041: Managed Services Roundtable with Allen Hancock, Luis Giraldo, and Kevin Ginger, Part 1
/Recorded March 2, 2014
Sponsored by MoonClerk
This is part one of a special two-part Managed Services roundtable feature six members of the Apple Consultants Network, discussing the benefits of a Managed Services pricing model and how to transition a traditional hourly-billing consultancy into offering Managed Services.
Thanks to our brand new sponsor, MoonClerk – an easy and inexpensive way to collect recurring payments for your subscription services.
Thanks also to our special guests for this roundtable:
Allen Hancock, The Orchard Solutions and Watchman Monitoring
Luis Giraldo, Ook Enterprises and MonkeyBox
Kevin Ginger, kGinger Consulting
Topics:
- using half-day and full-day rates to discourage "tire-kickers" and very infrequent break-fix clients, helping to position Managed Services as a better alternative
- should a Managed Services Provider include Help Desk services? end-user training? value-adds vs. just keeping the systems running
- transitioning from "one-man-show" to managed services consultancy; see also: CCP 013: Easing into Managed Services with Allen Hancock and 010: Managed Services discussion with Luis Giraldo
- developing systems for consistency, standardization to improve efficiency
- Quantifying the Value of Managed Services blog post by Luis
- "first 15 minutes free for $_/mo" is a good first step; relieves burden bulk hours
- business clients are more efficient billing-wise, and from the perspective of delivering value
- residential clients are higher-maintenance, higher-touch, more-demanding, and less efficient
- yet, Allen points out that residential clients can be more satisfying to work with, and when charging hourly it doesn't matter because they all pay the same rate
- enforcing the use of a help desk ticketing system
- user training: why should users use your ticketing system?
- reminding clients to restart
Memorable lines:
- "Hourly billing breeds inefficiency." – Luis (see also: "how hourly billing is the scum of the Earth" in 010: Managed Services discussion with Luis Giraldo)
"All inclusive billing breeds efficiency." – Luis
"We hate spending time tracking time." – Luis
"Allen, is there any way to wire that support menu to a restart command?" – Joe
"And we don't need to save, right?" – Allen
"If they call, their call can be directed to voicemail if they haven't restarted." – Joe
"Spoken like a true 'break/fix man'." – Luis
