Proactive Customer Development: Leverage your QBRs

Most IT managed services providers are quite proud of how proactive they are, especially in terms of technical services like maintenance, antivirus, warranty, etc. However, if we look at their client's IT savvy, operational maturity, and  IT enablement, this is less true. Here are four easy tips to leverage Quarterly Business Reviews and implement the proactive mindset on a higher level.

If you do Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs), you can start working on these items immediately. If you’re not familiar with the term, just imagine you’re sitting down with your clients regularly for an informative and engaging business meeting.

1. Preparation for the QBRs

Skip the infrastructure based preparation for now. Let's concentrate on their business instead. Check their industry, and consult with a couple of people...try to understand their pressing needs right now. It can be sales, marketing, cash flow, internal processes, anything that is not IT. For an easy introduction to this conversation let's use the business conversation tool from our free MSP 2.0 Quickstarter Kit.

Here’s an example: check their LinkedIn profile. Is everybody from the sales department using LinkedIn? How many connections do they have? There’s a chance they are not big on business social media. Let's download some intelligence about LinkedIn and social selling and put together a 5 minute session for the QBR.

Let’s add more: look for Slack as an online collaboration hype. Sidekick is a nice sales automation tool out there. Check out Do.com for managing better meetings. Let's put those items on the agenda as HOT products... see what they think and have a conversation.

Sooner or later they are going to read about these software somewhere. If they get important IT based information from somewhere else, our position is redundant. We have to be the center of relevant knowledge on business IT.

2. Implement a killer agenda

Prepare a real agenda. Send it before the meeting, leave room for curiosity, and plan for it to be 60-90 minutes. Use do.com and demonstrate a well-organized meeting with a kick-ass tool. Put business issues into the agenda like "Suggested solutions for pressing needs: sales, marketing, cash flow." Include items to ensure we do not just talk, but act: "Clarifying the deliverables for the next Quarterly Plan," or "Review of IT Productivity Initiative."

It may even sometimes sound trivial, but you need to present it with a proactive mindset. We do not want them to have to ask us about training their users, or what is hot out there. We have to act before they find out about so many opportunities they could leverage from somebody else. We need to be the fountain of great information. Keep in mind you can use this one agenda, with custom modifications, for every client for the given quarter.

3. Forget Bomb reports

Bomb reports and infrastructure reports are fading into the past. Now we are on top of the game, and they should not have any critical issue with support. It can be mentioned in passing that every possible gauge is green and not to worry. They are paying us to keep them green. Don’t forget that customer behavior, motivation and problem awareness has changed dramatically. There are still of course companies out there without decent infrastructure. For them the traditional IT reports are a must, educating them and setting expectations. But sooner or later we solve those problems so we have to move forward. If their IT maturity grows, we have to adjust our reports as well.

There is a better way to use business type gauges: Graders, and Opportunity Sheets. These tools put together checklists on clients’ use of best practices, processes, and so on. We just check whether they are being used, and we can come to a conclusion whether they are working effectively.

For example, we check for productivity and ask about emails, best practices, file sharing, searching for documents, version control, etc. In just a few minutes they have a grade on a scale from 1-5. If they are missing three points then we let them know we should have a talk. Believe me, they’ll be much more interested in that than in expiring warranties and quotes for the replacement of devices that are working fine.

4. Campaigns to release peer pressure

Prepare for a campaign every quarter and your MSP sales and development goals can skyrocket. Imagine this: June is the month of security. We do benchmarks sets for every client who signs up as well as teach best practices, prevention for users, basic safety guidelines, and do a Disaster Recovery Plan with 30% discount.

The idea is to make sure everybody is on board. It’s easier to make it a campaign and do 10 DRPs with a discounted rate rather than selling individually. Also, it is easier to communicate the campaign through emails, and brochures.

Every month or every quarter, you need some unique flavor to show them your skills.

If you are a pro, you can create batched events for that. For example, classroom training, seminars for managers, users among your clients, launch-and-learn sessions for executives. Let's lead the community. When people see their peers working on the same things, they can feel more urgency to take action, and are often more actively involved in solving the problems rather than just discussing them..

Conclusion:

Change the conversation: be proactive about their business, not just their IT infrastructure. Let's move and shake them every quarter and create a community of IT savvy executives who you can lead to progress. If you do, your client base will give you the necessary growth without extraordinary new customer acquisitions, and your referral engine will fire all cylinders!

The 6 Reasons MSPs Tend to Over-Deliver

One of the most common laments we hear from IT managed services providers is over-delivery of too many different services. They feel they serve their clients more than needed and the services go unused by the clients. Account managers end up doing more IT consulting than they should, demands for IT consultation are unlimited, and the IT company invests time on IT projects that never start. Here we delve into the root of the problems and learn what to do about them!

Clients will start with questions like “What is the best application for this problem? Why are people not productive? How do we manage various IT related vendors?”, etc. However most IT companies do not have the right model for IT consultancy, and try to address those needs without a viable revenue model.

The result of over-delivery is diminished return on service investment. Not only do we do too much but at the same time we set unreasonable expectations with the client. We teach them that we do it for free, or that any request is covered already, and that blocks our ability to implement a profit model, if we even have one.

Let's quickly see the six causes of over-delivery and review a solution.

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1. No Boundaries on Services

We have clear boundaries in regards to traditional tech related IT services, but the clients have new needs. IT Management related issues like application deployments and cloud transitions are increasing.  Deploying Office 365 to a small business office is more of a consulting job than deployment now. MSPs are missing a best practice for creating boundaries of what is included in the traditional service package.
 

2. Mixing Sales and Consultation

In many cases we do a IT consultation to sell something. They are interested in centralized management of IT, and we teach them about virtualization and all sorts of technologies to help them. What we do is IT consultation, but because we are selling the IT projects, we do not ask for it separately. This is fine until we close most of the projects and make money, but sets a precedent that we do free IT consultation.
 

3. Mixing Project Management/Implementation 

Another fault in doing free IT consultations is that in most of our future projects we do not deploy anything in the technical sense. We keep doing the projects, but there will be less billable technology work. The client doesn’t separate the different types of work - a SaaS CRM integration (we do not deploy a server, just manage the project) from an On-Premise ERP update (we upgrade the servers that are behind, then implement the project). On the one hand we have to make money for the consultation and project management (because there is no tech related work), on the other we generate revenue by utilizing engineers.
 

4. Mixing Account Mananger and vCIO

Our account managers tend to manage the account health and satisfaction loyalty. Most of the time the job is about solving a technology based problem related to our services. However, clients do not naturally differentiate what is related to our services and what is not. Our account managers are thus likely to do additional consultative services as well (and often not realize it). In this sense, they are operating as a mini virtual CIO and managing the accounts IT related issues. The problem is that we do not charge for this service. Again we’re teaching them we do it for free.

