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Situation
With the reputation and expertise to win larger clients (100-200 seats),
and ready to make the shift to managed services, Know Technology, LLC
(KTL) was looking for the right platform that could help them grow without
sacrificing quality of service for their existing loyal client base.
Company Profile
KTL is a Camden and Portland-based IT Solutions and Support Services company,
founded in 1998 as a quality Network System Design and Security Services
provider for medium-sized businesses in New England and throughout the U.S.
KTL has expanded its operations several times in recent years to support
continued growth. These expansions have included adding an office in Portland
in 2001, acquiring a development and hosting company in 2003, and creating a
state-of-the-art data center in 2005.
Solution
KTL deployed Managed Workplace and offers three managed services packages.
In the on-boarding process, they deploy an Onsite Manager to conduct an
initial network scan and run reports to support their recommendations.
Results
- 13 new customers in first 18 months, including two larger customers (100-200 seats)
- 60% annual increase in service-based revenue
- Customers report high levels of satisfaction with the new services
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In the first 18 months of using Managed Workplace, Know Technology,
LLC added 13 new customers, including two with over 100 seats, all while
improving and expanding service delivery to existing customers.
The Opportunity
Founded in 1998, Know Technology, LLC (KTL) today has a team of 20 employees
and over 250 active customers. The management team became interested in managed
services because "it was clearly the direction that the industry was taking.
In fact, many clients were already well-informed about it. But from a
client-services perspective, we liked that the managed services business model
would give us much more control over the quality of service that we could
deliver to our valued clients," says Patrick Jones, Chief Operating Officer, KTL.
Adopting managed services was also part of a competitive differentiation
initiative with the goal of expanding their customer base. Despite having the
expertise and service record required to land larger clients (100-200 seats),
KTL was not making as much headway in this market as they wanted.
"The key was that we wanted to grow without negatively impacting the
quality of service that we were delivering to our smaller customers. Our
success has been built on our dedication and service to small and midsized
businesses with 25-100 seats. We've grown steadily for a decade because we've
invested in relationships with our clients, no matter what size they are."
After careful evaluation of available remote monitoring and management
(RMM) platforms, KTL's Chief Technology Officer, Steve Hand, chose Level
Platforms Managed Workplace for three main reasons: the Managed Workplace
feature set made the most sense for the market; it was a proven technology
that would support their goals; and it was deeply integrated with Microsoft
technology, in addition to being Microsoft Gold-Certified.
Partner Solution
KTL deployed Managed Workplace as a beta project to a handful of customers
who represented a good cross-section of their overall customer base, having a
mix of onsite and hosted environments, and very diverse assets. The beta project
gave KTL the opportunity to fine-tune their configuration of Managed Workplace
and become familiar with its features.
KTL worked with their Level Platforms Partner Development Manager (PDM),
who coached them on best practices for the implementation of managed services
and ensured they received technical training. KTL began offering three sets of
monthly subscription services, which can each be purchased individually or in
combination: Monitoring, Maintenance, and Support. Any service requests beyond
the packages are billed per-incident.
Since the successful beta, KTL has been steadily deploying Managed Workplace
across their customer base. To transition new or existing clients, they conduct
a basic network assessment first: they deploy an Onsite Manager, gather the data
necessary for comprehensive needs analysis, and then make recommendations that
are backed up with Managed Workplace reports. "With this methodical approach,
we're able to prove our capabilities up front. The benefits are obvious to
customers immediately: proactive service, rapid remediation through secure
remote access, and more accurate forecasting of their expenses. It saves them
money and makes their lives easier," says Jones.
The Benefits
KTL credits the use of Managed Workplace with helping them to win 13 new clients
in the last 18 months, including two in the 100-200 seat range. Although this
represents less than a 5% increase in the number of customers, they've seen a 60%
annual increase in service-based revenue - despite the current economic downturn -
that they attribute in large part to Managed Workplace.
"The beauty of this solution," says Jones, "is that our growth
has been achieved as we were simultaneously improving services and increasing
value for our existing customers. Managed Workplace allows us to be more efficient,
more precise, and more deeply informed about what's happening in our customer networks.
We leverage this to provide more personal, focused attention on each client and
ensure that we are meeting their unique needs."
Looking Ahead
"Being technical advisor to our clients means we not only need to be
knowledgeable about the latest and greatest tools; we need to be able to match
the right solutions to specific client needs effectively, now and as they evolve,"
says Hand. For example, while their typical customer benefits from basic monitoring
and maintenance of an on-premise IT infrastructure, the right solution for another
larger customer was to host, monitor and manage primary assets for an entire data
center of 170 seats. "Managed Workplace can handle it all: on-prem, hosted,
even SaaS deployments of Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Standard Suite
and groupSPARK's Hosted Exchange. The far reach and adaptability is built in
from day one, which is why Managed Workplace is the core of how we will provide
support to customers moving forward."
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