
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