5. No Clarity, Definitions, and Alignment

The contracts and other legal items of the engagement may not be suitable for managing a dynamic and adaptive service. The technologies and client needs are changing faster than those formulas. We usually need to adjust to the client’s real needs a lot after we start the engagement, so even if we have a solid contract on the service side, it needs to be flexible throughout the process. After a while some contracts can even become obsolete, unable to serve the common ground with clients and our services.

Another factor is that some clients signing these contracts do so blind. They do not take the contract apart word by word, but just trust the service provider. In most cases they were referrals, and this can cause a misalignment in expectations.
 

6. Lack of Processes 

Over-delivery can be caused by poor execution. We do not have well defined processes in place for consulting work, or if we do, they are not put into practice. It causes vague capacity plans, which we usually overshoot. We are not following best practices, and we tend to work on the same issues repeatedly, spinning our wheels and not moving forward.
 

Thoughts Toward Solution

We will consider a couple of ideas and thoughts about fixing the problem.  This is not a comprehensive description, rather just some ideas that will lead to the solution.

Act on the Changing Client Need

A change in the operations or processes of a client is an excellent opportunity to create a well-defined and entirely separate service offering for IT management and IT consultation.  We should separate the service, so everybody can understand why the traditional package does not have these items. We can still assure the client about what is in the background but if they have a need for more IT consultancy, then you can serve them in a better way outside of the MSP contract. We all have problems upgrading clients to something they might see as included in the service.  We need to have a clear new service with a very professional approach, and deliverables that have clearly visible impact. Reduce how often they assume “this is included.”

Create Boundaries with Mapping 

Mapping out the clients different IT management needs helps to craft services with boundaries. The client's CEO may need some ‘CEO coaching’ and you give them three 30 minute sessions, one in person and two on the phone. They may need to work on their processes - a ‘Process Efficiency Workshop,’ and you give them one meeting per month. They need more training on the infrastructure of what they have, so line up an "IT Enablement Training series" every two weeks with different topics. Each session needs to be a step to solving the problem rather than a series of attempts to make the entire accomplishment.
 

Standardization and Customization 

The great thing about LEGO is that you can build anything with standard blocks. The result is customized while the parts are generic. The same idea is behind creating standard workshops, brainstormings, and teaching sessions. You can teach your organization how to do them. Your clients have different needs, and you can solve those needs by using a custom mix of standard blocks of services and deliver the series of standard elements as a custom result. Of course this is where the mapping of defined boundaries can influence selection of these modular blocks.  You can craft your best offering based on standardized, tested methods.
 

Project Management is the Product

Project Management is usually misconstrued as a by-product - not the real goal, but to get results, we need to do it. If we turn this idea around and make Project Management a product, it helps us a lot. This means we first need to educate clients about the value of well-rounded project management, and we have to make it more tangible.  Implementing an easily put together productive Project Management method is crucial.  These methods help determine and define the deliverables which are needed in their service. The automation behind this can cause additional benefits like more clarity, reporting, etc; however, most of the PSAs (Autotask, Connectwise) have project modules and they do not give us any Project Management Frameworks to use. We have to have our own and implement it within our professional services automations project modules. 

Well Crafted Packaging

We can use a well crafted virtual CIO package with deliverables and processes to offer a service with clear outcomes and deliverables in a scalable way. The packaging has to manage all the changing expectations with all the needed tiers involved. The packages need to be a monthly recurring subscription like your MSP package and at least an annual commitment. Craft an annual delivery plan for the client showing all the deliverables solving their problems, guiding strategy, and exploiting opportunities. This will help them see the goals and what you do to help them achieve them. You can put some to work upfront, as well as have monthly and quarterly recurring tasks, and have fully budgeted hours for the year.  In this case, you can measure profitability the same way as you do for the MSP. 

Conclusion 

A profitable consulting business faces the same challenge as a beneficial MSP service - expectations of management and processes. The problem is common among managed services providers. The IT consultation is less tangible than the tech-related work. It is trickier to demonstrate the tangible deliverables of consultative services that are the basis of our profitable vCIO services. Designing services with clear outcomes crafted in a structural way is a critical first step.

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The 5 Levels of vCIO Operational Maturity

The Operational Maturity segmentation makes a lot of sense when trying to understand where to go with vCIO services and which next possible steps to take.
It demonstrates the current maturity of services in a descriptive way, explains the differences, and provides hints and tips toward the next step.This article demonstrates how to proceed as a virtual CIO with respect to levels of operational maturity.

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vCIO Operational Maturity Level 1

The virtual CIO in its most fundamental version is an ad-hoc advisor for IT infrastructure needs. If the general MSP service does not contain this particular service, the service provider needs to have a high-level managerial discussion about the IT infrastructure.

In order to be able to sell higher level projects and services, the delivery could be free advice, or it could be based on a very limited charge. It could be initiated by the vendor (as a solution opportunity), or it could be proposed by someone on the client side (via problems).

This service does not contain any level of regularity nor a disciplined approach, however, year ends and quarter ends could be excellent opportunities for these types of reviews and conversations.

• Goal: readily available advice on IT infrastructure
• Regularity: ad-hoc
• IT/management focus: 80% - 20%
• Time investment per year: 1-5 hours
• Challenge: how to charge for the service
• Value proposition: a better understanding of the infrastructure

vCIO Operational Maturity Level 2

For more mature IT managed services providers, getting only ad-hoc and free advice prevents a business from being profitable. A more structured method is needed to add service to the fixed MSP package.

Remote monitoring and centralized services are a huge step toward efficiency, but limit natural meetings and face time with clients. The motivator for these companies is seeing their trusted advisors more in person.

The structured approach means annual IT roadmap planning and quarterly business reviews. These meetings aim to bring the MSP services to the table and discuss opportunities and problems with company leaders.

The limitation of these services lies in the IT infrastructure focus. The MSP does not concentrate on other aspects of the business — IT solutions, services — but on the IT infrastructure.

• Goal: create a structured layer of IT infrastructure management
• Regularity: annual, quarterly
• IT/management focus: 65% - 35%
• Time investment per year: 5-10 hours
• Challenge: to engage the clients in the IT infrastructure conversation
• Value proposition: to help the client to get more from their infrastructure

vCIO Operational Maturity Level 3

The limitation of the IT infrastructure focus is preventing the MSPs from becoming trusted advisors in both IT and the business. The Quarterly Business Reviews lack client engagement, real business value, and push toward the MSP for an IT infrastructure specialist role when the IT infrastructure becomes a commodity.

