Atera Releases First Report From 'Benchmark' Business Intelligence Tool

A month after launching a business intelligence system for analyzing data from managed services providers (MSPs), software developer Atera this week issued its first findings from the data it’s collecting.

The inaugural analysis found wide disparities in the amount MSPs charge for services, with more than four in 10 (42 percent) charging $45 to $99 per hour, while more than half (52 percent) charge $100 to $199 per hour.

The remaining six percent charge $200 or more.

The analysis was performed using Atera’s Benchmark, a tool that is updated daily using data collected anonymously from hundreds of the vendor’s participating customers.

“We created the Benchmark to find innovative ways to help MSPs grow their businesses,” Atera CEO Gil Pekelman said. “The data reveals some interesting correlations, including an opportunity for MSPs to charge more than double or even triple their hourly rate by increasing their SLAs, better negotiation, positioning and marketing.”

“We are helping partners make sense of the data and better evaluate their performance compared to the competition,” he said. “With a slight increase in value-adds, MSPs can easily grow their business, and we are excited to be the trusted provider to take them there.”

Earlier this year, Atera released an all-in-one remote monitoring and management (RMM), professional services automation (PSA) and remote connections software as a service platform.

Customers who signed up for that service have been offered access to the new tool, which allows MSPs to compare their performance with that of peers.

Users of Benchmark can view information on such metrics as alerts, ticket load during work hours, response time, resolution time and other key performance indicators.

Among the other findings in the report:

Nearly half (45 percent) of MSPs could double their revenue by improving their response rate.

According to the data, “MSPs who respond to customer tickets within 20 minutes see the most success and return business,” Atera officials wrote in a statement. “Of the MSPs polled, 50 percent charge more than $100 per hour, and the other half charge less.”

“The MSPs who charge more reply 43 percent faster to tickets than those who charge less,” the report said, citing adherence to service level agreements.

The Benchmark infrastructure is built on PowerBI, Microsoft’s data visualization tool.

“The Benchmark offers substantive data for IT professionals worldwide so they can understand how they perform compared to colleagues and be better prepared for future trends,” Pekelman said in a statement announcing the tool last month.

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