Compuquip

Recently I attended a users group meeting in Atlanta for all of the Connectwise partners in the South East Region. Connectwise is Compuquip’s core software that helps us deliver our services to our clients. The beauty of this user group meeting was that I got a chance to share a room with over 60 other MSPs (managed service providers) in the region and have an open discussion.

As the main facilitator for the meeting, I had the opportunity to hear directly from the owners and service managers of these companies about what they are focusing on within their businesses. After thinking about it, there were two main themes we discussed; (a) providing transparency for the service we provide, (b) the client’s need to cut capital expenditure (cap ex) costs while still trying to drive more out of their technology.

Some thoughts about the transparency trend…

IT has always been the ‘black hole’ when it comes to an expense line item in an organization’s financials. Traditionally owners / managers don’t truly “understand IT” and it seems that every time they want to change something within their network, or if something breaks, they have to cut a big check.

However, it seems from my discussion with other MSPs, companies are starting to get smarter with their IT spending and I think that has to do with both (a) the economic climate forcing decision makers to spend wisely and (b) decision makers are getting smarter about IT with all the information out there. This was a source of pain for the MSPs but we encourage this trend to continue.

At Compuquip we have been pushing to provide more transparency to our clients to show them what’s inside the black hole for the past two years. With our Managed IT Services offering, clients get as much information as they want, although sometimes they say it’s too much.

We’ve even made transparency a strategic goal as we continue to grow because we know that it’s transparency that builds trust with our clients. And that trust is what facilitates a long term partnership. It’s okay if our clients know the good and the bad of what we do because we all benefit if we work together to continually improve our clients’ IT.

Stay tuned for more information about how Compuquip is providing more transparency and focusing on delivering a better service…