MSPs realize that customers need IT management in general because their IT complexity has increased. It has created a void in leadership roles in mid-sized organizations.

To fulfill this role in this maturity level the IT companies detach the vCIO services from the MSP contract and focus. The vCIO service becomes a separate service focusing on the whole IT instead of just on the infrastructure. It is a general management role in the IT discipline rather than a high-level role for the IT infrastructure.

It is a very structured approach to annual, quarterly, monthly, and weekly cycles and processes. The cycles define the roles and services of the vCIO with responsibilities and documentation..

The primary focus of the vCIO is to raise the IT management maturity with policies, regulations, education, and productivity of the system, finding general solutions to the different problems and implementing those accordingly.

• Goal: help the client take advantage of their current opportunities
• Regularity: annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly
• IT/management focus: 50% - 50%
• Time investment per year: 25-40 hours
• Challenge: separate the service from the Managed Service contract and mindset
• Value proposition: help the client utilize IT for business

vCIO Operational Maturity Level 4

This level of maturity of mid-size clients requires a proactive way to leverage IT in order to promote operational efficiency, continuous improvement, and lean operations. These clients need a more IT-savvy, agile workforce. It requires a more mature vCIO service, where the vCIO is focused on process, management, and business. They use IT as a resource in order to build a better company. They take a proactive view of internal and external collaboration, communication, the analysis of process bottlenecks, and the reporting needs of managers. A big part of the job is finding bottlenecks and developing a viable, integrated solution, getting confirmation of the proposal, and implementing the solution.

The vCIO focuses on operational excellence with ongoing and project-based services. This requires more time and business application focus. Though many jobs will be done locally many others are sourced on a global scale, and creating and managing the solutions marketplace is significant.

• Goal: help the client take advantage of their current opportunities
• Regularity: annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly
• IT/management focus: 35% to 65%
• Time investment per year: 35 to 60 hours
• Challenges: scale the vCIO service, adjust to the business model
• Value proposition: to build a better, more efficient company using IT

vCIO Operational Maturity Level 5

In level 5, the objective is to influence the general strategy of the company and gain a competitive edge with technology. A new product line, different sales distribution channel, or game-changing technology are new ways of monetizing company value. It requires extensive industry knowledge, a vertically-related solution stack, and a high level of consultation skills. It focuses on technology and IT-related strategies and therefore has a limited scope and room to play. Usually, knowing what is hot in the world of technology and the implementations of those solutions could leverage opportunities for clients.

The execution is the second issue. Finding opportunities is one thing, however, often these initiatives are hard to manage, involve multiple disciplines, and need substantial project management. That is why at this level the vCIO needs to have greater capacity to deliver value. Most of the time customizations, custom software, and application development are necessary for success as these nascent solutions and products are not yet proven or mature.

On the other hand, to implement and make successful projects, a higher level of IT maturity is needed for the client as well. The vCIO has to educate the company and make sure the general knowledge set is present, so that the team is able to adopt new technologies successfully.

It is the highest possible added value for the business.

• Goal: give the client a competitive edge with technology
• Regularity: annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly
• IT/Management focus: 20% - 80%
• Time investment per year: 60-120 hours
• Challenge: focus on technology-related solutions instead of general management
• Value proposition: competitive edge with technology

Remarks

Managed services providers have to move sequentially from lower maturity to the highest maturity. It is not possible to start at level 4 without having the practice and experience from the preceding levels. This rule applies to the clients as well. The customer has to be mature enough to be able to adopt projects and initiatives at the higher levels. The higher the maturity, the more vCIO work is needed, not just for the projects, but to manage the documentation, policies, and more complex environment.

The MSP contract has to be separate from the vCIO contract from OML3. If the two services are one, it means the vCIO is MSP-focused, and it is OML2, regardless of the skill set and richness of the service. The biggest hurdle is to move from the OML2 to the OML3. On one hand, it is a separate package, pricing, and service. On the other hand, the business and consultative skills are as important or more than before. This could require new skill sets for the company or extensive education in consultative skills.

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Build your MSP with the help of virtual CIO services

Colin Knox is a true entrepreneur in the managed services provider industry. He’s been operating a very mature and well-polished boutique managed services provider in Calgary, Canada.

He’s also been recognized by Penton Technology Group in the ‘MSP Mentor 250’ which lists the best of the best managed service provider executives, entrepreneurs, experts, coaches and community leaders.

Colin’s service philosophy involves helping people grow and to that end giving them a chance to learn and develop into virtual CIOs. His business growth focuses on high level services.

In the interview I tried to learn how he was able to put this together.

I was interested to learn Colin has just exited from the day-to-day operation a couple of months ago and is dedicating his full attention to a very interesting project. I honestly did not realize the full impact of this before our talk.ortance of this before the talk.

If you’re interested in learning the stories and real-life examples from somebody who’s made it, watch the video and grow your business! Then use the 9 decisions worksheet in our MSP 2.0 Virtual CIO Service Delivery Quickstarter Kit to begin your transformation to a modern MSP.

Use the 9 decisions worksheet in our MSP 2.0 vCIO Service Delivery Quickstarter Kit to begin your transformation to a modern MSP. 

What is the one business skill MSP leaders can teach their clients?

If you look at any well-run IT managed services provider, there are plenty of robust, systematized and documented processes in place. Service businesses are built on process management. Service desk, deployment, migration, and communication processes always require tweaking to be stay efficient, and efficiency is vital to a great MSP.

To enhance this process we use tools like PSA, RMM and dashboards full of metrics to quantify health and successful management. If you’re doing this you’re already in the top 1% of MSP leaders.

In all of this you must analyze processes, written process documents, education of your staff and colleagues, and staff metrics and management. Essentially you become a practitioner of business process management.

Most of your clients need that type of knowledge and experience to boost their companies as well. You can use these to kick off the business discussion and show some value in an area that is natural to you.

Now that we know you have the faculty let’s learn how to act as a IT consultant in the conversation. We have a sheet dedicated to “power questions” for this process in our MSP 2.0 Quickstarter Kit.

Try this: setup a meeting with one of your clients and focus on just one business area, using some of the power questions in the Quickstarter Kit. Choose something like sales, operations, logistics or procurement. Ask about their processes and procedures, where they feel they excel and where they struggle. I bet you can find a technology solution related to the latter. Don’t take my word for it, just try it. Have fun.

What makes a good vCIO?

Typically there is a certain type of personality that is best suited to the vCIO role.

• They have some consultative background.
• Their “down to earth” mentality suits working with small to medium business.
• They tend to be systematic, process-oriented thinkers.
• They understand how to put technology solutions into a business solutions context.

