In a recent conversation with one of our largest IT Service Providers, they explained why their customers consider them to be such a great Managed Service Provider (MSP). A core element of this positive dynamic has been the MSP becoming a trusted provider due to their transparency about tracking and billing of assets under management.
- Baseline the existing IT environment: It is important to establish credibility quickly as the “trusted advisor” with any new customer. Conducting a baseline audit of all assets that are on the customer network can remove any surprises when it comes to billing for the number of assets that are under management. As a Service Provider, the organization’s reputation is built upon and maintained by being completely transparent with its customers.
- Automate asset audits: Most Service Providers have no shortage of asset information sources. Despite this abundance, they still perform expensive manual asset audits on a regular basis via spreadsheets, because they don’t have a reliable, automated procedure to reconcile these sources.
- Closely track the asset lifecycle: A large organization may deploy and retire hundreds of assets every month. A common source of profit leakage can be attributed to an inability to track managed asset deployments in a timely manner. It is actually in the customer’s interest to not be too proactive about reporting fresh asset deployments because a few days’ lag can often save the customer a month’s billing. The Service Provider or MSP needs near real-time visibility of fresh deployments to maximize profitability.
- Provide billing transparency: Another major factor that makes it easy to work with one Service Provider versus a competitor is the number of billing disputes and how easily they can be resolved. The best method to prevent billing disputes is to agree on and share a mutually trusted, single source of asset information. By doing so, the customer’s accounting department can look at this source, which is typically a Configuration Management Database (CMDB) and see the asset history for itself, before raising a billing exception with the Service Provider. This is another example of how an MSP can become the trusted advisor. (See point 1)
- Implement Data Quality Management (DQM): Once the value of a mutually trusted CMDB has been established, the next step is to consider what it takes to make it a trusted source across the organization. DQM automates the reconciliation of multiple asset data sources, by de-duplicating Configuration Items, resolving inconsistencies and providing missing data values. Some DQM solutions, such as Blazent’s, go further, by validating asset relationships and adding context.
Blazent has worked with leading Service Providers, enabling them to achieve their customer service, transparency, billing and profitability goals. We do this by providing them with a coherent and trustworthy view into their customers’ IT landscapes. You can learn more about Blazent’s unique approach here.