The demand for services is exploding and the opportunity is big, the only way to fully capitalize on this market is to partner with technology and service providers. The key is selecting the right providers for your customers and your business. As you think about services automation, server and desktop management, security, data protection and other aspects of your services business, you have to make strategic decisions about technology and service partnerships in order to provide the necessary range and quality of services to your customers. These partnerships will make or break your business. Selecting the right partners can help you to deliver high quality services and grow revenue while the wrong partners can cause support headaches, tarnish your reputation and result in customer churn. So how do you ensure that you align your business with partners who can help you meet the needs of your business and your customers’ businesses?
Choose Partners Who Listen:
Find partners who evolve their features and define their roadmap based on the specific requirements of their customers. These partners will have regular communication with their customers through a variety of interactions. First, the partner’s support organization should have a formal feedback mechanism into product management and engineering to ensure that the customer’s voice is being heard. This goes far beyond fixing bugs and includes usability and functional evolution of the product. Second, look for partners who have formulated formal customer advisory boards and proactively reach out to their active customers to gather feedback on existing usability and functionality as well as input on the priorities of future releases. Finally, look for partners who have executive-to-executive interaction so they can stay apprised of the macro business issues and other factors affecting your business.
Channel Commitment Means Everything:
Many companies like to talk about being channel focused, but the proof is in the pudding. Avoid working with companies that try to sell direct and through the MSP channel because invariably those companies will find themselves staring down the barrel of channel conflict. It is important to partner with companies that is transparent while dealing with channel partners. In addition, the company needs to understand the margin requirements of its channel partners and ensure that the discounting structure is clearly defined and handled in a consistent manner. Select partners who understand services and the MSP community. They need to appreciate recurring revenue and SLAs and the way YOU need financial and support arrangements to work.
The good news is that there are vendors who have a great reputation working with the MSP community. Vembu was founded on a culture of close communication with its partners. We realize that our MSP partners are living and breathing the customer experience every day and our goal is to support the product and drive the product roadmap based on what our partners need to grow their business. We established a Customer Advisory Board several months ago and we have had several very successful meetings where 70+ Vembu partners have shared their feedback on usability, new releases and future requirements.
Vembu understands the MSP marketplace and our pricing reflects the goal of consistent discounting with high margins to maximize the revenue for our MSP partners. We also live and breathe the MSP experience having built up a partner base of over 2500 MSPs. We know your business depends on your reputation and your ability to provide high quality service to your customers. Our commitment continues to be providing leading edge technology, great support and a roadmap that will keep you meeting the needs of your MSP customers now and in the future.
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