Chances are you possess many if not all of these traits. But who else on your team also fits the role? The idea here we’re looking at here is nurturing and developing ideal vCIO candidates to build a hyper-successful MSP in the modern marketplace - something one can't do alone. Let’s take a look at what that will require. 

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You might guess the ERP guys, former consultants or business analysts and even some tech employees are perfect fits, but this isn’t necessarily so. The real skill lies in understanding what it means to be a virtual CIO in the modern MSP 2.0 ideology. Most IT managed services providers who offer a vCIO solution are still using it as an extension of the infrastructure support offer, only on a higher level. As long as the solution is grounded in supporting networks and servers instead of the business and people, it will remain an undistinguished commodity and replaceable by the next, cheaper competitor.

The MSP 2.0 vCIO does much more: everything from managing all the IT strategy and policies based on ongoing goals of IT competitiveness and profitability, to all technology, vendor and channel management. This virtual CIO meets with the heads all departments and purposefully learns their needs. This vCIO knows the “why” of the goals of the CEO and of the company. Of course servers and networks are a part of this, but far from all of it. This is a way to open up substantial business opportunities. More information is available in our MSP 2.0 Quickstarter Kit.

Are your ideas for candidates shifting? Who do you think might fit this position best now?

We are offering some short but exciting webinars that cover many of these topics

Trusted Advisor or Technician, Which Pays More?

Most IT managed services providers we work with suffer a fundamental problem: the definition of who they are. The lack of a clearly defined definition of the business can be the biggest obstacle they face to success in the MSP 2.0 environment. The statement "I am a tech" needs to change to "I am a IT consultant." Unfortunately people often underrate themselves because they lack an MBA or they’re uncomfortable with so called “sales.” This limits them and their teams in engaging with more clients and prospects in a meaningful business way.

However, being a business consultant is just a role, a mode of operation, a mindset and the subject can be anything technical. Consulting is a behavior, a set of skills and tools that anybody can learn and implement. We are creating a series about being a consultant so you can harness the power and reframe how your clients see you.

In this first blog episode I will show you the circumstances in which it is better to act like a "consultant" rather than an "technician"

What is the consultative (trusted advisor) vs. tech (technician) mindset

First, many MSPs are under the false impression that they are having business conversations with their clients.

Be aware of this! For your clients, discussing the ROI of a VOIP is still just tech talk. Even having a chat about the financial aspects (OPEX, CAPEX) of the cloud is still tech talk. Discussing how a CRM could boost their top line is still tech talk.

The reason these are all tech talks is that in many cases the problem is created by the solution, not the other way around. This means we need to switch the conversation to talking about a potential business opportunity which the given tech-related solution could exploit. In most cases, the client did not say: "I have too much telecommunication expense", "I have too much CAPEX and want to transfer to OPEX" or "I have a sales problem” but with your expert consultation, they will be able to relate those to a technology solution you can offer. The client might be relating to these ideas in mind, but not in heart. Purchasing decisions are made using emotions backed up by logic, not the other way around.

Unfortunately the logical mind of a technician wants to speak of solutions in logical terms. That is the "I know what is best for you" mindset. And that is the telling mindset. This serves your business more than your clients, and ultimately makes your offering an expense, rather than an investment.

What if we address the business issues first and let them come to the conclusion that they have a problem? Spending time on questions and going deep into the subject not only means we understand them, but that they feel understood. Every solution we bring will be the result of a dedication to solve the problem stated. In this case, the tech projects become business projects.

This is the vCIO consultative mindset we need, and has nothing to do with having an MBA or wearing Armani suits. It is about sequence, tool set and mindset.
Let's have a look where we could use this mindset in our MSP practice:

All meetings with prospects

Every time we have a meeting with a prospect, we should wear the consultant hat. If we do, we immediately stand out in a big way. The main differentiation is that prospects usually expect to have a tech talk with a geek instead of a business conversation with an informed and experienced business consultant.

If we do not overshoot the role but just ask the proper questions and be genuinely curious about their business, we might hear something like: "Hey, I have been talking to other vendors and nobody was asking these questions..." This is the distinction we need to make..

Be open and try not to sell; you will make the sale eventually. If we trust ourselves and are courageous enough to go off the solution and focus on the issues and the problems that could form, then we are smart enough to convert those problems into tech solutions.

Firing up solutions without the business context is only noise for the client, and a false assumption for us that we have created interest.

Quarterly, yearly client meetings

I have reviewed many mature MSP's Quarterly Business Reviews. My conclusion is: reviewing MSP services like technology roadmaps during meetings is not the right way to engage clients. A consultative role lets us ask questions about their sales performance, obstacles of growth and the processes with which they are are struggling. We have to find out why the CEO is not able to sleep at night, and then help with that. In this case the meeting would be the review of their business instead of a review of ours.

Let's be proactive and challenge our clients. The best way is to start where we have experience. Every managed services provider is a process machine. Our MSP business model is all about processes, streamlining and automation. That is why every managed services provider leader has great experience with processes, human aspects, software automation, and so on. Let's start analyzing the client processes. You are going to find holes and great solutions that you can implement. These will come from your core business competencies.

Before and during projects

Technology Projects are a great way to leverage our consultative mindset. Before the project we should understand why the results of the project are required. What business benefits or deliverables will the project provide? Create a simple "Vision Statement" collecting the expectations of all stakeholders; this is a small investment of time but can be put to use during and after the project.

Use the "10 points exercise" from our MSP 2.0 Quickstarter Kit to have a better, common understanding about the goals, benefits, and expectations.

And believe me, not so many IT companies have asked the accountant or the operations manager what their expectations of the project are beforehand. So focusing on their problems and them as individuals will pay off in the long run and distinguish you now.

Any request, call we have from the client's C level

Of course, if a C-level executive calls you with a problem, there is something behind it. Most of us tech people immediately jump to conclusions, and search for solutions and so on. But our consultative mindset has to make the hard stop and ask "why?" Why do we even have a problem? Why do we need a solution at all? What are the goals, the circumstances, the context? In most cases, this is what the client really needs - to think through the problem with someone with an outside perspective who can help them to see different points of view. After a session like that you will get more phone calls about solving business problems than about fixing routers… (don’t worry, you’ll still get those calls too).

These are great ways to engage clients and open up discussions about problems that need to be solved. From this point forward nothing is going to be a tech-based project, initiative or conversation.
 

Conclusion

If you can just change this one thing about your communication it will pay off heavily. It differentiates you; it teaches your people how to communicate and it shows your client who you really are. This will help you to define your purposes and to communicate them accordingly. It will help you to stay always curious and focus on what matters to the client, instead of the perspective of the tech.

