(Part 2) Best products from r/msp

I realized a few years into my business that:
-I was not able to grow the business because it seemed I was always dealing with emergencies.
-I was not able to fix things right first time because there was another emergency
-I was spending lots of my time doing entry-level tasks
-I was getting older and my marriage was suffering because I was doing 100% of everything in the business.
-I was not performing preventative maintenance because I was swamped with "real work" to do.

I was 40 - still crawling around under desks, still doing 100% of the work, on call 24/7, not able to go after better business and not expanding margin. I was EXACTLY what I swore I'd never become.

Here's what I did:

I started by documenting and defining several easy-to-replicate procedures - software installation/update, new PC setup, disk usage clearing, backup troubleshooting, You should have ticketing, admin, and billing systems that work reasonably well. It can help to track your time accurately in a PSA tool so you have some idea how much time these tasks take.

I hired a good, trustworthy local kid with interest but no experience in IT. Started him part time "we'll try this for 30 days and see if it's a good fit - either of us can walk away with no hard feelings if it's not working out" - on some CompTIA training videos and working through the documentation I had made up. At first he was doing a lot of software installs, new PC setup, and very basic troubleshooting. Kind of like a doctor/resident relationship, I would explain my process and talk through every step I was taking and why...and I'd ask him to talk through his through process when fixing issues and guide him to the way I'd do it.

I also grabbed many of Karl Palachuk's SOP guides as a foundation, and the Best IT Service Delivery Book Ever by Simpson for him to go through.

He picked it up very quickly, and started spending some time fixing our automation and integrations - making us both far more effective. He started working with our backup vendor on fixing backup alerts, then patch management, etc.

A couple years later, he's had a couple raises, we're looking at hiring another 1-2 techs this year and an office admin. Cash flow is better, I've been able to land bigger clients than I could as a Single Point of Failure consultant.
Took a vacation last year for the first time in forever. The business continued to operate.

It hasn't been painless, but it's been pretty smooth and a great opportunity for both of us - I get part of my life back, he now has a career doing work he enjoys, and I have time for some of the higher-level work, like security architecture discussions with our bigger clients, and determining our path for more security consulting work.

What would I do differently?
I would have started sooner. I would have hired this guy back when I was working with Continuum and taught him to manage our interactions with their NOC. I would have had more processes documented and emphasized his role in maintaining and expanding those docs.

I did try working with a couple outsourced helpdesks but my clients wanted me or someone directly under my supervision - the outsourced helpdesks had too many exceptions and limitations for us to go forward.

I highly recommend David Finkel's "Build a Business, Not a Job"
https://www.amazon.com/Build-Business-Not-David-Finkel/dp/1450709842

and Chris Ducker's "Virtual Freedom: How to Work with Virtual Staff to Buy More Time, Become More Productive, and Build Your Dream Business" - most of his concepts also work with an outsourced NOC, SOC, or helpdesk.
https://www.amazon.com/Virtual-Freedom-Become-Productive-Business/dp/1939529743/ref=sr_1_5_twi_pap_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519146561&sr=1-5&keywords=virtual+assistant

You could skip the asterisk solution, and use the grandstream PBX. The GUI is significantly cleaner (also with less features) but should be able to have voicemail, ring groups, call queues or "agents", custom dial rules, etc. It would save you a lot of money over a traditional phone system.

The PBX would run around 300-500$ depending on where and what you get, but amazon has one for 360$ here https://www.amazon.com/Grandstream-UCM6204-Innovative-PBX-Ports/dp/B01LZKCBD7/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1524428192&sr=1-1&keywords=grandstream+pbx

this pbx should be easy to setup (youtube videos are great on the subject) and the one price includes all features, and software updates are free as long as the device is still "supported".

As for your phone endpoints, grandstreams are cheap and work great. Their best phone IMO is around 100$ on amazon, and they have cheaper options as low as 50$ (on amazon)

grandstream GXP 2170 is pretty nice
https://www.amazon.com/Grandstream-GS-GXP2170-VoIP-Phone-Device/dp/B019X06IFS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524428063&sr=8-1&keywords=gxp2170

Or the 1625 (for the cheaper option) for 40$ https://www.amazon.com/Grandstream-GXP1625-Medium-Business-Device/dp/B00VNMWRFK/ref=pd_sim_229_7?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00VNMWRFK&pd_rd_r=EJ27CJTWYAPA4D2Z7HNE&pd_rd_w=YQDrV&pd_rd_wg=3Cr2u&psc=1&refRID=EJ27CJTWYAPA4D2Z7HNE

The above phones will work with any sip based phone solution

If you're looking for the "easy drop in and just works" solution, you could try ring central, or 8x8. But i think theyre crazy expensive for what they actually do.

It's not a per-employee tracked KPI, but we've had tremendous success implementing the Great Game of Business.

GGOB is basically open book management at its core, but extends to financial literacy training for all employees. Each employee is responsible for forecasting a line item on the P&L statement on a weekly basis. Employees receive a bonus equal to a percentage of their yearly salary based on the companies performance (which is determined by percentage of net income over plan).

