As Wi-Fi Proliferation Increases, Managed Services via Cloud Look More Appealing to Customers

With the excess of mobile devices and bandwidth-heavy applications in the consumer and enterprise space, the traffic being driven across wireless networks has increased dramatically. Employees and customers alike, from large corporate organizations down to the local coffee shop, have come to expect fast, reliable wireless access.  Also, the digital transformation efforts that organizations undertake today such as making core organizational content accessible to their employee base, partners and customers via mobile formats increases traffic. It does not stop there, organizations that allow Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, which help ensure that their employees are more productive are dependent on an organizations’ infrastructure having robust, high availability, high coverage for wireless connectivity. Such expectations, efforts and requirements merit organizations to take a closer look at their wireless network, especially if they wish to improve their mobile initiatives. 

Part of this closer look often entails overcoming flat budgets, limited IT staff or legacy modernization. One factor that most organizations come to realize while under the microscope is that it is more cost-efficient to consume their technology in an OpEx subscription-based, as-a-service model.  The benefits of this expenditure model are that it helps alleviate CAPEX budget restraints on hardware, software and support as well as eliminate the headaches of inventory management. Organizations that “rent IT” can scale operations faster to meet demands of their business.

What exactly does this mean for Value Added Resellers (VARs?) Well, for starters it is becoming critical for VARs to start adding more managed services to their line card. Easier said than done. Building a managed services practice requires an upfront investment of dollars, time, personnel, training, adapting to a new line of revenue capture, flow and infrastructure – all before revenue is generated. Fortunately, the market for managed services is so lucrative, vendors and distributors want to help position VARs to get a slice of this pie with no upfront expense and risk of building a Managed Service Provider (MSP) practice from scratch.

Allow end-customers to off-load their wireless network management while VARs gain recurring revenue

Creating and governing managed services is complex.  It is also easy to fail, especially if that’s not the VAR’s  core business.  Similar to the demand for reliable Wi-Fi access, a VAR’s ability to offer managed services is shifting from a “nice to have” to a competitive necessity.  So, whether it is a core strength or not, the path to providing services such as system management, customer service and/or support is an inevitable move to stay relevant, but it does not need to be a daunting undertaking.  In fact, with the right guidance and resources, VARs will come to realize that adding managed services to their portfolio may be more of a natural extension of their existing offering(s) than understood.  

Adding managed services to a resell model places VARs in a unique position.  In the case of Wi-Fi as-a-service, not only would a VAR be able to include the hardware and software, but value enhancements as well.  Perhaps this involves proactive optimization, management and security plus performance monitoring all with 24x7 support.  By delivering this offering all within a subscription-based model allows for a recurring revenue stream - A definite upside for those VARs struggling with unpredictable and fluctuating sales.

Why go it alone?

Expanding and diversifying one’s portfolio is obviously less daunting and more feasible when there is minimal risk and investment involved.  This is why AccessEMM™ Cloud Wi-Fi as-a-Service was created to help VARs adopt a lightweight, resale model of managed mobility offerings.  There is no need for a VAR to go it alone and be susceptible to failure when the guesswork and tools for standing up a managed service are easy to attain.  Moving to managed services is not only smart for business but it can also become a competitive advantage that strengthens customer relations.

Need Proof? Check out this use case on how AccessEMM Cloud Wi-Fi as-a-Service with proactive AI automatically identified and corrected 81% of Wi-Fi performance and connectivity issues for one client.