Blog – Benchmark 365

Welcome to the Benchmark 365 Blog

Benchmark 365July 24, 2017

Hello!! We are very excited to have you here.

First things first.. if you’re an MSP or IT service provider you’ve come to the right place. Our sole intention is to help IT businesses find the right levers to reduce cost, grow revenue, scale and most importantly – profit.

After 15 years of running a high growth MSP – we learned a lot. These lessons are important because, not only did we create a more cost effective and hyper-profitable MSP, we were also able to use those savings to build better business systems, to create a “wow” experience for our customers and maximise our sales. This took us to heights we could never have imagined and to this day we credit our offshoring journey for leading us on a path of business mastery.

Privacy Policy and GDPR

UncategorizedJune 19, 2018

Well now that everyone’s inbox has cooled down from an onslaught of GDPR related panic-emails we thought it would be an appropriate time to share our updated Privacy Policy and the GDPR statement for Benchmark 365. We have implemented a robust and effective data protection program which complies with existing law and abides by the…

Scaling your MSP – 5 Hard Truths

Benchmark 365, Business Growth, OffshoringMarch 14, 2018

Scaling an MSP the traditional way is far from easy. For 10 years I followed all the industry mantras, bought all the automation tools and hired, lost and trained techs over and over again.

But in 2012 at the peak of my frustration I had the opportunity to travel overseas and learn how companies were truly built to scale. It was an eye-opening experience and broke away from all the IT industry Kool-Aid I’d consumed in the preceding 10 years. Today we are a totally scaled up MSP and we’re working with other MSPs and ITSPs right around the world to help them reach their goals faster.

It’s a funny thing when you’re on the ground in your business, you can’t always see the problems for what they are. After spending time off the tools and away from my traditional MSP business I started to recognise the reasons I’d struggled for so long.

Here’s what I learnt:

5 Myths of Offshoring for MSPs

Benchmark 365, OffshoringMarch 12, 2018

It’s an exciting time in the MSP industry with more and more ways to support customers, to offer new technologies and to find new profitable approaches to servicing clients. One of the hottest topics in the MSP industry right now is the concept of outsourced helpdesk services to underpin MSPs and ITSPs looking to grow…

Webinar: Why off-shoring your Help Desk & NOC can transform your business.

Benchmark 365, OffshoringDecember 8, 2017

Recently I recorded an interview with Steve Taylor of MSP Webinars in the USA. We had a great discussion about the value of outsourcing and offshoring your Helpdesk and NOC.

Team B365! Meet one of the best QA Officers around

Benchmark 365October 31, 2017

At Benchmark 365 we pride ourselves on our incredible people. So we thought this week we would introduce you to one of newest team members – Khristine Here what’s what she had to say Tell us a little bit about yourself? My name is Khristine and I’m the (QA) Officer for our team here at…

Is your MSP really profitable? Here’s how to check

Business GrowthOctober 17, 2017

MSP’s and IT providers are fiercely divided on the topic of pricing models and which work the best. Is it hourly rates, fixed fee per user/device or a hybrid of both? Getting the pricing model right and understanding the numbers is the key difference between a lucrative IT business and a less profitable one.

Lessons Learned From Offshoring an MSP Team – Podcast

Benchmark 365, Business Growth, OffshoringOctober 9, 2017

Recently I was interviewed by Auvik Networks for their Frankly MSP Podcast. It was a great opportunity to talk about the experiences and not always easy lessons I learned from spending 15 years building a successful MSP.

Here’s a few key points and also take a listen but here a few of the key points.

Abundance, Pricing and Hiring – what MSP’s talk about at lunch

Benchmark 365, Business GrowthSeptember 25, 2017

Last week we held our first Melbourne ‘beers + steak’ lunch for Benchmark 365 partners and peers in the Melbourne MSP space. It was a great day out with plenty of ideas shared along with some terrific food and an enjoyable selection of beers!

As the event name suggests we chose to keep the event casual and without a formal agenda and I think that made it a good way to openly talk about what’s happening in the industry, get to know our partners better and learn from industry peers.

The group was a mixture of Benchmark 365 Partners, seasoned MSPs and IT resellers, vendors and new players in the Melbourne IT space so this generated a broad range of topics:

Become a vCIO, outsource your helpdesk and grow your MSP’s Revenue

Business Growth, OffshoringSeptember 20, 2017

MSP’s are experiencing a fundamental shift in the way we do business. Customer buying habits are quickly shifting from buying hardware and servers to cloud and SaaS applications.

So how does an MSP grow revenue in a shifting market?

Offshoring for MSP’s comes of age and is ready to transform your business

Benchmark 365, OffshoringSeptember 12, 2017

Have you considered outsourcing or offshoring your MSP helpdesk or project work? Many have thought about it but wondered whether it will work – I know when we started out setting up a company overseas we had a whole bunch of concerns. As it turned out we had little to worry about.

While offshoring is a reasonably new concept, there have been enormous advances in staffing capability and technology in offshore locations making it a viable solution for MSPs looking to grow, scale and be more profitable.