The managed services business is in its infancy, but iTMethods started from scratch to specifically target this space – and build an enterprise-class model that even a small business can use.
Toronto-based ITMethods takes a new approach in providing managed infrastructure and communications services by acquiring and managing telecom, unified communications, data centre and managed services. This means it’s not restricted to providing solutions over its own assets, but uses the assets of multiple carriers and providers as a virtual infrastructure operator (VIO).
What also separates it from the pack is an 85 per cent CEO level of engagement within its customer base.
“If we don’t see that level of alignment between the IT manager and the business, where we’re not directly dealing with the C levels, then we know that we’re wasting our time,” said Paul Goldman, president and CEO of iTMethods, who started the firm in 2005. “That’s going to turn some people off.” But this approach, he added, is about offering something different.
Invest and return
Because of today’s Web technologies, SMBs have the same fundamental requirements as the big guys, he said. “But they don’t have the people, they don’t have the capital, although they will invest if they see a return, and most of their attempts to execute technology have all failed, whether it’s hiring of internal resources or hiring external resources.”
Telcos and large service providers are not well adapted to provide solutions to SMB, he said, while the smaller players who’ve been servicing that space are coming at it from predominately a reactive, product perspective – and the breadth of their offerings may not be as mature as what customers are really looking for.
Goldman figured there had to be a better way to make this work. “What I was looking for was a recurring revenue model, a very sticky type of service offering, and ultimately the ability to be able to scale by adding fewer resources as you turn on more customers,” he said. “That’s really the foundation of iTMethods.” As the solution provider enters its fourth year, that mindset hasn’t changed.
Goldman also views “small” as mission-critical. Many of iTMethod’s customers are using technology as part of their core product and generating revenue from hosted services.
“That means to service that requirement you have to have strong network skills, data centre skills, wide area network services skills, and all the operational capability to do 24-by-seven managed services and support,” he said.
The company takes a three-step approach: engaging a customer and assessing where they currently are, making a set of recommendations based on best practices (so the environment is predictable), and then providing ongoing optimization services.
“We’ve gone out and built an infrastructure of our own that makes us look like a carrier, so we have relationships with most of the tier-one carriers in Canada and many of them in the U.S.,” said Goldman. The solution provider will provision circuits and build an IP architectural plan that aligns to the customer’s business, so every decision the business makes over time aligns to that plan.
“It’s true enterprise-class but brought down to commercial or SMB customers in an affordable, predictable offering,” he said. “All the things we do today are built so they’re repeatable, scaleable, extensible to our customers.”
Many of its customers will require future capabilities such as in-house ticketing or help desk systems, and the solution provider will be in a position to extend those capabilities to customers down the road.