12 mistakes most MSPs make with their vCIO services

The virtual CIO phenomenon is not new, yet the promises of the role have not been realized across the industry. Some mature IT managed services providers who believe they have a functioning vCIO practice, on closer inspection, still show challenges with delivery, scalability and profitability.

While we could go in depth to identify the root of these problems, instead here we'll highlight the twelve most common mistakes MSPs make with their vCIO. At the end of this article there is a questionnaire where you can measure yourself against other IT companies.

vCIO Strategy, Transformation Planning:

Mistake #1. Packaing the MSP and vCIO contracts together

Selling the vCIO built into the MSP contract makes you Virtual CIO of the IT Infrastructure. In this there are two pitfalls.

First, the vCIO capacity of the contract does not scale with the size of the organization like the other MSP related services do. It scales up with the complexity, changes and developments of the clients. That means ball-parking a user based price for a virtual CIO is unlikely to be appropriate. This results in either the price being too much for the market (they don’t want to buy it), or the contract being more work than revenue supports (you don’t want to sell it).

Second, creating a solid offer on virtual CIO involves capacity time with a very expensive resource. That makes the MSP offering more expensive compared to the competition. For the client, the results and benefits of the "vCIO of the infrastructure" do not make much sense. Customers are apt to compare prices ‘apples-to-apples’ between competing managed services providers but rarely are the service offerings that comparable.

Virtual CIO can deliver a major competitive advantage. It needs a separate service offering with a distinct pricing strategy.

Mistake #2. Not creating the necessary budget to get results

Let's say we have a 50 seat "sweet spot" client set up with the needed virtual CIO core services like: yearly, quarterly, monthly and weekly cycles. This could eat up 70 - 170 hours easily with automation. (We refer to the virtual CIO here as a general one taking care of every IT-related business aspect: reporting, management systems, applications, budget, vendor management and so on.) If you use a base $150 hourly rate it could reach $2.000 service price per month or $40/user. Your MSP contract simply does not have the space for that.

Further you do not have the necessary processes or approach for that, and you can’t afford that much time, so you under-deliver on your promise of virtual CIO. This damages the concept and the possible future of the service.

Again, if you are not able to create the viable budget for the monthly recurring service fee and communicate the value, either you do not profit or don’t sell the service.

Mistake #3. Not using a framework to develop the system

The vast majority of the managed services providers we’ve been able to talk to do not use any framework for their virtual-CIO-related activities, so they don't have a system in place to successfully deliver them. Instead they operate as "consultants" or arm’s length managerial resources for infrastructure-like projects.

This means they are not able to implement a standardized IT management structure with proper plans, documents or databases that align services across the IT ecosystem. Nor are they able to streamline communication of the duties, tasks, deliverables and responsibilities of the virtual CIO correctly. This makes it hard to achieve the expectations of the client for the role.

Demand Generation

Mistake #4. Not attracting the right audience

Demand generation needs to target the right audience. The virtual CIO job is best suited for companies with 50-150 office workers. If the MSP wants to target a 20-30 or even a ten-seat client, there will likely come a painful realization of the lack of interest and of financial background. Those in higher tiers are left to figure out some system for managing IT. We can go there, but with coaching and support, as a complement the CIO or the IT manager.

Mistake #5. The wrong content

The partner of the virtual CIO is not an office manager, not the CFO or COO. The partner of the virtual CIO is the president/director/CEO - the top-level manager of the company. We know that placing this role that high is a challenge for the average technology-oriented service provider, like most MSPs, but it needs to be there.

Most CEOs are not interested in backups, new MS Office versions or the cloud in general. They spend their time on increasing cash flow, boosting sales, organizing their companies, servicing their clients, and developing their management team. The MSP’s marketing content has to reflect those perspectives and turn those opportunities into solutions supported by IT.

This content has to be consistent across the website, emails, blogs, calls-to-action, in lead-nurturing drip email campaigns, in LinkedIn and other social media communications and in marketing collaterals: ebooks, guides and whitepapers.

Mistake #6. No clearly defined buyer’s journey

The buyer's journey covers the process that a prospect follows, from the first access of content to becoming and remaining a client. While a lot of MSPs have a decent website with a blog most of these blogs lack a call to action - no next-steps for the prospective customer, such as a downloadable e-book on the relevant topic.

These websites talk about available services instead of highlighting vision, possibilities and opportunities. The sales meetings are wired not to serve the clients and create instant value, but to "qualify" the techs - a focus on our opportunities instead of theirs.

The lack of a well designed buyer's journey will fail to attract the right prospect (the CEOs) to the website and assure them they will find the kind of service that will focus on their opportunities. The content needs to attract, engage and interest the right prospect with the wide scope on the business - make them eager to initiate contact and get a demo or have a meeting with the MSP.  

Sales

Mistake #7. Not using consultative sales

Consultative sales is all about selling solutions. In solution selling our approach is not geared toward what to sell to the client. Instead we have a process to ask the thought-provoking questions that reveal overlooked opportunities and potential benefits. It is a process of discovery, of business opportunities where the MSP's solutions can help achieve their vision.

Virtual CIO is not a boxed product so it doesn’t have a standard price. Deep understanding of a customer's business is required before the solutions can be presented. Selling without context and understanding will put the virtual CIO in a very ineffective position, making it difficult to manage expectations.

This method is slower and takes more time, but necessary for engaging the client and crafting the offering within their business context. However exploiting business opportunities, and supporting them with technology solutions will mean more and higher value sales.

Mistake #8. Not selling the vision with stories

The virtual CIO's purpose is to make the client’s business more competitive in its marketplace, with the use of technology, to drive more revenue, cut costs and maximize the business continuity.

These general terms have to be in the context of the client and industry; we cannot really engage the client without selling the vision of competitiveness: being a better company, producing more revenue, and surpassing their competitors.

To sell the vision we have to craft compelling stories that grab the imagination of the CEOs.

Mistake #9. Not confronting reality with numbers

The reality of the situation - the hard data on the current state of business maturity, people, systems and numbers - sets the tension of the proposition. This tension helps make the buying decision.

The “score” needs to be readily attained and easy to understand in order to be compelling. That is why a business IT questionnaire that measures a company’s competitiveness with IT is a must. Without this, even if the vision is clearly defined, there are no quantifiable parameters to achieving it.

Imagine having a vision to run a marathon: a good start would be a full physical assessment. Make clear how hard you have to train, the time frame and the resources you’ll need to accomplish your goal.

Delivery

Mistake #10. Not using vCIO tools like automation or collaboration

Most MSPs are trying to use their existing PSA solutions like Connectwise or Autotask to manage their virtual CIO activities. It just doesn’t work, period. Again, the MSP 2.0 virtual CIO does not just focus on infrastructure. The virtual CIO has to manage people, processes and systems while communicating with the team, vendors and customers.

