Las Vegas – Ingram Micro is hosting hundreds of solution providers this week for the first time under the SMB Alliance banner. CDN asked four Canadian-based solution providers what a typical SMB customer looks like.
David Chow, president of Stoneworks Technologies of Ottawa, Rene Sloos, principal consultant for Bulletproof InfoTech, Kevin Gauci of Optimus Tech Solutions of Toronto, and Ian Clark, president of 3 Peaks of Burlington, Ont. Participated in the mini survey and the overwhelming characteristics of an SMB customers is that they are not interested in running their own IT shop.
This may be the biggest opportunity for solution providers in Canada with well over a million small businesses in Canada, according to StatsCan. Clark said that SMBs are no longer interested in buying hardware or software and would rather buy you – the solution provider. Clark said that the majority of small customers what solution providers to take over the responsibility of running the IT department so they can concentrate on their business.
“The experience I have is that SMBs are looking for a full solution and want the high end component of IT, server work, and the OS to be maintained by the solution provider,” Clark said.
He added that one of 3Peaks customers a high end touring bike manufacturer replaced all of its hardware and went with a hosted solution because it provided better flexibility.
Sloos agreed saying that you have to be a one-stop shop for clients. That’s what Bulletproof is for its sweet spot of 15 to 55 person customers. SMB customers also want fixed-fee costs no matter if it’s on-premise and in the cloud.
Price has become a factor for SMBs; but in a good way for solution providers.
Both Clark and Gauci told CDN during this panel discussion that price per month managed services has made selling at a lot easier. For example, a license for Microsoft CRM is $1,300 or a company can spend $40 a month for the same thing.
And, the real small customers can still spend about $500 per month. IT helps both the customer and the solution provider budget their business.
“They don’t get scared of large bills anymore. If you get a crumpled up database…well that’s your problem. In a managed service its $800 a month or a $5,000 bill,” Clark said.
SMBs may provide solution providers with big opportunities; but those opportunities will not come without risk.
Gauci told CDN that when you are dealing with small customers you have to invest in them if you want to be successful. He added that Optimus Tech Solutions created a business model for small customers or start-ups that plan out three-year journeys.
“When we invest in a business we expect them to grow. We have been around for four and half years and we are growing with them. Someone who is a two-user shop and now are a 45-person ship and that is the model,” Gauci said.
Optimus brings in small customers for network assessments, which Gauci said are top down business reviews with business owners. “We ask them what they are doing and when they are going to get to where they want to be as a business,” he added.
With that Optimus builds three-year plans for these small clients. “What it does is it makes them sit up and think how big their investment really is. It also helps us with our costs and profit milestones,” he said.
According to Chow, SMBs lack a certain depth of knowledge when it comes to connected devices. This leads to security risks and a big opportunity for solution providers such as Stoneworks. Chow recommends a disciplined approach similar to what large enterprises do. Customers are currently slow to adopt this approach in Canada because there haven’t been any real high profile attacks coming out of Canada. But Chow warns that China is producing some serious attacks breaking through RSA level 2 authentications. “You need to set up policies,” that is Chow’s advice for solution providers who service the SMB.
