MSP Sector Specialist Startup
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@Carnival-Boy Using anecdotal experience, there is often an area of divide between office and factory/shop floor support. An office PC goes down and there are clearly defined SLAs, processes and procedures to cover it. This is less well defined on kit/systems on the shop floor. Due to the individual nature of manufacturer environments there is less one size fits all process diagrams to lay on top of the infrastructure, and what could be seen to be a minor issue to an IT tech could be costing the customer big money. If not identified early, then the delay is money down the drain for your customer, however if these are already defined by detailed analysis of your customer's setup and real-world impact on a number of scenarios across the business, priorities can be determined by the customer rather than by IT. This seems obvious, but simply due to the lack of experience outside from the office environment I think some MSPs struggle (I'm not by any stretch saying this is across the board).
At the end of the day, the name of the game is avoiding under the gun learning curves, by already planning DR type strategies as is already the norm with everyday IT infrastructure. Due to the many thousands of systems/vendors involved manufacturing, a lot of the time this will be simply vendor relationship and escalation management. Again, it's obvious, but is mis-managed frequently (I have found).
@scottalanmiller Initially not but something I would look at down the line if applicable. Depending on the industry I would assume (naughty) there is a spectrum of specific software designed with a type of manufacturer with their different requirement in mind eg food vs parts vs complete products etc. In this instance I wouldn't want to box myself in, but it's not something I have enough exposure to make a decision on yet. -
Don't necessarily have to box yourself in, but can be aligned with a major player or two that focus on your market.
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I think @NetworkNerd has some insight into manufacturing ERP systems here in the US.
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Very true and good advice @scottalanmiller , thanks
@Reid-Cooper thanks for the prompt. Lets see if @networknerd has any info to share! -
@Robin5170 said:
Very true and good advice @scottalanmiller , thanks
@Reid-Cooper thanks for the prompt. Lets see if @networknerd has any info to share!It seems I have been summoned. I certainly cannot turn that one down. I can tell you where we work the ERP system is what drives us. If it goes down we cannot ship parts, do financial transactions, etc. We use Epicor and have been for years. I am pretty excited about seeing the upgrade from 9 to 10 through to its finish later this year as there will be many new features to utilize and lots of performance boosts integrated just by the fact that everything is .NET.
I'll agree with you about the prioritization in Manufacturing. Production is king because they make the money. If we cannot make parts and transact with the ERP system, we are in some trouble. That is money out the door. We are big on the Theory of Constraints where I work, and every couple of weeks they let us know what area is the constraint. That way we know if they have an IT issue out there that is halting production in some way, we stop and take care of it (treated as almost code red / server down). You could almost say some of the kiosks in the shop are like servers - they go down and all of the sudden we cannot ship product. So yes, it is very important to have a DR plan for these areas or a spare station out there people can use to make it less of an emergency / keeping a spare machine that is setup and ready to go if computer X fails. We specifically keep at least 1-2 spare refurb desktops and laptops to make sure we have something to work with in a pinch to get things moving.
I have also found that some of the software you will find in Manufacturing companies is so niche and custom it can be very difficult to resinstall somewhere else. I have been asking that any new Engineering software be put on a VM and not a physical box to help minimize the DR impact if a computer out in the shops dies.
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@Robin5170 said:
@Minion-Queen said:
Actually most people go there and are surprised at all we do as they were heading there looking for one thing. So it is helpful just not our main draw of customers.
What would you say is your main draw of customers? Word of mouth? Or through the forums? It sounds like you get (or used to) a lot of work through building relationships on SW which I enjoy frequenting.
It's really a combination of both the relationships my team has built and word of mouth from happy clients, friends on the communities we are part of. They usually go to our site looking for one area of service and find we can do so much more. The website might not be where the draw comes from but it is a VERY important part of our marketing.
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@Robin5170 technical social media is definitely the biggest draw. As a meta MSP who provide services to other IT firms as well this works out better for us than for most MSPs.
Word of mouth does the least. SMBs don't help each other and definitely do not discuss their IT providers.
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@scottalanmiller Forgive my ignorance - Meta MSP?
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MetaMSP ='s we are the MSP to other MSP's because we are a large shop we are able to offer a very wide range of services and experiences so we are one stop for everything. Most MSP's can handle certain areas but not everything. Our tag line is: Every Business. Every Technology. Everywhere.
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Thanks @Minion-Queen . No doubt you'll be getting a call from little old me when this gets going! Lots of good info here.
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You are welcome. We try to be a support system to smaller shops everywhere. It has been our unique area of service to the IT community as a whole.
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@scottalanmiller said:
SMBs don't help each other and definitely do not discuss their IT providers.
This is so true in a lot of shops. you have to deal with this mentality.
Edit to add link: http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/545203-how-to-write-a-project-proposal
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Why isn't The Creative One here? Seems like he's fit in.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Word of mouth does the least. SMBs don't help each other and definitely do not discuss their IT providers.
I guess it depends on the SMB but we do. We actually have monthly regional IT meetings with other governmental agencies to share ideas, trends, latest security issues. etc. Granted this is government not your standard SMB. I haven't worked too much in the private sector recently, and Racksace who is near us actually host them for both other companies and the public. at lot of Highschool kids go to rackspace to learn how to program robots with Arduino boards.
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Odd that you find your SMB customers take that stance. Anecdotally, I have found small business owners more often than not like to pass around information on good suppliers/service providers. I would guess the line would be drawn at sharing information between competitors, so perhaps having a lot of customers in a similar field is the reason for your experience.
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I like to ask around for help and advice wherever I can get it. I generally try and only select IT suppliers based on personal recommendations. But I have found that other IT people can be a bit cagey and unwilling to discuss their businesses. I suspect this is a fear of looking silly, like @scottalanmiller calling me weird for buying Meraki, or @JaredBusch telling me I sound like a media person not IT, or just shyness. But I have no qualms about looking silly these days.
I know a few one man band IT managers that don't go on any forums or go to seminars or really talk to any of their peers in the industry - they appear to operate in a vacuum. I couldn't imagine working like that.
We used to run a user group for our ERP system, and it was a game just getting people to turn up. A forum was setup and hardly anyone would use it. People seem to prefer to figure things out for themselves, rather than asking the advice of someone who has been through it all before. Madness.
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Similarly it seems daft to me the mentality some people take to do everything themselves rather than relying on the experience of others. Since putting word out a week or two ago about my venture I've secured PAYG contracts with 2 businesses, both through word of mouth.
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@Robin5170 said:
Similarly it seems daft to me the mentality some people take to do everything themselves rather than relying on the experience of others. Since putting word out a week or two ago about my venture I've secured PAYG contracts with 2 businesses, both through word of mouth.
Awesome. We find that it is hard to find SMBs that are willing to pay for proactive support. So tons of them have no IT but are unwilling to discuss having any and any that do already have MSPs that they are working with. So acquiring new customers is often a long road of waiting for the first group to have something go wrong and hopefully they remember us or the second group getting upset with their MSP and looking to switch or needing something that they don't provide.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Awesome. We find that it is hard to find SMBs that are willing to pay for proactive support. So tons of them have no IT but are unwilling to discuss having any and any that do already have MSPs that they are working with. So acquiring new customers is often a long road of waiting for the first group to have something go wrong and hopefully they remember us or the second group getting upset with their MSP and looking to switch or needing something that they don't provide.
I've ran into this attitude when I've been interviewing for some private sector jobs, public sector isn't like that. but, I will ask them what the current state of their network is, Average age of equipment, Guesstimate of OS version etc.. They usually Say no, you'll have to work here to find out. I politely decline the jobs, thinking their networks are probably in bad shape.