Most virtual CIOs do not have an integrated approach to managing all their activities in one place, or a system in which they can store all the IT management-related documents, memos, projects, databases, plans, budgets, and so on. Missing an integrated platform wastes a lot of valuable time for the virtual CIO.

Mistake #11. No clear differentiation between onging and project activities

Just as maintenance teams are separate from project teams because of different utilizations, focus, experience, etc.,  so should be the virtual CIO team.  

One virtual CIO needs to manage the core virtual CIO cycles, like yearly planning, quarterly activities, monthly follow-ups, reports, weekly meetings, and so on. An average virtual CIO could manage 10-18 clients, depending on the complexity of that focus.  

Another virtual CIO has to manage the individual projects separately. It needs a different personality, different skills, tools and different daily and weekly routines.

Mistake #12. IT-related service instead of business-related service

In a quarterly session, discussion should include questions about the client's cash flow, marketing initiatives, sales performance, internal projects, and competitor's moves first.

Then it can become a session with reports on the execution of the IT strategy, the quarterly plan, and the plans for the next quarter. It should not be focused on the technology roadmap or IT-related issues, problems, and challenges. It has to be focused on the business, processes, numbers, and business terms.

This can be difficult - there are so many cool IT projects an MSP can propose to a customer - however the conversation needs to remain about the business benefits and business accomplishments.

A successful CRM project is a great example. It highlights the improvements on sales collaboration, alignment, processes and results, instead of talking about the features of the technology solution.

Summary

Please check for these possible flaws in your practices. To improve on those, we strongly suggest signing up for the MSP 2.0 Quickstarter Tool. It has the tools to market and deliver the virtual CIO role right. If you would like to know more about the modern vCIO approach, let’s check this page.

Practice-building or Business-building Discussion

James Vickery, a very progressive MSP CEO, had a couple of thought provoking questions. We’ve created a short talk to cover the issues he was curious about.

The main issues we are talking about:

• Scalability of the consulting type businesses
• The capacity of an average MSP 2.0 vCIO
• Training and retaining high profile virtual CIOs
• Managing, motivating and keeping virtual CIOs
• Building the practice for ourselves or building a business
• Transitioning to the MSP 2.0 business model
• Importance of checking the current and future business model
• Importance of very consciously developing services

Check the audio file for the 20 minute talk here:

Open the audio in a new window: MSP_QandA_with_James_Vickery

More about James Vickery and his managed services provider "I know IT" here:

http://www.iknowit.com.au

If you too have questions like that, let me know and set up a short session like this!

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Watch this interview with our MSP operation excellence expert guide, Rex Frank, to learn how to make a profitable operation by familiarizing your managed services provider with the Annual Strategic Operations Plan’s best practices to leverage your RMM and PSA tools that will drive down costs, manage your engineers and guide behavior

The MSP 2.0 service offering in the 7C IT Management Framework

Upsell your clients with strategic QuaRTERLY BUSINESS REVIEWS and IT strategy meetings

Frameworks in general are good for:

• helping the service provider see all the client’s functions and service delivery areas
• helping the clients understand their situation and the context within a clearly defined system
• measuring the current state against the framework benchmark, define the goals for both parties, and attain team alignment
• creating a transition between the current state and the future state - the action plan

The goal is to move from an ad-hoc attack strategy to more systematic thinking.

This approach is more likely to give a comprehensive perspective so you can make an informed decision where to invest and where not to.

The 7C IT Management Framework was designed to solve the problems of small and medium sized companies. These companies do not usually have a full-time, fully trained CIO or VP of IT, and without a skilled person in that role, IT decisions are made by the wrong people, such as:

• The COO, CEO, or CFO, doing the job part-time, without the requisite experience of the full range of technologies and trends;
• The IT Administrator, doing the job but with no experience in managing projects or understanding business needs; or
• The outsourced, managed-service provider, with no understanding of the scope of the infrastructure and too technology-focused to have the most effective and productive strategy skills.

In many cases all employees work together on IT management. One will prepare a budget, another will plan the infrastructure, and a third will manage the projects. Often as IT managed services providers we are in the middle of this tornado, with no clear responsibilities, deliveries, or measurements. Everything is a bit foggy, but we try our best to do our best for the client.

The 7C IT Management Framework creates the following alignment:

• defining all the necessary elements that could be leveraged to get a competitive edge with technology
• measuring the current IT management maturity through a simple scoring system
• discovery of the business needs through a goal setting workshop
• creating an action plan to get to the target scores
  distributing the work and the responsibility across the IT ecosystem

• more revenue to leveraging technology on the Value Proposition, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Loyalty parts of the company
• lower expenses in leveraging the technology on the Operations, Business Processes, People, and Systems parts of the company
• maximized business continuity, ensuring smooth operations and minimizing the impact of ‘disasters’ on the performance of the company

The 7C IT Management Framework

• Continuous: What is the level of the IT security/NIST Cyber Security?
• Competent: How efficient and professional is the IT ecosystem?
• Charged: How proactive and responsible is the IT ecosystem
• Conscious: How strategy and business focused is the IT ecosystem?
• Controlled: How measurable, governable is the IT ecosystem
• Clear: How transparent or clear is the IT ecosystem?
• Cost effective: How well are costs controlled in the IT ecosystem?

These seven Cs are the key questions every CEO has to answer in order to have a competitive edge in IT. That also makes them the areas in which every MSP has to provide service, in order for the same goal.

As an MSP, you are providing value-added services to your client like backup management, disaster recovery planning, IT strategy building, and providing proactive services.

However, if you do not create a clear structure for clients you won’t inspire confidence. These are interrelated services, but if there are no defined boundaries, structures, or systems built around these individual services you will fail to maximize their potential.

7C, like any framework, is intuitively and expansively organized. The backup management and the disaster recovery are in the Continuous block; The IT strategy is on the Conscious block and the Proactive Services are in the Charge and the Competent blocks. If you can map every service you are doing and show your clients every management area in which there are deficiencies you’ll become aligned and effective.

Use 7C to map all your services and show the clients the big picture. It will also help discover the maturity level of your current service offering, and what services you should develop next.

7C is not a delivery framework. Its goal is not to tell you how to do better backups, or how to develop a better IT strategy. Its goal is to help clients understand what you are doing as an IT service provider, and for you to be able to get aligned on the service with prospects and clients.

One of the most important parts of 7C is the IT competitiveness quotient, which measures all of the 7C building blocks on the client side. It is an award-winning tool, which measures current maturity and generates an action plan based on the client's delivery areas.

Let's look at the defined service delivery areas based on different building blocks.

Upsell your clients with strategic QuaRTERLY BUSINESS REVIEWS and IT strategy meetings

1. Continuous: Services to Increase the level of NIST CYBER security 

Backup management implementation

Keep the data safe and sound, without any chance of data loss as a result of any single point of human error, lack of responsibility, or technical failure.

• Backup policy, regulation implementation
• Backup process implementation
• Backup process responsibilities setting
• Data recovery testing & implementation
• Offsite backup implementation
• Data recovery plan implementation
• Offsite backup solution implementation

Have a plan for when a disaster happens. It is a practical document that walks through all possible scenarios in case of an emergency event.

• Business Assessment
• IT Assessment
• Disaster Recovery Plan development
• Disaster Recovery Plan implementation
• Disaster Recovery Plan audits

Implement the best practices that can help to drive a smoother, safer, and more secure environment. This involves both systems and people.

• Corporate Information Security policy and regulation implementation
• Corporate Information Security guidelines, education & implementation
• User role and Lifecycle management implementation
• BYOD management implementation
• Password management implementation
• Risk management implementation
• Ethical hacking testing services
• Physical IT Security protection implementation
• IT Security, policies and procedures implementation
• IT Security governance implementation

Implement some very basic tools to increase the protection of the IT environment, devices, storage and systems.

• Mobile Device Management implementation
• Encryption management implementation
• Access management implementation
• Onsite data access management implementation
• Online access management implementation

2. Competent:Services for a more Efficient and Professional IT Ecosystem   

Managed Service Implementation
Create the most advanced and efficient IT service environment. The infrastructure management is a core functionality and has to be done in a very professional manner. Using the latest automation and management tools, centralized services, and monitoring key to success.

• RMM Service Implementation
• PSA Implementation for Ticketing, Project Management, and Asset Management
• Knowledge Base implementation
• NOC service Implementation
• Disaster Recovery Plan Implementation
• Asset Management Implementation

Achieve high level proactivity. IT is here to maximize overall productivity, but often even if we have the latest software in place, the client team is not aware of the advances and can get frustrated when the interface moves buttons. There is no shortage of personal productivity tools around but they are losing their potential business impact when the team is not shown how to use them to create a personal operation system with to-dos, calendars, and emails.

• Proactive End User Training Program Implementation
• Proactive Internal Self Service Knowledge Base Implementation
• Proactive Personal Effectiveness Program Implementation
• Proactive Business Process - IT Alignment Practices Implementation
• Proactive System Integration Practice Implementation

Create and generate as high tenancy as possible for the given budget. You could influence the uptime of the overall systems with the professional services. Most of the job is proactive maintenance, standardized infrastructure, and redundancy. Discipline is the watchword here.

• Redundant Infrastructure Implementation
• Standardized Infrastructure Implementation
• Server Side Patch Management Implementation
• Desktop side Patch management implementation
• Life-cycle, Recycle Management Implementation

Manage the IT ecosystem at the most professional level possible. Most IT management jobs are done by one of the C-level executives with an internal admin assistant and perhaps a third party MSP. These three roles don’t cover the needed management capacity. A Virtual CIO and a third party IT consultant need to be in place for the following activities.

• vCIO Role implementation for IT Strategy Development, and Leadership
• vCIO Role Implementation for IT Strategy Execution, and Leadership
• vCIO Role Implementation for General IT Leadership
• vCIO Role Implementation for IT Infrastructure Management
• vCIO Role Implementation for IT Security and Risk Management
• vCIO Role Implementation for IT Consultancy, and Representation

3. Charge: Services to Increase the Level of IT Service Maturity

Managed Service Implementation
Implement Managed Services not just for the professionalism but to maintain responsibility as well. That means creating a service offering around the overall responsibility and accountability of IT using tools, policies, systems, and best practices to make sure nothing falls through the cracks and customer expectations are always met through assured alignment.

• Ticketing System Implementation
• Disaster Recovery Plan Implementation
• SLA and Ticketing System Implementation
• Dedicated Service Manager Implementation
• SLA for Overtime Implementation
• SLA for Special Device Implementation

Create all the necessary proactive services to prevent problems or fix them as soon as possible. Monitor, optimize, and remediate if required. This is not just related to the infrastructure but for the business processes as well. 

• Proactive Maintenance Practice Implementation
• Proactive End User Training Program Implementation
• Proactive Optimization Practice Implementation
• Proactive Onsite Support and User Feedback Implementation
• Quarterly Business Analysis and Reviews Implementation

Manage the responsibility and accountability of many internal, external , and third party resources and vendors. On average a "Virtual IT Department" consists of at least 15 parties (ISP, Software Companies, Consultants, Hardware Vendors, and Service Providers etc.). Who is the boss? Who is responsible for what? The issue here for the CEO is that if no one is responsible then ultimately he/her is responsible. These workshops are a great tool to align and organize the team.

• Responsibility Matrix - Including the CIO Role Implementation
• Responsibility Matrix - Main Categories Implementation
• Responsibility Matrix - Education Implementation
• Responsibility Matrix - Main Categories Implementation with Ticketing System Aligned
• Responsibility matrix - Attached to the Contracts

4. Conscious: Services to increase the level of strategic IT focus

IT Strategy Planning Retreat
Create a rock solid IT strategy in a very short timeframe. Executives’ time can’t be wasted sitting and talking for days. What is the best practice for spending 4-16 hours of work to create a very solid IT concept, roadmap, or strategy? The answer includes processes, best practices, efficient data collecting, and decision making techniques.

• IT Strategy, External Review, SWOT Session
• IT Strategy, Internal Review, SWOT Session
• IT Strategy, IT Ecosystem, Infrastructure Audit Session
• IT Strategy, Business Modelling Session
• IT Strategy, Virtual IT Department Evaluation Session
• IT Strategy, Business Functions Mapping Session
• IT Strategy, Business Processes Mapping Session
• IT Strategy, IT Functions Planning Session
• IT Strategy, Strategic Initiatives Planning Session
• IT Strategy, Development Roadmap Session

Create detailed guidance for the execution of the strategy. This should be a year long plan with all the deliverables, initiatives, projects, priorities, and responsibilities necessary for flawless execution. Most small businesses do not have these plans in place. They often see it as too much work to create them, so the cost/benefit ratio precludes it. Again the keys are the processes, templates, and best practices to do the work in the very small amount of time.

