Channel, Networking

How MSPs Can Use Automation to Become More Profitable

While it’s great news the MSP marketplace is rapidly expanding, that growth can bring with it some challenges. For example, stronger competition tends to drive down profit margins for managed services as more MSPs battle to sign up new clients. This can be particularly tough when newly-minted MSPs underestimate their costs of doing business and entice customers with rock-bottom pricing.

In the long term, these inexperienced MSPs will tend to fall by the wayside because they can’t deliver the service quality clients demand while maintaining their bargain-basement rates. But in the short term they can cause headaches by putting pressure on your pricing model. Though safeguarding your profitability in such times of heightened competition can be difficult, it’s not impossible.

The answer lies in boosting your management and operational efficiency, and one of the best ways to accomplish this is with automation. That’s why we’ve created the MSP Guide to Automating Your Business for Profitability, with step-by-step pointers on how you can maximize the benefits of automation.

In the Guide you’ll learn how implementing an automation strategy can deliver compelling benefits to MSPs:

  • Utilizing automation tools and other support applications enables MSPs to provide a high level of proactive service with only limited manpower
  • Automation facilitates the management of dynamic cloud-based solutions rather than a static set of assets
  • Employing automation tools for routine tasks frees time for MSPs to focus more on customer support and satisfaction; this enables MSPs to build stronger relationships that foster long-term customer patronage

At its core, the value proposition of automation is straightforward: reduce the amount of time your technicians spend handling routine tasks, thus cutting your costs for service delivery and freeing those technicians to devote more attention to revenue-generating activities that will boost your profitability. Ultimately it’s a matter of choosing the optimum approach for the job at hand; computers excel at performing repetitive work, while humans are superior when it comes to situations that require decision-making skills.

While the fundamental advantages of automation are universally applicable, the ways in which automated solutions are incorporated into each MSP’s individual environment are more specific. As every MSP’s business model is effectively unique, with its own particular blend of services and processes, the details of how automation is implemented can vary. By following the tips in the Guide, virtually all MSPs can streamline their deployment of automation solutions.

In five simple steps the Guide explains how you can:

  1. Determine Functions to Automate
  2. Adopt Automation to Deliver Proactive Services
  3. Manage Dynamic Cloud-Based Solutions
  4. Automate Routine Tasks with APIs and Scripts
  5. Automate Post-Sales Communications

The availability of APIs for your software solutions is key to achieving the full benefits of automation, and you’ll learn how the Webroot® Unity API enables you to access additional Webroot endpoint data and services via the Global Site Manager™ (GSM) console used with Webroot SecureAnywhere® Business Endpoint Protection solutions.

And there’s much more, so make sure to download your copy of the MSP Guide to Automating Your Business for Profitability now!

Blog courtesy of Webroot. Read more Webroot blogs here.