Benchmark 365 - Private Label Managed Service Provider Blog

How To Stop Wasting Time On Hiring For Your MSP With Outsourcing

Business Growth, OffshoringDecember 6, 2018

When it comes to pressing concerns, MSP owners agree: There isn’t enough time in the day, and good help is hard to find. The good news is both of these issues can be solved fairly easily by solutions already in the market, one of which being Benchmark 365. While hiring is one of the most important things you do as a business owner, it shouldn’t be taking up the majority of your time, especially when your skills could be better used elsewhere to grow and scale the business you’re in charge of operating on a daily basis.

What kind of MSP are you?

Benchmark 365, Business GrowthNovember 28, 2018

In the 15 years I’ve been in the IT business I’ve seen some evolutions and shifts in this business. So where is your business on that journey? In this excerpt from my new book: Infinite Scale: The Ultimate Guide to Growing your MSP, we take a look at the 4 different phases of MSP evolution.

Outsourcing your MSP Help Desk: The Ideal Partner Profile

Business Growth, OffshoringNovember 28, 2018

It’s not a surprise many MSPs are having a tough time finding reliable outsourcing partners in our industry. While there are plenty of solutions for you as an MSP to choose from, there’s also a lot of consumer confusion. Not all outsourcing providers are created equal. Before deciding on an outsourcing partner, there are some key characteristics you should consider when looking to alleviate your company’s help desk woes.

How To Successfully Outsource MSP Customer Support

Benchmark 365, Business Growth, OffshoringNovember 2, 2018

If you’re looking to scale you MSP and be more profitable then transitioning your help desk to an outsourcing partner is a big step in the right direction. It’s important to recognise that it’s a big change – so it needs to be done right. This means first finding and outsourcing partner that’s as committed to your customers as you are and then being prepared to put the work in up front to ensure a smooth transition. If you do – it will transform your business. There are three important things you need to do to make for a successful transition: reset your value proposition; be open; and commit by going all in.

How Much Momentum Does Your MSP Have?

Benchmark 365, Business GrowthOctober 23, 2018

Simply put — sales scale MSPs. If your sales team has good salesmanship and focuses on customer success, your business will evidently scale. To determine whether you’re scaling at a good pace, take a deeper dive into your customer base. Once you do, you will discover there are ways to adjust your MSP’s momentum to fit your overall needs.

To assess your MSP’s momentum, ask yourself three questions. Each one revolves around an essential yet obvious component of your business: your customers.

Time To Switch Pricing Models?

Benchmark 365, Business GrowthOctober 9, 2018

Switching pricing models isn’t easy. Among MSPs, there are differing opinions about pricing, which makes the decision to jump ship even harder. However, after you analyse how your current pricing model impacts your bottom line and take a look at the shift in pricing trends, you may well decide it’s time to make a change.…

3 Big MSP Business Challenges – how Outsourcing solves them

Business Growth, OffshoringOctober 9, 2018

MSPs have been facing the same top business challenges for years – generating leads, hiring and scaling. While aspects of all of these have gotten easier over the years, it’s been incremental. What I’ve learned after 20 years in the MSP business – if you want to make a real difference in your business you need to make real change. It’s why I set up Benchmark 365.

Embracing the concept of outsourcing can take some getting used to for the control freaks amongst us. But, done well, it has the power to up your skill levels across any number of disciplines, reduce your costs and free up time and resources.

Outsourcing your MSP servicing – the ultimate checklist

Business Growth, OffshoringAugust 31, 2018

If it can be done online these days – it’s pretty likely you can outsource it. In your MSP, I’d be surprised if you didn’t outsource something already. You can outsource lead generation, sales, marketing, copy writing and content production, book keeping and accounting and on goes the list.

But what about your customer support? If you are serious about scaling your MSP – you can’t really do it if you don’t confront the resource drain customer support puts on your business.

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: