When’s the last time you thought about anti-spam?
“Wow Stuart,” you might say. “Who cares? What a basic service.” Well, you are right that anti-spam is a basic service, but that’s exactly why you should care about it. It’s a key part of IT security, and security is what you should be talking about with your clients. Why? Because it’s what they’re talking about.
Have you looked at business or tech news lately? It’s full of stories about companies suffering from data breaches or hacking attacks. And while most of the stories are about big-name corporations, smaller businesses (your potential clients) are waking up to the fact that they too are at risk. They know they need security for their technology.
Anti-spam is how you start off a conversation about security.
Bill White of Roaring Penguin knows how valuable anti-spam can be for a managed service provider (MSP). That’s why Roaring Penguin specializes in providing its services specifically for MSPs.
“Medium and small businesses are great targets for anti-spam; in many ways, they need it the most,” said Bill. “It’s hard for us to sell directly to SMBs, but that’s where MSPs excel. They’re a really great channel to reach out to the SMB, so we focus on things that make life better and easier for an MSP.”
- Simplified cloud-based anti-spam that takes up less of your time to manage and is easy to integrate with other security systems.
- Outbound spam filtering in addition to inbound, so you can stop your clients from accidentally spreading spam around and damaging their reputation (and your own!).
- Automated quarantines that make it easy for your clients to check their filters for legit emails on their own, freeing up your time (which is the name of the game when it comes to the MSP business).
- SRS (Sender Rewriting Scheme) compatibility allowing complete integration with cloud-based services like Office 365 and Google Apps.
- Easy re-branding that lets you market the service to your clients as your own.
But moreover, Bill knows that talking about anti-spam with your clients makes smart business sense. Not only could you potentially be leaving money on the table by not packaging a simplified cloud-based anti-spam solution with your other managed services, but you should be using anti-spam to talk about security with your prospective clients.
“It’s all part of a global security package,” as Bill says. “Anti-spam is like putting a lock on your front door. All the other security services are the fancy parts of a security system, but the anti-spam is the lock. Before anything else, you lock your door.”
Remember, a lot of MSPs end up inheriting a network to manage when they bring on new clients. Unless you gut the entire thing (and who has time for that?), you don’t know what kind of little backdoor dumb ideas someone else left on that server. You’ve got to take advantage of the best services you can in order to lock that down so you don’t have to spend all your time fixing problems for your clients.
Take the time to re-examine the anti-spam solution you’re currently providing your clients. Is it giving you a good return on your investment? How much are you currently paying to manage it for your clients? How much work do you put into maintenance for an additional device if you’re not already moved into the cloud. How easy is it for you to integrate into your other security offerings?
Figure out the answers and make sure you like what they say about your business. Even a basic service like anti-spam could be what makes or breaks a relationship with your clients.