Building a Successful Cloud Strategy

Transcription

1 Building a Successful Cloud Strategy April 28, 2015 CompTIA Canadian IT Business Community Meeting Mathieu Leblanc Director, Partner Network

2 Born in the cloud in % dedicated to hosted solutions More than 4,000 partners worldwide 25,000 organizations in over 100 countries 200+ staff including many MS-certified staff First provider to launch Exchange 2013 worldwide Microsoft World Hosting Partner of the Year 2013 (Winner) and 2014 (Finalist) One-stop shop cloud services provider AICP AS e ts por Re ol anization C Org on tr ice rv S E R V I C E O R G A N I Z AT I O N S SOC s rt Fo rm aicpa.org/soc o erl p y SAS 70 Re

3 SOC-2 Type II certified 99,999% high-availability financially backed SLA Fully redundant architecture Infrastructure 5 x Tier 3+ datacenters (NA based) DR site + recovery procedures Four independent security layers Backup policies included (all services) Market-leading vendors

4 Cloud Adoption Today Choosing the Right Cloud Agenda Our Partners Best Practices Rewarding Your Sales Force Vision of Success

5 Cloud Opportunity is Growing Fast

6 - Cloud moved from game changer to essential ingredient - 90% of US firms claim some sort of cloud solution, 60% claim it s a third of their environment - Cloud adoption of mid-sized companies is the strongest - 41% of channel firms cite cloud as a promoter for new directions requiring business transformation Source: CompTIA 2015 Annual Cloud Trends Report Client adoption growing faster than channel adoption means direct client-vendor relations Cloud Adoption Today

7 Building the right cloud practice: Choosing the right cloud model Choosing the right vendor Define your offering, marketing strategy and objectives Define your billing model and mechanisms Hire new / Train current sales force Devise your sales compensation plan Define your Cloud support, migration & management processes Your Roadmap to Success

8 Build your own Cloud High Investment: 2-3 years high-risk ROI Aggressive Competition Great Profits / Great Risks White-label your offering Build your brand + Become a trusted partner Your offering / pricing / support High Profit / Saved Resources / Own your customer relations Sell a Known Brand Sell your value Possible cost compete Profitable / Save Resources High Value Added = High Profit Become an Advisor / Referrer One time + Recurring commissions Thinner margins / Lowest investment Marketing Plan: High Volume MRR Best Practices: Choosing the Right Cloud Model

9 Reliability & Security: Services: White-label, Advisor and Branded Model / IaaS, PaaS, SaaS one-stop shop / O365 CSP Tier II / 3rd Party Benchmarks Central Management / Monthly Consumption / No Cancelation & Hidden costs / Demo Support: Externally audited certifications (ex: ISO 27001, CSAE3416, PCI-DSS, SOC, Trustmark) Financially backed % SLA (5 min/year) DC: Tier Classification / DC Location / Multiple Internet Links & Power Paths + UPS Generators / N+2 Crisscrossed SAN Fabrics Infrastructure: No Single point of failure / Incident process and documentation / Compensation for SLA breaches / Notification model NP Score / Location / 24x7x365 / Direct Level 2+ Access? / Guaranteed Migration? Partner Program: # of Partners / Dedicated BDM? / Channel Centric / Clear Margins + Discounts / MDF / Onboarding time: Sales, Marketing and Technical Collaterals / Sales and Technical Trainings Best Practices: The Right Cloud Vendor

10 Best practices for building a successful Cloud Practice 6 market-proven tactics from the world s most successful managed service providers Focus on what you do best Start with products that fit your current business Meet customers needs Become irreplaceable Differentiate your services Partner with the right vendors Top managed services provider Source: MSP Mentor Top 501 MSPs 2015 Best Practices: Define your offering

11 Important points to consider: 1. Compensate Revenue or Gross Profit? 2. Frequency of commissions? One-time large commission: Pros: Motivating & reps are familiar with it Cons: Might reduce incentive to remain engaged throughout the life of the contract Split commissions monthly/quarterly/annually Pros: Ensures sales engagement Cons: Might not be as motivating, especially for new reps 3. Reward reps for renewing contracts? 4. Find a one-size-fits-all plan or build multiple plans? Best Practices: Building the Right Compensation Plan

12 Ex: Sales Rep Salary $100K: $50K Commission + $50K base Replace Price by MRR / QRR / ARR and you re done! $1,000 MRR Average deal commission: Sales Quota = 5 (deals) x 12 (Months) x $1,000 MRR = $60K MRR Sales Commission Percentage = $50K $60K = 83.33% Compensation / Deal: 83.33% x $1000= $ $12,000 ARR Average deal commission: Sales Quota = 5 x 12 x $12,000 ARR=$720K ARR Commission Percentage = $50K $720K ARR = 6.944% Compensation / Deal: 6.94% x $12,000 ARR = $ Important: Must use the same recurring revenue time frame throughout all compensation plans Example: An Easy Sales Compensation Plan

13 Points to consider: MRR revenue comes over an extended period of time (the customer lifetime) and then profit will increase considerably Fast Churn = Business probably loses money Existing Customers are Key Sources for Growth Successful Cloud Providers: Lifetime Value > 3x Cost to Acquire Recover CAC < 12 Months Always calculate NP Score Keep satisfaction high and churn down * 2014 Pacific Crest SaaS Survey Best Practices: Define your marketing strategy and objectives

14 Marketing Efficiency Target a sub segment that you will win Geo Area / Vertical / Customer Profile Create online visibility Responsive Website / Content / PPC / SEO / Social Media / Blogs / Website / (Automated Campaigns) Follow-up Process Lead / Opp / Win / Enable / Activate Automate marketing engines: Just like you automate Monitoring and Management Avoid the unknown: Standardize target audience as you standardize IT configurations Be proactive: As you are with patches and updates Best Practices: Define your marketing strategy and objectives

15 Reasons customers change providers (57%) Better Offerings: 44% Be a one-stop shop, flexible, up-to-date Security Concerns: 32% Know your certificates, SLAs, DC Location, Compliance Cost: 31% Value / Price: Become irreplaceable, not cheap Reasons customers migrate data back on-premises: Security Concerns: 60% Know your Certificates, SLAs, DC Location, Compliance Failure to Integrate: 27% Partner with a vendor that provides easy-to-integrate offerings Failure to achieve cost goals: 21% Build the right solution for your customer Annual CompTIA Report Best Practices: Avoid Secondary Migrations

16 Important to Remember Become your customers` trusted IT advisor Discuss Business outcomes, not just transactions Cloud Benefits Year after year Create new revenue stream (consultation, deployment, management) Re-occurring cash flow versus one-off transactions Predictable and consistent run rate of revenue Increased margins via efficiency Increased customer satisfaction, retention, stickiness and loyalty Best Practices: Vision of Success

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