By Bob Vogel, B2 Marketing
According to a recent survey of IT Service Providers and MSPs conducted by RapidFire Tools, the vast majority (more than 80%) reported having one or more clients with internal IT departments. A third of them have 10 or more such clients.
Dealing with clients that have their own internal IT resources is both a blessing and curse. The good part about it is you have an “educated” client who can really appreciate the value of the services you are delivering. They also tend to be larger, with bigger budgets.
The bad part is that you run the risk that the client might decide to bring in-house some or all of the services that you worked so hard to set up and maintain. And, there’s a good chance you might get blamed for something that gets messed up, even if you had nothing to do with it.
Smart MSPs and service providers have figured out how to navigate these waters and take advantage of the positive aspects of working with clients that have internal IT resources while mitigating the negatives. And one of the key lessons they have learned is to bring something proprietary to the table.
Not surprisingly, a majority of the respondents reporting success with internal IT departments are using Network Detective as a key component of their service delivery.
Network Detective is a suite of IT assessment tools designed specifically for the IT service provider, and it’s licensed in such a way that a single subscription can be used to report on an unlimited number of clients.
Survey respondents report using the tool at a variety of times and for different reasons.
One of the most common uses is to win new business. Most service providers bat 1000 when it comes to Network Detective finding hidden problems and issues that the client was not aware of. That, in of itself, generally leads to project work to remediate the issues, and also to ongoing maintenance contracts.
There are also a number of proprietary tests that the service provider can perform, including both external and internal vulnerabilities scans. These
tests should be run regularly to keep the firewalls and monitoring tools honest.
The tool also includes dozens of valuable branded reports that can be delivered as a service, including Change Management Reports, License Key Reports, Policy Compliance reports, and overall network health reports.
Depending on the modules you have, you can run a general network scan, an IT security scan, an MS Exchange/Office 365 scan, or an SQL Server scan. There’s also a module that comes with a specialty appliance that you can use to perform an internal vulnerabilities scan, and a powerful module dedicated to performing HIPAA Risk Analyses. Here’s the link to a web page with descriptions of all the reports and samples you can download.
With tools like Network Detective it’s easy to walk in the door of virtually any prospective client that handles their own IT, and show them in short order why they need you to supplement their staff.
To learn more about the tool used by thousands of MSPs and IT service professionals, visit the RapidFire Tools website.
