19 Ways VARs Can Profit As Cloud Computing Grows

Shift from traditional hardware to hardware as a service (HaaS)

Push beyond software to software as a service. “Google is willing to work with us and through us” on SaaS, Bellini asserted, an apparent tip of the hat to the Google Apps Reseller program.

Professional services.

Storage, backup and disaster recovery services.

Email management and administration.

Website management. “Websites have always been a cloud solution,” said Bellini. “It’s another way for you to make money.”

Remote monitoring and automation. “We can take care of 70 percent of their problems remotely and give SMBs instant gratification” when IT or business issues pop up.

Help Desk: “This is near and dear to my heart,” said Bellini. “If you a good RMM and automation tool and a good help-desk function you can really take control of your clients. We all worry about the cloud and control of those clients. More than any other area of your business make sure you have help desk functions.” The average help-desk technician manages about 15 tickets per day. Build processes, using a dispatcher, to pick and choose which tickets to manage first, Bellini asserted.

Voice over IP: “Here’s the thing about what’s kind of cool in this industry… everything is going digital, everything is data, everything is going across the Internet,” said Bellini. “All of that is just servers and endpoints. The phone is the endpoint.” Control that phone relationship, even as PBXes shift to the cloud.

Mobile: A new wireless standard will push 50Gbps “That’s going to change everything,” said Bellini. “Google’s mission is writing everything for mobile first. More searches are now happening through mobile. It’s bypassing desktop searches. Mobile is a cloud-based service.

Security

Telecommuting: We’ve all got clients that have employees who work from home or remote offices where two or three people work. Embrace opportunities, Bellini said.

Telepresence: Zenith has a brand new offering (Vu TelePresence) which is designed a monthly service. “That’s another thing for your bag of tricks.”

Digital Signage: “It’s another PC… another end point that you can grab.”

Vendor Management: Take control of customer relationships with phone companies, copier companies, broadband companies. We’re all doing that management and we’re not taking control of it. Focus on vendor management and take control of that client’s data infrastructure. Customers want to deal with one person. Who do you want that one person to be? Add $99 a month for managing that account. That’s $1,200 a year for every customer. Do the math; it’s a lot of money,” asserted Bellini.

Printer Management: :”It’s not sexy but who’s doing it?” said Bellini. He pointed to Xerox PagePack as a managed print service that MSPs should explore. “Print management is an incredibly profitable area; it’s just not boring; it’s not sexy. Printers will always be under your customer roof. Manage them.”

Surveillance: “These are just IP cameras that go back to a centralized server. It’s not rocket science.”

Co-managed IT: “Our answer for that is ConnectWise Streamline IT,” said Bellini. Formerly called Downstream IT.

Cloud Services: The last item of Bellini’s list was cloud services. “This is the thing that people are most concerned about.” But instead of getting concerned, review the list above and focus on at least four or more of the opportunities, asserted Bellini.