MSP 501 Profile: 365 IT Solutions Shakes Up IT Services in Toronto

Company Name: 365 IT Solutions

Company MSP 501 Rank: 436

President: Razmig Sagharian

Headquartered: Toronto, Ontario

Primary Services:

Twitter: @365iT_Solutions

Being able to predict what’s coming in the MSP market is a tricky business, but 365 IT Solutions recognized the need to pivot to a different model early on and hasn’t looked back.

365 IT Solutions’ Razmig Sagharian

The company started off as a small, local IT shop selling hardware and software to local businesses, then moved to the break-fix model, then in 2014 converted its entire organization into a managed IT services provider.

Razmig Sagharian, president of 365 IT Solutions, sat down with us this week to talk about the decision behind the pivot, being on the same page as vendors, and how the company differentiates itself as an IT consulting market leader from other Toronto MSPs.

Channel Futures: What are some of the most important elements of working well with vendors and making sure everyone is on the same page? 

Razmig Sagharian: Vendors taking the time to understand our business and general processes. Building relationships with vendors and being on the same page really improves the chances of success, not only with sales but also with delivering the right solutions. We find vendors that come out to our office or invite us out for functions give us the ability to learn more about their products and programs. These meetings are priceless and give the vendors to learn about us at the same time.

CF: How does 365 IT Solutions differentiate itself from other MSPs in Canada?

RS: 365 IT Solutions has been able to differentiate itself as an IT consulting market leader from other Toronto managed service providers. We operate as an IT department and not an IT outsourcing firm. We understand our clients’ business goals and we align technology with them as well as their budgets.

We offer organizations a complementary network and security assessment. In addition, we have discovery meetings with potential clients to learn about past IT issues, IT behaviour in their organizations as well as the five-year business plan. We then put everything into one simple proposal covering the next five-year plan for their organization. This makes IT budgeting easy and no surprise costs along the way.

By building longstanding partnerships with industry leaders, we provide our clients the latest technology to limit their cyber security exposure. Not only are we proactively managing our networks, we are also consistently looking at human behaviour, automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to protect them from the ever-increasing cyber threats and data breaches.

365 IT Solutions has built a solid reputation in the market for knowledge, reliability and service.

CF: Any big event define what 365 IT Solutions is today? Did you execute a successful pivot? Build a business during the Great Recession? Weather a natural disaster? 

RS: Since our inception in 2003, 365 IT Solutions started off in the Toronto market by the name Computer Source.

The name was fitting as we were a small, local IT shop selling hardware and software to local businesses. As the market changed, we were aware of the shrinking margins as well as lower demand for hardware and software only. We slowly moved into break-fix IT support services, but once again, it was difficult to maintain a steady cash flow as well as attract top talent in the industry.

In 2014, we came up with a plan to convert the entire organization into a managed IT services provider in Toronto. There was a significant investment into the organization, including enterprise-class, industry-leading professional services automation (PSA) and remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools. We also invested in the top talent in the industry, including technical staff and sales professionals. We changed our name to 365 IT Solutions to match our corporate identity and went to market.

Our goal was simple: We were to create strategic industry partnerships and leverage our client base for bargaining power. We would also create simple monthly managed IT service plans and proposals that were business-driven, not technical.

From this, we have been able to maintain 365 IT Solutions in a hypergrowth mode continuously without our clients noticing our tremendous growth.