7 Managed IT Services to Include in Your Offering

The majority of IT service companies now seem to be moving in the direction of managed IT services, rather than operating on a break/fix or per hour basis.

Even if you’re struggling to shake off an attachment to the more traditional way of doing things, there’s no doubt that delivering managed IT services has some serious benefits:

1. Persuading clients to sign up to an “all in” monthly service means your company can count on more predictable revenue and cash flow.

2. A side effect of this is that your company becomes more valuable if you decide at some point to sell it, as the future owner knows that turnover is guaranteed.

3. All the major software vendors are moving firmly in the direction of a service-based sales model, which is making the “old way” of doing things seem outdated.

So, let’s assume for the purpose of this article that you’re planning to launch a managed IT services offering. The key to its success is establishing an impressive list of services that are all included in the monthly fee you agree to with your clients. Here we present a list of seven things you can include to make the offering compelling and tempting to your customers:

1. Network Administration. All managed IT services contracts will typically include basic network admin: maintaining the servers, managing storage, dealing with routine issues, and all the other things that are a “given” for any IT support provider.

2. “Helpdesk” Support. Your customers are sure to expect helpdesk-style support as part of their contract. The hours during which you offer it deserve some serious thought; if you have customers who require assistance outside of core office hours, you have a legitimate reason to charge significantly more. Furthermore, you needn’t necessarily provide the out-of-hours support yourself, you could instead consider outsourcing this work to a network operations center (NOC).

3. Network and Vulnerability Monitoring. Various solutions exist that allow you to keep a permanent eye on all aspects of each client network, many of which interface with mobile devices so you can monitor “from a distance.”

4. Online Backup. All of your clients will need to back up their data, so it makes sense to be the one providing the service. Countless online backup providers will be eager for you to sell their services on a commission basis. Or, you could set up your own backup infrastructure or rebadge a third-party service.

5. Disaster Recovery. With many backup services now utilizing imaging and virtualization technologies, it’s often fairly straightforward to develop a backup service into a full-blown, location independent disaster recovery service. This is another one of those things that your clients will have to get from somewhere, so it’s worth persuading them to get it from you.

6. Internet Security. At the very least, you should be looking to earn a commission stream from all of the Internet security software your clients use. Even better is to use a centrally managed cloud antivirus solution for all of your clients, giving you complete control and the ability to make a pleasing profit.

7. Policy Assistance. Once companies reach a certain size, they have to think about various policies and procedures relating to information security, data protection, and employee monitoring, to name just three. Often, regulatory requirements will make these policies mandatory. You should, therefore, consider rolling the production and management of these policies into your MSP offering. With so many of these policies being template-based, with plenty of commonality between different companies, there’s lots of potential here to earn money for the same work over and over again.

The list above focuses on just seven of the things that you could include in a managed IT services package, but there’s nothing to stop you from going even further and including things like voice over IP or document management. Some MSPs even offer hardware as a service, giving companies the option of paying monthly for their entire IT provision.

What do you plan to include in your managed IT services offering? Share your ideas in the Comments box below. 

And to follow-through on the tips introduced in this short article, be sure to watch the Inbound Revenue Acceleration Webinar for Managed Services & IT Consulting.

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