• IT Operational Plan, Budgeting Session
• IT Operational Plan, Capacity Planning Session
• IT Operational Plan, Priority Setting Session
• IT Operational Plan, Resource Redistribution Session
• IT Operational Plan Finalizing Session

Execute the plans adeptly. The agile methodology helps to create closed loop systematic rhythms around the execution. The key is to foster alignment on the deliverables and set expectations on time and budget. The most often overlooked factor is the personal time capacity planning. You have to set aside time for managing and doing all the project related work.

• Quarterly IT Execution Plan Implementation
• Monthly IT Execution Cycle Implementation
• Weekly IT Execution Cycle Implementation
• Project Execution System Implementation
• Quarterly Performance Management Implementation

Upsell your clients with strategic QuaRTERLY BUSINESS REVIEWS and IT strategy meetings

5. Controlled: Services to ensure a robust IT Ecosystem with Agile IT Governance  

IT Performance Management Best Practices Implementation
The goal here is to maximize reliability through implemented best practices. Quarterly and monthly target setting measures performance and creating action plans drives costs down and increases efficiency.

• IT Performance Management Framework Implementation
• IT Infrastructure Planning and Monitoring
• IT Management Planning and Monitoring
• IT Strategy Planning and Monitoring
• IT Vendor Planning and Monitoring
• IT User Development Best Practices Implementation

While it’s great to think big-picture during the IT strategy session and develop fancy projects we need to reach our goals, we have to use specific IT related project and program management best practices to make sure that we are not just dreaming, but executing flawlessly.

• Key IT Initiatives Management Best Practices Implementation
• Key Project Budget, Risk Management Best Practices Implementation
• Key Project Visualization, Planning Best Practices Implementation
• Key Project Change Management, Communication Best Practices Implementation
• Key Project close Best Practices Implementation

Ensure everything is safe and sound and works as we think it should be working. The various types of audits not only let us sleep better, but also keep up awareness of specific areas. To create such internal compliance requires a higher operational maturity.

• Independent Auditor Service Implementation
• IT Audit Process Design Based on Best Practices
• Data Security Audit, Disaster Recovery Audit, Data Backup Audit implementation
• Server Management Audit, Network Audit, Server Room Audit, IT Services Audit Implementation
• IT Management Audit Implementation

Organize the IT Ecosystem. This is a virtual department with 20 to 30 different vendors. Who is the boss? Who is working together? Who needs what information? How do we assist communication? It is worth the effort to establish order to get maximum value from our vendors and internal resources.

• IT Operation Process Best Practices, IT Operation Policies Best Practices Implementation
• IT Operation Manual Best Practices Implementation (Knowledge Base, Administrator's Guide, Responsibility Areas)
• Collaboration Platform Implementation, Ticketing, Project, Yearly, Quarterly Planning, Alignment
• IT Organizational Chart Design
• Competence Management and Personal Growth Plans

6: Clear: Services to maintain transparency of the IT ecosystem 

 
IT Reporting Practice implementation
Develop the necessary reports to be able to measure the performance of all departments and groups. What we can't measure, we can’t manage. This is not an exercise in flooding the C level with reports. It means delivering critical weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly metrics of business performance.

• Reporting Framework Implementation
• IT Infrastructure Reporting Implementation
• IT Management Reporting Implementation
• IT Strategy Reporting Implementation
• IT Vendor Reporting Implementation
• IT User Reporting Implementation

Establish clear aligned definition of who is doing what. Going through the 200+ responsibility areas, from checking on the backup to aligning the technology with the business needs is going to raise a lots of questions. Who should do what to make sure nothing is ignored or forgotten. Again the takeaway for the CEO is that if no one is responsible for an element of the matrix, ultimately the CEO is. It is better to know who does what before you need them to. 

• Responsibility Matrix Audit, Interviews and Workshop
• Responsibility Matrix Management Implementation
• Team Dependency and Risk Analysis

The goal is to create the Service Level Agreement (SLA) internally. That means identifying all the necessary services the company need, make decisions on the needed quality, speed, cost, and create alignment on this. The internal audits could make sure the agreement is not just a paper on the shelf.

• Internal SLA Creation based on Template
• Internal SLA Enforcement

Use the most efficient tools as possible in IT management. If IT wants to make the company more competitive, it first needs to be competitive itself. Using the latest and best efficiency tools is key to drive costs down.

• Execution Management Tool Implementation
• IT Maturity Management Measurement Tool Implementation
• IT Document Management Tool Implementation
• Password Management Tool Implementation
• Budget Management Tool Implementation

Make clear that the client is in the driver's seat and not the vendor. Vendor management means yearly negotiations on prices and services, switches if needed, mediation on tough problems, and enforcement of the service level agreement. Make sure they are creating the value we agreed on.

• ERP Vendor Management Implementation
• Telco Vendor Management Implementation
• Cloud Vendor Management Implementation
• General Vendor Management Implementation
• Printer Management Implementation

7. Cost Effective: Services to minimize the costs of the IT ecosystem 

IT Budget Management Services Implementation
Create and manage the most cost-effective IT budget. What is included in the budget needs to be strictly defined because everyone has to be on the same page when we’re talking about costs, expenses, budgets, targets, etc. Setting a budget is incomplete without proper governance, reconciliation, reporting, and solid decision making.

• IT Budget Planning
• IT Budget Controls Implementation
• IT Budget Reports Implementation

Analyse all the IT related processes in the organization. Are there any new tools we could use? Is education required to use the current systems? Is there any integration that could be done to make their processes leaner? A service offering encompassing these topic is a great tangible source of continuous improvement and total quality management.

• Continuous Process Improvement Implementation

Manage every aspect of IT in a lean and straightforward framework. We create and implement the 7C Framework based on the 7C methodology.  We must understand that the vCIO is a high level IT Executive and can be a third party. The framework he/she implements, manages, and further develops is based on;

• 7C Methodology Implementation
• 7C Certified vCIO Implementation
• 7C vCIO Toolkit Software Package Implementation
• 7C vCIO Community, Continuous Education Implementation

Manage all IT expenditures of a company and keep them as low as possible. Set up rules around purchasing, and create standards to achieve a homogeneous environment including managing all software subscriptions - key to keeping the costs down.

• Purchase Policy Implementation
• Standardized Device Policy Implementation
• Software License, Subscription Service Implementation
• Purchase Process Policy Implementation

Conclusion

The services discussed here are not new. What is new is the perspective. We can see the goal, see what the different services are about, and how to frame the services so that the client understands their value. It is an alignment tool to help clients understand their situation and to help them make informed choices.

You are able to help your clients without having capacity, knowledge, and experience in every service. You are able to be the one and only trusted advisor and vCIO, and outsource the rest of the work, with partners who excel at creating a budget, strategy, or security. That is your value in using the framework: being the big-perspective guide on IT, and ensuring the smooth, natural delivery of a professional trusted advisor.