The Dire Consequences of ‘Simple’ MSP Migrations

Jan 22, 2019

Video Above: Jim Koch, President & CEO at Erb's Technology Solutions (ETS) shares his experience partnering with Collabrance and migrating his end-user customers to their Help Desk.

Simplifying the Migration Process for MSPs and Their End-User Customers

Migrating Your Wireless Phone

“Still on a contract? We’ll pay it off! Early termination fees? No problem! Want to keep your number? We got you!” Too good to be true? One way to find out…

The mobile carrier services industry is HOT and super competitive. So much that it’s become common practice to specifically name your competitors and all their perceived flaws. I mean why not? Knock the competition then hit your audience with a very lucrative offer… “You’re going to pay me $650 to switch providers AND give me a new device?? Sounds easy. I’M IN!”

Unfortunately, anything related to technology is unlikely to involve the word “easy.” And that is why the internet is flushed with horror stories highlighting the endless mishaps and uh-oh’s! After digging into several independent posts (along with a quite lengthy but humorous MSP Reddit thread), there appeared to be a common theme I’ve kindly placed into two buckets: lack of information and improper expectations. And as a result of migrating your phone to another carrier, you can experience:

• Loss of contacts – “New phone, who is this?”
• Loss of applications – “If I lose my progress in Candy Crush so help me…”
• Loss of photos – (I’ll let this one speak for itself!)

I’m not surprised. Been through it myself a few times. My solution – personally? Sold my soul to Apple and am now 100% at the mercy of my iCloud account. If I want to switch mobile carriers in the future, I’ve now got a check list, and the lucky wireless rep will most certainly need to cover it!

My FAQ’s are your FAQ’s; and your FAQ’s are my FAQ’s. I want to know my options. I want to understand the process. And I want a real cost estimate that accommodates for events not going 100% according to plan; because rarely they ever do.

Migrating Managed Services

Whether you’re migrating to a new wireless provider or to a new NOC/HelpDesk… the concept is rather similar and in fact, the managed services industry isn’t all that different. It’s more complex on the managed services side no doubt, but similar nonetheless. For that reason, it’s critically important we’re asking the same kinds of questions, gathering the necessary “information” and doing our due diligence prior to proceeding with any migration, while also being mindful that we’re not over committing or “setting the wrong expectations.”

I regularly engage with decisions makers of large and small MSP’s and discuss migrating their customer base over to Collabrance, a Master MSP. While we’ve got plenty of MSP migration case studies that share the ‘wins,’ I thought it’d be appropriate to also discuss the “L’s”. More importantly, the challenges perceived by MSPs who ultimately took their customer base in another direction (competitor), kept them where they’re at (status quo) or worst of all three – sales limbo…

• Already Have the Resources – You already “built it yourself.” You’ve hired a team that has gotten you this far. The thought of replacing them isn’t favorable and comes with a handful of challenges. What we look to explore here the most is – “What could your resources be working on if it’s not the basic day-to-day tasks an outsourced NOC/Helpdesk would handle?” The answer – higher revenue generating project work.
• Tech Stack Disagreement – If the IT gear you’re working with is incredibly incompatible with what we’ve standardized on and the name on the box is important to you and your team… tough one to overcome. Vague for sure but if the tools, systems, and infrastructure are drastically different – the reality is we need to place a cost on migration, and chances are this may not be the most viable option for you, us, or your customers.
• Stuck on Price – This is any easy one and quite objective IF we’re truly comparing apples to apples. If you’re willing to logically examine all aspects of the MSP offering, included services AND are able to quantify the value and level of care and support you’d receive… yet we’re still X percent more expensive… no hard feelings. Business is business and I wish you well.
• Other Bad Industry Experiences – You got burnt in the past, and it hurt real bad. The industry (specifically our competitors) haven’t done us any favors, and this is by far the number one reason MSPs struggle making a favorable choice for the future of their business. The trust is unfortunately gone. As a matter of fact, we could have price and tech stack locked down… but the haunting of prior migration attempts lingers and prevents progress.

So we ask ourselves, what’s at the root of this migration hesitation? Fear of the past or lack of clarity on the future? Or selfishly stated – if we agree the pricing and technology stack is favorable, the solution itself is going to create an even stronger customer experience, and the opportunity cost of not doing this most likely provides stagnant growth at best… what are we missing?

The answer – process. Take the Wild West out of these MSP migrations through meaningful documentation and processes we and our partners can religiously follow and enhance when applicable.

Our project team follows this mantra process – if it’s predictable, it’s repeatable.
If it’s repeatable, it can be profitable.

Collabrance MSP Migration Opportunities

Collabrance is very proud to offer two flavors of our migration process in which the MSP has the option to choose which is most suitable for their team and customer base. With 10 years of experience working with MSPs, we know what questions we need to be asking, the level of information required to do our job exceptionally well, and most importantly; the processes in place to deliver on our commitments and provide exceptional service experiences.

"The migration process was relatively easy. It isn't as big of a deal as you might think. Current customers who were migrated to Collabrance saw a significant improvement with the Help Desk!" - Jim Koch, President & CEO at ETS

If you recognize outsourcing your NOC/Helpdesk is a means of scaling your business in 2019 and would like to learn more about our MSP migration options please contact us today for additional information on how we can help.

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