MSP 501 Profile: Iuvo Technologies Tackles Customer M&A Amid COVID-19

Company Name: Iuvo Technologies
Company MSP 501 Rank: 401
President & CEO: Byron Beilman
Headquartered: Westford, MA
Primary Services:

Twitter: @iuvotech

M&A has impacted Iuvo Technologies more than COVID-19 impacted the MSP.

That’s according to Bryon Beilman, president and CEO of the Massachusetts-based company. The MSP has witnessed a significant amount of M&A on the customer side recently. Beilman said his team pursues a customer profile that often appeals to buyers. And for Beilman and Iuvo, this is an opportunity to prove themselves once again.

The company landed on the MSP 501 list this year. That makes two consecutive appearances for Iuvo. The company also earned a spot in this year’s Channel Partners Excellence in Digital Services Awards

Beilman spoke to Channel Futures about the company, its latest initiatives, M&A and his perspective on the MSP channel.

Channel Futures: What is one thing you wish vendors would do that they don’t?

Iuvo Technologies’ Bryon Beilman

Bryon Beilman: Vendor partnerships are interesting. We make sure we only partner with the products and vendors we believe in. It is extremely important to us that we only promote products that meet a certain standard and are best for our client businesses. Having had many vendor relationships over the years, there is certainly one thing that stands out that I would love to see get more attention. I would love if vendors would do more for their partners than simply provide products to sell.

We have based our business model on seeking out functional two-way partnerships with our clients, and I would love to see the same attention given to vendor relationships for committed MSPs. Instead of sticking to the basics – providing products to sell – provide ample marketing and sales resources, campaigns and ways to integrate our services with their product to maximize the value for MSPs and the clients we serve. Making it easier for us to educate, promote, highlight value and engage our clients on vendor products would save us a lot of time and allow us to meet vendor goals while still having time to provide stellar services to our clients.

CF: What new opportunities and challenges came with the global COVID-19 pandemic?

BB: The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been far-reaching. We felt so fortunate to be in the right business at the right time. It was rewarding to see just how many of our clients were already set up to succeed in a remote working model because of the work we have done for them over the years. Though we knew they would be OK, they were not completely ready yet because a lot of our clients simply were not used to working 100% remotely. Hearing the positive remarks about how seamlessly they were able to make the transition and maintain productivity after they were thrust into that model due to the pandemic was also extremely rewarding.

Out of the pandemic came several opportunities for us as well. We were able to quickly put together content and webinars to help those companies or individuals struggling to manage their new realities. While a lot of companies as entities were prepared, many individuals were not. We were able to guide many through the process of converting space in their homes to an “office,” how to use unified communications platforms and other tips and tricks that helped them ease into a work from anywhere model while still being efficient and productive. We also found many businesses had to throw solutions together to make their transition happen quickly. This introduced a lot of technical debt. We worked with companies to find the best long-term solutions, wrote policies and assisted with overhaul and reduced their technical debt, saving them …

… time and money.

CF: What do you love about the IT channel? What do you hate about it?

BB: The IT channel – when done right – adds capabilities to our business that we don’t have to develop ourselves. The challenge is that there are many partners in the channel. It takes commitment on each side to make it work and be an advantage for your business. There is only so much time to do it right and getting people to see the value in strategizing and creating a road map is sometimes extremely laborious.

CF: What was the single biggest technology or business decision that drove your company’s growth in 2019? How did it do so?

BB: In 2019 we focused on building a true sales process and building a sales methodology to complement our marketing efforts. This has given us great visibility into each stage of our pipeline. This not only helps us predict revenue but closely coordinate with delivery and hiring to make sure that we can provide the services that are sold. It sounds fundamental – and it is – but having the discipline to have real-time dashboard data that we can depend upon is more difficult than it sounds.

CF: Tell us the story of the biggest pivot you’ve ever had to execute.

BB: A few years ago, we aggressively hired automation engineers to automate a lot of the difficult and time-consuming processes. The ROI on this investment ended up not being what we modeled, so we had to change the focus back to a more customized service delivery. We learned a lot from this pivot and took a different approach where our automation delivery is more organic and evolutionary instead of revolutionary.

CF: Is the influx of private equity and increase in M&A activity impacting your business? How?

BB: We have made it a point to identify and go after clients that we consider ideal. We feel it is extremely important, based on our unique business model, to find clients who meet certain criteria and that have needs that will keep our staff – made up of only seasoned consultants – interested and engaged. Because we are only working with the best clients, they very often are recognized as incredible companies by other companies as well, which leads frequently to mergers or acquisitions.

These mergers and acquisitions have had much more impact on our business than COVID-19 has. We have had around a dozen or so clients get acquired. While we are thrilled for them and it feels good knowing we have had a hand in making that possible, it does change the dynamics of how we deliver service. Often times our internal champion changes and we need to “prove ourselves” all over again to the parent company. This is not a problem, as we are very comfortable with the value we deliver, but it does take time and, in our minds, we would rather spend that time strategizing for our clients.

In addition, we need to work harder to help their transition and to, quite frankly, keep them as a customer. It is not unheard of for the acquiring company to have a much larger IT team than our original client had. Continuing to show our value and how we can not only function as an IT team, but complement an existing IT team, takes …

… effort as well.

CF: If you could go back to one technological point in time, what would it be and why?

BB: I honestly wouldn’t go back in time for technology. I think what we are doing with cloud services, automation and secure centralized management and coordination has allowed us to scale. I am looking to go forward and excited to do so.

CF: Have you ever turned a nightmare client into a dream client? Tell us how.

BB: We have a certain type of client that we seek out. We say no to business we don’t think is a good fit or that we don’t consider an ideal partnership. I can confidently say that our clients, however easy or difficult they may be, love us! And we can’t get rid of them even if we tried!

All of that said, it’s not to say we don’t ever get clients that are more difficult than we initially expected. That actually happens often based on rotating client contacts or the needs of their business, but how we manage those situations is a victory we pride ourselves on. We often call these stories “chaos to clarity.” There are two primary tenants that go along with “chaos to clarity.” First, we spend time reducing complexity of their systems and solutions. Complexity is often created because making things simple and elegant takes super-talented people and a lot of time, plus it is often very difficult to do.

We use the extensive and broad knowledge we have to reduce complexity and make our client’s business more resilient. Second, we focus a lot of attention on building relationships with our clients and contacts. This is largely about understanding that people remember how you make them feel and to build trust. You must do great things and deliver a great customer experience.

CF: Why are you a business owner instead of working for someone else? What is the allure of entrepreneurship to you?

BB: I had previously never worked at a company where everyone was an “A” player, were smarter than me and amazing humans (all at once). I saw that because this package of traits was often missing in the companies I worked for, the quality of service was significantly lacking. I decided that the only way to find all of this, plus have a great service, was to build it from the ground up and create something special. So that is what we did. We looked for people who cared as much about customer service and the quality of the work they were providing as much as I did. I looked for people who were subject matter experts in their fields and who were smarter than me. It worked.

Entrepreneurship is creating something you are passionate about. It’s something you can do better than anyone else and customers are glad to pay you for it. That is what Iuvo Technologies is, and I am incredibly proud.