Is Managed Service a Best Practice?

Just finished a great ASCII event in Cleveland.

Aside:
If you're not an ASCII member, go join now. http://www.ascii.com/.

Why? Good community. Good vendor relationships. Great discounts. Literally pays for itself every month.
/aside

Anyway, I talked to several people who are still unsure about managed services. Many of them stated that they know what they need to do:

- Get their cash flow under control
- Get a Service Agreement
- Get their clients on a recurring revenue plan
- Get a PSA system (service board and practice management)
- Get prepaid for all services
- Do remote monitoring of client machines
- Set up automated patch management for client machines
- Become an advisor to clients instead of a repairman

Okay. What can I say?

Go do all those things. Then come back to me and we'll talk about whether you should become a managed service provider.

I've mentioned before, including in the Managed Services in a Month series, that "Managed Service" might just be modern consulting practices.

After all, when you take apart the pieces of what Erick Simpson advocates, and Matt Makowicz, and Amy Luby, and Mathew Dickerson, what are the pieces telling you? Whether they're focusing on the details of running your business or the details of delivering service, they're all talking about best practices.

The best practices for 2008 and 2009 and 2010 are not the same as they were five or ten years ago. And the secret is: there are no secrets. You can figure this stuff out. Pick through that list and see if there's anything you shouldn't be doing.

My guess is that you will put the list in a different order. You might want to put off something until you've done everything else. But by the time you get halfway through accomplishing that list, you'll be convinced that you need to do all of it.