That was a bit wordy, but basically.. If the companies planned net income for the year is $1 million, but it hits $1.1 million, then employees get a 10% bonus.

Since putting this in place, I don't think the company has ever been more profitable. The first time employees see the work they do and how that impacts the bottom line which directly impacts that bonus check... they get onboard real fast. Plus is tremendously helpful in planning from a management standpoint knowing what the cash flow is going to be at any given point.

Seriously though, I couldn't recommend Great Game of Business more after seeing how it's impacted us. If this sounds even a little interesting, you should give the book a read.

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Game-Business-Expanded-Updated-ebook/dp/B00B3GMH4W

Full disclosure.. I'm not an owner or in management, just an employee looking forward to getting a 20% bonus this year!

There used to be a company called TalkSwitch that did all of this and did it affordably, but then they sold out to Fortivoice/Fortinet and their products basically don't exist anymore, which leaves the SMB market in a bit of a bind. Sometimes you can find their stuff secondhand if you're willing to go that route, but at this point I bet those handsets and boxes are taking their last breaths.

About a year ago we took a chance on an X16 system for a small but busy dental office, hoping we wouldn't have to come up with a whole other solution a couple of weeks later. To our surprise it was easy to set up and has been working really well in that environment.

It has almost all the features you're looking for, with the possible exception of ring groups. I'd have to check with one of my guys and see if Xblue supports ring groups or not.

The one issue we ran into is that the system doesn't like having digits dialed too rapidly. You'll almost never actually encounter this, but there was one office person on site that, anytime there was a repeated digit in a phone number, like "4003", would double-tap the repeated digit. We set up a logging device between the Xblue system and their lines to the mpoe (Comcast in this case), and near as we could tell Xblue was doing everything right but the mpoe side hated it. We initially contacted Xblue support on this and found them to be friendly and wanting to help, but it wasn't something they had encountered before.

I've had to deal with Avaya in the past and I hate them with a fiery passion. Support was nonexistent unless you purchased the system from an approved vendor along with a support contract, and their entire setup was designed to be difficult and spiteful.

The Unifi cameras are decent, but the downside is that you are locked into their closed end system. If you wanted to add more cameras down the road, you'd have to use Ubiquiti cameras. (assuming you use their NVR or DVR software).

I put in a system for a client a few months ago. They wanted Pan tilt zoom for 2 of the cameras, so I found This one one made by Reolink, which worked out really well! The picture quality is fantastic and the price was very reasonable. I used a Hikvision bullet camera for behind the register as it didn't require PTZ functions.

They already had a VMware server, so I added 2 x 3TB drives in a RAID 1, created a Windows VM, then installed Milestone xprotect software (You can also look at Blue Iris). The whole setup works pretty well. Can view camera feeds via mobile app, or via website interface.

With a system like this, you can easily expand with any brand IP camera down the road, as opposed to being tied into one manufacturer.

Ah yes, the glamorous life of an on-site IT guy! Most times I stand or sit on the floor if I’m not going to be in the actual data room very long. I’ve always asked to borrow a spare chair if they had one around. Most clients kindly oblige and it works if there’s space. I’ve always wanted to try this stool out by never pulled the trigger.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FXVAYW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_x.7LBbXN397QQ

I generally improvise when onsite and don’t like to do “sit down work” in the actual data room if I can get away with it. Getting remote access is my first priority if a spare desk or unused conference room is available. But we can’t always get away with that. I’ve used everything from cardboard boxes as a computer stand and my backpack as a seat. The laptop padding in my bag is actually pretty comfy. I only did that once because I had to and of course removed anything that would break or stab me. That said I’d recommend a dedicated neck roll as a floor seat. Also, learning to use a track ball mouse has helped since I don’t need to find a surface to move a regular one all around when you need one and space is tight. I never leave home w/o a 50 foot Ethernet cable and extra long usb to serial cable either. Have fun and hey, let’s be careful out there.

Hello

James here.

Please feel free to reach out via our website chat, call or contact form and we will be happy to send you everything you need to research us including pricing and how it all works.

Benchmark 365 offers a month to month service with L1/2/3 support, dispatch and 24x7 services for MSPs. Our partners save between 50-70% of labor costs working with us and are able to provide their customers with consistent round the clock services.

You might be interested in this MSPs very recent and very thorough review of Benchmark 365’s service.

If you’re still considering whether offshoring is right for you I discuss options and ways to go about it in this new book: Infinite Scale

Cheers,

JV

I'm assuming you're asking so you can train your own staff to sell solutions to customers while out in the field...

I highly recommend this book (Spin Selling): https://www.amazon.com/SPIN-Selling-Situation-Implication-Need-Payoff-ebook/dp/B06XB35VCH/

Most IT staff have never sold before or are not naturally good at it…

Given that customers have different needs…. and the products offered are increasingly sophisticated and hard to explain to non-tech buyers… most sales conversations end up being all over the map and are not nearly as effective as they could be.

