Florida MSP Posts 320% Profit Increase with SherWeb
Industry
IT Solutions Provider
When you have customers lining up to get their hands on Office 365, you want to be sure your cloud provider can deliver the goods. William Kinirons, a Florida-based MSP, found himself in this situation earlier this year. When his provider didn’t move fast enough, he made the switch to SherWeb. Eight months later, his company posted a profit increase of 320%.
”We had customers coming to us basically with fists of dollars wanting it,” he said, referring to the demand for Office 365. ”But we couldn’t directly offer it, so that started our search for a new partner.”
Mr. Kinirons is the president and founder of BMK Media, an IT Solutions Provider based in Coconut Creek, FL. The company, which has been in business since 2004, joined SherWeb’s Partners First program last March. Since then, its net profits have risen by more than $6,000. While this kind of profit may seem meager to some people, BMK is quick to point out that it’s a sizable amount for a small company.
“For us, the income increase is significant, said Mary Schuch, BMK’s Operations Manager. “Recurring income based on products with solid service and reliability creates stable revenue streams that help keep small businesses like us sustainable.“
Former Provider Resisted Change
Mr. Kinirons said BMK had been working with another cloud provider for a few years, but found its reseller program hard to deal with.
”Their provisioning process was very cumbersome. We couldn’t provision from the MSP side because we had to set up an account in the client’s name and kind of hand it over to them. The provider was also slow to take on new technology and they weren’t embracing solutions like Office 365 as quickly as we wanted.”
Mr. Kinirons said although BMK’s initial provider was able to offer his clients dedicated servers, they were essentially individual physical or virtual machines that weren’t designed for multi-tenant use and weren’t centrally manageable. He said the provider just wasn’t up to scratch with the new technology and he was relieved when he found someone else.
3 Reasons to Choose SherWeb
Mr. Kinirons said he researched several cloud providers, but kept coming back to SherWeb for three specific reasons
- Easy access to technical support
- Great migration services
- A strong partner program
”You’re very accessible. I was still researching new cloud partners and I called SherWeb at 6 or 7 at night. I ended up getting in touch directly with an engineer who answered some real technical questions for me. That was pretty impressive.“
Mr. Kinirons said once BMK signed up to Partners First they were given immediate access to a dedicated sales rep who responded to all their questions about pricing models and upcoming offers.
Migration Fit for a Rock Star
Mr. Kinirons also liked the way SherWeb’s migration team was able to transfer his clients to Office 365.
”Your migration team really made us look like a rock star. The clients are getting help from the best techs with literally zero downtime. We were able to hand it off to your team and know it was going to be done right every time.”
He noted that a number of his clients are still working with on-premises servers, but he plans to sell them on the cloud once their physical machines are ready for retirement.
Aside from a worry-free migration, Mr. Kinirons said many of his clients also reported cost savings by moving to SherWeb. For example, his clients now pay a lot less for mailbox storage.
”Going to Office 365 with SherWeb gives our clients 50GB of mailbox storage, so we were able to say to them, ‘not only are you going to save money because you’re not paying to have all these oversized mailboxes, but also you’re going to get all these extra features like compliance and archiving and ultimately you’ll come out ahead.’ When we put it to them like that, there’s zero resistance. It’s like, ‘how soon can you get it done?’ ”
A Strong Partner Relationship
SherWeb offers its resellers margins of up to 43%. However, Mr. Kinirons pointed out that that his company was more concerned with developing strong relationships with its customers and its cloud partner.
”We wanted the relationship between us and you and the relationship with our customers and ourselves. That was the priority. We didn’t really look at the margins until after the fact and now that we see them, it’s just an extra bonus.”
Mr. Kinirons is also confident that SherWeb’s partner program will help him grow his business.
”I’ve dealt with other providers, but I always felt it was up to me to dig deeper. It wasn’t like a warm embrace and ‘Hey, let’s be a team here.’ I had a much better experience with SherWeb and that’s what kept bringing me back. You guys have been really fantastic. It’s a real world of difference from where we come from with our previous provider.”
The Winning Formula
So what’s the winning formula for a successful cloud business? According to Kinirons, it’s finding a good cloud partner and making sure your customer will really benefit from the products you’re offering.
”Sure, you can make a commission on a sale, but if the customer isn’t getting the most out of the product or the service, they’ll eventually cancel that service. You have to understand your customer’s needs and use the reseller’s formula to revise those needs. Don’t let the reseller’s product drive your conversation.”
