Success stories are what keep us at TruMethods going. One of our newer members is already seeing results — and so are his customers.
When Jeff Howard,owner ofNetworking Results, a Dallas-based MSP, began managing the company’s sales force at the beginning of 2018, he expressed interest in exploringTruMethodsfurther, so we gave him a demo.
Him andDavidYandry,service manager at Networking Results (also known asNetRes),worked through the demo and eventually decided that theTruMethodsplatform could assist with delivering the business results they were looking to achieve.
Since then,NetReshas seen significant improvement its ability to deliver results to clients.
I recently caught up withYandrytolearn moreabout how theTruMethodsplatform has positively impacted business results, find out obstaclesNetResis facing anddiscuss how the industry has evolved over the years.
A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.
What’s been your biggest takeaway from theTruMethodsprogram so far?
It truly takes everyone in the organization working together to make it work, which is a good thing. If everyone plays their part and contributes toward the essence of their role, you can see dramatic results that our team would agree have literally changed every aspect of how they work, for the better.
We were already doing about 75% of what’s recommended and outlined in the videos, but we didn’t have the Net Admin position in place. We immediately carved out someone from our support team and made him our Net Admin (we now have two). We’ve found this role to bean absolutely criticalpiece of the puzzle.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’re facing as an MSP today?
Finding good, affordable technical talent has been a challenge. The economy has been strong for a while, and the job market has been kind to talented applicants—tougher on employers looking to hire. Our ability to brag about the chaos-free environment in which we now work is very appealing to many applicants compared to what they find at other MSPs.
We focus heavily on finding people that fit with our culture. Our enhanced efficiency has also led to enhanced margins, allowing us to provide a package of benefits to our employees that we feel is hard to beat in the MSP world. Retaining good, well-trained talent is key.
How have you seen the industry evolve over the years?
Besides the obvious transitions from the traditional break-fix model to managed services agreements, and on-premises hardware networks to cloud-centric infrastructures, one of the biggest evolutions has been the appearance of niche tools developed to help the MSP be more insightful, efficient and effective. From monitoring tools, to CSAT tools, to security tools and beyond, the focus on creating applications that serve the MSP community has been incredibly helpful to our business over the last five years. As many former MSP owners decided to tackle difficult or pesky issues that held their businesses back, and then make a public-facing product out of their solution, the entire MSP community has benefited from the wide variety of products they’ve created. It feels like the industry has advanced as much in the last five years as it did in the previous 10 years.
What’s your biggest success story withTruMethods?
When we started withTruMethods, we averaged around 200-225 tickets on our board at any given time. Each tech would have 20-25 tickets—or more on bad days—client service suffered, and everyone felt overwhelmed by the constant crush of incoming tickets.
Today, we have two fewer reactive techs because we’ve moved them into the Net Admin role, and we average 45-55 tickets on our board at any given time (fewer than seven per tech). The resulting reduction in chaos has benefited all corners of our business and has been a tremendous boost to the work outlook of everyone atNetResand has allowed us to make great strides with our clients.