This is where the SPIN selling framework comes in...

• It eliminates the need to be "pushy" or "salesy", because it helps the person selling focus on the customer's needs and work backwards.
  
  
• It provides a simple conversation framework that they can follow over and over again.
  
  
• It helps them guide the customer into understanding why the benefit of a certain product/service would outweigh the costs involved.
  
  
  This book is not specific to MSPs, but it's the original selling foundation that hundreds of sales courses are based on, technical and otherwise..
  
  I personally make sure that everyone on my team has read it at least once.
  
  Hope you found this useful.
  
  Ralph

I use a T3 Innovation Net Prowler (approx $800). I've gone through several others including a Fluke Microscanner and this one is the best I've used. It probably doesn't compare to a $2000+ unit, but it's reliable, durable, and I love that it can do basic DHCP/Ping/PoE. It's very easy to see how it pays for itself after repeatedly saving an hour or two troubleshooting issues that would have taken way longer with a cheaper unit.

Beyond "one that pays on time and never calls," this isn't really something anyone can answer for you, because what's ideal for me isn't necessarily ideal for you, isn't necessarily ideal for the next guy. It's going to boil down to what vertical you want to work in, what kinds of budgets you want to work with, how many users you guys can handle, etc. I would recommend picking up The Pumpkin Plan (I got my first copy of it from my local library, so check there) and running through the exercises in that book. It will help you identify who you have now that's a great fit and how to use your existing relationship with them to hone your business to appeal to more people just like them.

> sforming from break-fix to monthly contracts. How do you price the monthly contracts, what do clients get? 2) I'd like to scale employee-wise. Meaning, I'd like to have a number of techs working along-side me. How do they get paid, as a salary?

I'm currently reading it, almost finished, like 30 pages only left but when I started reading it, I quickly bought also the The E-Myth (revisited edition) from Micheal Gerber. You should definitively read it too. I'm a tech on the break/fix model since the last 9 years and in the next months I will switch to a MSP model. Other quick recommandation if you need help/inspiration to create your service agreement, buy also the Service Agreements for SMB Consultants, from the same author of Managed Service in a month. Definitively worth the money and time to read it.

4K is around 25 mbps and I’m reading 8K is looking to be around 100 mbps. Obviously codecs and compression play a role and it depends if you’re trying to feed raw camera data over it or you’re processing it and transmitting as such. I would probably try and do SMF terminates to a switch with a few extra pairs of fiber so you have the medium run and then you can do 10 gbps and more on SMF when the time comes.

Otherwise CAT 6a running at 10 gbps with a 10 base t switch will probably do the trick, or if your run is short enough you could put in CAT 7 with the hopes/possibility of running it at 40 or 100 gbps if/when the technology is available to do it. Obviously I’m making a lot of assumptions but there are some more questions you should ask them to understand requirements and the above is just some general knowledge which may be useful to you.

Edit: HDMI 2.1 looks to be the best way to do it over one cable, otherwise you need 4x HDMI 2.0 ports and the associated cables and the right camera and TV to do it that way. Check out 10ft 8K HDMI 2.1 Ultra High Speed 48Gbps Cable Compatible with Apple TV Roku Netflix Playstation Xbox One X Samsung Sony LG https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S196T4Z/ and http://www.rightisbest.com/best-48gbps-hdmi-2-1-cables-of-2108-2019.html and https://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/hdmi_2_1/, maybe they can help you paint a more complete picture.

My wife bought me a IRIScan Pro 3 last year for Christmas and I love the thing.

You can setup multiple scan directories and I just send all of our stuff to a folder in dropbox that our accountant has access to.

It also has a cloud feature that works with apple/android devices in the event you need to scan something in the field.

Out of all the scanners I have used over the years I love this one the best so far.

IRIScan Pro 3 Cloud Portable Color Scanner https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DWPMD3C/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_OGpwxbZK7KBCE

F.

>Not overpriced Hardware Tokens.

Out dated information: Affordable, even inexpensive hardware tokens have been available for years:

• Yubikeys are between $20 to $60/each depending on the model.
  
• Duo D100's are only $20/each in packs of 10.
  
• And U2F keys can found for under $15/each: Thetis U2F security key
  
  For comparison Azure AD Premium is $72/yr, unless you already have E3 or E5. MFA is baseline security at this stage. Even with Azure AD, OP is still going to need hardware tokens to implement MFA for staff that are not willing to use the mobile devices and personal phone numbers...
  
  Seems to me like some SSPR solution, plus an MFA implementation with hardware tokens for the staff that don't want to use their phones will be the best set of solutions for the OP.

for a small wall mount and only needing pretty shallow depth, I use these, in various U sizes:
https://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-Enclosure-Switch-Depth-SRW6U/dp/B003K1NFY4/

Thanks! This kind of shelf?
https://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-Enclosure-Switch-Depth-SRW6U/dp/B003K1NFY4/