Sometimes the first go-around with TruMethods doesn’t work out, but that’s okay — second time’s a charm.
“We got involved with TruMethods for the second time in January of 2017,” said Jamie Warmbir, co-owner and manager of IT services at Mavidea. “Our early attempt to adopt the principals and practices sputtered in 2014, primarily due to my hair and pants being on fire. Can you say reactive spiral of death?
I recently reached out to Warmbir to learn more about his Super Power, what Mavidea offers in addition to traditional IT services and how he keeps his clients happy.
A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.
How has being a TruMethods member helped your business?
We’ve made tremendous strides as an organization. We’ve stabilized the service desk and reduced reactive staff. We reassigned staff to proactive roles in Central Services and Alignment Management. We are measuring RHEM accurately (.51 currently) and are actively focused on reducing it. We are strategically positioned with our clients and producing higher rates of non-recurring revenue. IT services is generating 50 percent more margin dollars for the company ($30,000 in January 2017 on
$94,000 revenue, to $46,000 in June 2019 on $105,000 revenue).
We still have head room for improvements and are grappling with our current set of issues to get there. The team is excited and motivated about our journey to World Class. We’re not there yet, but we are moving in that direction. We’ve kicked the sales engine into gear and are making progress. I have a dedicated ISR that continues to improve in the role, and I’ve been dedicating more time to owner-led sales.
What’s your Super Power?
Our Super Power is helping our clients have good IT days, increased productivity and better bottom line results. Most other providers stop at tickets and alerts. We invest our resources more heavily into Technology Alignment and IT Strategy, while needing less reactive resources.
Mavidea offers more than just IT services, correct?
Since Mavidea was founded in 2007, we offered both IT services and web design/internet marketing services. In the last few years we’ve added application development to our services. Our revenue base is roughly 50 percent IT and 50 percent web.
The company was founded with multiple disciplines. The IT clients wanted web, and the web clients wanted IT. We put two small companies (one web, one IT) together and called it Mavidea. We have good cross sell opportunities, though our corporate focus can be diluted.
For you, what are some of the top issues in the industry?
Top issues in the industry are security; encroachment by other business models (the print guys, the phone guys, the security system guys, etc.) into the MSP space; and availability of talent.
You used to be the company’s director of happiness, right? How do you keep clients happy?
We strive to keep our clients very happy by the following: investing in proactive activities (Alignment and Strategy); documentation, documentation, documentation (that’s a key factor in our improvement as a company since January 2017; we are more efficient, give the client a more consistent experience; and my team is less stressed due to the focus on documentation and standard operating procedures); and genuinely caring about our clients and treating them with dignity and kindness.
