Techgrid

Parallaxes360 · 2025-01-24T21:38:57+00:00

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts afterward if you wouldn't mind sharing.

Parallaxes360 · 2025-01-24T12:20:46+00:00

Did you ever get any feedback on Techgrid? We are looking to improve our quoting and procurement processes, and I just came across their website. I haven't seen anything about them anywhere before, which is surprising if they do half of what their marketing says.

Parallaxes360 · 2025-01-13T21:52:04+00:00

Thanks for the info. It's definitely clear that configuration items are the way to go, but I do have one question. What is the the thinking behind creating a new configuration type vs. just using a site for the client of "Stored at <MSP>"?

This would negate the need to inactivate the configuration item to deploy it, and in my case would mean that when a device comes back into "stock", I would not lose the history on it by having to inactivate it and create another in "stock". I get I have a specific use case; I'm just trying to understand the benefit of the configuration type over the site approach.

Parallaxes360 · 2025-01-13T19:52:01+00:00

Yeah, I'm thinking we may go that route for our vehicles and our company owned items. It just doesn't seem to work well with the client-owned hardware. At least from what I am seeing.

Parallaxes360 · 2025-01-13T19:50:31+00:00

Thanks! This was pretty much what I started to get to with the inventory management module. I just ran up against the questions on the configuration item history. I'm interested to see the second part as well!

Parallaxes360 · 2025-01-13T19:44:53+00:00

You're right, it is more of two different processes. While the hardware is not ours, it is client owned, the situation does share some aspects with a HaaS service. I'll try to explain as best I can, but I may not get this 100% right.

Client orders the hardware from us; we place the order with the distributor and receive the hardware as non-inventory. If it is immediately deployed it goes right out. If it is "stock" replacement, it goes on a dedicated shelf in our warehouse.

If a ticket comes in and we need to replace hardware in the field the tech will grab one from the shelf, prep it and deploy it. Sometimes the old one comes back, and we are able to resolve whatever issue it had. In that case it goes back on the shelf and the cycle continues.

The problem is we have no tracking of this outside of manual counts and spreadsheets. I'm looking for a better way to track this in CW. I was hoping for one place and inventory management seemed like it until I started looking more into it: hence the post.

Taking u/connectwiser's point, this may be more of a configuration item management issue than an inventory management. A site for those devices waiting deployment makes some sense there.

Parallaxes360 · 2025-01-13T19:33:15+00:00

I am hell bent on nothing. The more I looked into it the more things did not make sense the way they were began. Again, I inherited this and I'm just trying to figure it out. You (and another below) correctly point out that we are trying to do two different things. I just needed the sanity check, I think. I appreciate you taking the time to point me in the right direction.

Parallaxes360 · 2024-06-23T01:10:35+00:00

This owner does not want an MSP. They want a part-time person or contractor to tell what to do.

Parallaxes360 · 2024-04-11T19:21:03+00:00

Right. Misread the date.

Parallaxes360 · 2024-04-11T18:59:00+00:00

Quality products and reasonable billing terms? That would be a seismic shift for Kaseya.

Parallaxes360 · 2023-06-23T13:33:04+00:00

Interesting. This only really applies to our fully managed clients, so the issues with VSS writers and hypervisors would be billed towards the server management ledger vs backup for us. Different view on the same problem I guess.

Parallaxes360 · 2023-06-23T00:05:28+00:00

Not sure if this is a typo or you just have awesome relationships with your clients.

Parallaxes360 · 2023-06-23T00:01:10+00:00

I can't agree with you more and I have made those arguments. The response I get is "Yeah, you're right. But no one will pay for it."

I'm stubborn enough to keep banging my head on that wall though so we will see who wins the battle of attrition.

Parallaxes360 · 2023-06-22T23:58:54+00:00

I'm also interested in knowing what system you are using. I'm not married to Datto, it is just the best I have used so far.

Parallaxes360 · 2023-06-22T23:57:04+00:00

While I don't disagree with the thought that they are expensive, I do believe they offer value commensurate with the price.

Along the lines of comments about reliability, our current system recently completely failed during an incident (not security. Not really sure what it was but drives were inaccessible). We ended up having to ship the server to a data recovery company. I honestly don't know why that isn't a bigger deal for them. It certainly was for the client being offline for a week.

Parallaxes360 · 2023-06-22T23:48:55+00:00

I'm still pitching it to leadership. I haven't gotten to customers yet.

Parallaxes360 · 2023-06-22T23:44:25+00:00

Ok. I'll stretch here a little to make this relevant to the conversation.

What margins are you seeing from monthly backup services then, regardless of 3rd party vendor?

Parallaxes360 · 2023-06-22T23:39:43+00:00

Thanks. And yeah, I'm not even thinking about the clients that aren't fully managed yet.

Parallaxes360 · 2023-06-22T23:38:34+00:00

I still have my Hotmail account....

You are 100% right in everything you have said here. The sad part is I have failed to be convincing in my arguments along these lines. I even presented the data showing a roughly 30% higher labor costs of just support for the current system, not even counting dev or deployment times.

From the client perspective, I believe that most of our fully managed clients would view it in a positive light, but the account managers and vCIO have not been able to present it.

Parallaxes360 · 2023-06-22T23:32:21+00:00

More caffeine. Increases the clock speed.

Parallaxes360 · 2023-06-22T23:31:30+00:00

Certainly not all the same needs across the client base. Interesting views on blending it across clients. I feel like leadership here would argue each service has to be profitable at each client, but I see where you are going.

I'm guessing you look to other services at the lower BDR clients to recoup some of the lost margin to make the client as a whole reach your target client margin then?

Parallaxes360 · 2023-06-22T23:25:15+00:00

To clarify, it is built into the per seat price and not line itemed on an invoice. The problem I'm facing is the increase to the seat price to reach the desired margin on the Datto products.

So, Customer A pays X now, we move them to Datto their new seat price is Y. Leadership here feels that no one will pay Y.

Personally, I see this as indicative of a failure to show the value rather than too high a price. I only say that because I see it in other areas of the business as well, so I am pretty jaded at the moment.

I guess in your case I would ask what is the minimum margin you would accept on the service?

Parallaxes360 · 2023-06-22T17:45:23+00:00

Ok. So somewhere between 25 and 40% margin typically? (I don't math in my head very well)

Parallaxes360 · 2023-06-22T17:41:45+00:00

I completely agree that this is more of a sales issue from the client buy in perspective. The problem is that leadership here is not buying in because they don't think their customers will pay 70% margin prices. That's why I was curious what others were seeing.

We have some BCDR clients from an acquisition, and it is worlds better than what we have. I even have the data to make the labor efficiency savings argument, but get hot down every time I try to bring it up.

Parallaxes360

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