Frontier Business Products accelerates service—and revenue—with ConnectWise

Quality – Customer restores can be completed 75 percent faster with less difficulty

Revenue – Monthly recurring revenue for backup and recovery services has doubled

Business – Outsourced technical work allows FBP to shift focus to driving revenue

Challenge

As Frontier Business Products developed its MSP offerings, the company needed a platform and partner capable of providing scalable and highly profitable RMM and BDR solutions.

Solution

FBP uses integrated ConnectWise solutions for RMM, backup and recovery, and help desk services.

Results

ConnectWise helps FBP increase its margins, expand its scope of services, operate more efficiently, and deliver better support to its customer base.

“Our previous BDR platform offered singles-creenshot verification, but the video we receive from Tru-Verify is far more valuable. We can see what’s going on in the BIOS, see much more of the boot process, and pinpoint exactly where failures are occurring—and we can do so remotely.”

- Scott Oleson, Senior vCIO and Director of IT, Frontier Business Products

Frontier Business Products (FBP) offers complete business technology solutions backed by an award-winning service record and more than 35 years of experience. The Colorado-based company is committed to building long-term customer relationships and providing personalized service and attention to clients. After a number of frustrations with its previous backup and disaster recovery (BDR) vendor, Frontier turned to ConnectWise BCDR, formerly a Continuum solution, to develop a highly scalable and profitable BDR business.

ConnectWise BCDR is managed and supported by ConnectWise’s NOC Services (NOC) technicians, which allows FBP to significantly reduce the amount of time they spend managing the tool and monitoring backups—a decrease from .5 FTE per week to .05 FTE. The proprietary Tru-Verify™ backup verification system offers a time lapse of the entire boot process, intelligently differentiating between false positives and a successful boot process. “Our previous BDR platform offered single-screenshot verification, but the video we receive from Tru-Verify is far more valuable,” says Scott Oleson, Senior vCIO and Director of IT at FBP. “We can see what’s going on in the BIOS, see much more of the boot process, and pinpoint exactly where failures are occurring—and we can do so remotely, before we have to consider sending somebody onsite.”

In addition to ConnectWise BCDR, Oleson and the team at FBP leverage additional elements of ConnectWise’s IT management platform to deliver the best possible service to their customers. This includes ConnectWise Command™, formerly a Continuum solution, for remote monitoring and management, which is backed by the company’s NOC technicians as well as its white-label Help Desk Services, which provides frontline support directly to end users.

Faster, simpler restores keep customers up and running

“Our technicians can perform restores in 75% less time with ConnectWise BCDR than with our previous platform,” Oleson says. “What’s more, the hardware from our previous vendor was substandard, and restoring files was more difficult than it should’ve been. In one instance, an Active Directory server had failed, and we had to actually give up on restoring it and do a rebuild because the process was such a hassle.”

Revenue and profitability soar with ConnectWise

“We’re making a killing with ConnectWise BCDR,” says Oleson. “Our monthly recurring revenue with the platform has increased 100 percent since we first deployed it, and since the platform allows us to bring our own hardware, we can generate upwards of $3,500 for a $600 box that we refurbish and upgrade in-house.” Meanwhile, the ConnectWise Integrated Expert Services, formerly a Continuum solution, Help Desk team resolves between 94–95 percent of FBP’s customer tickets each month, increasing the profitability of FBP’s managed services contracts from a 40 percent to a 60 percent standard margin.

Outsourced technical work allows a greater focus on building the business

“ConnectWise’s technicians have specialized expertise and knowledge, so we don’t have to hire resources with those same skill sets,” says Oleson. “Being able to offload work to the NOC and Help Desk enables our team to focus on client relationships and revenue-driving activities.” At the same time, ConnectWise makes sure that the solutions that power FBP’s business are always the best they can be. “Another big differentiator for ConnectWise is that they entirely own their core product stack and technology. Knowing that we can provide feedback and that ConnectWise is able to enhance and update its products based on the needs of its partner community is really valuable to us.”

Looking ahead

“If you’ve got someone that’s considering ConnectWise or comparing the platform to other providers in the space, they’d be crazy not to partner with ConnectWise,” says Oleson. “I’ve never seen one of our clients have a bad experience since we’ve deployed the platform.” Oleson is confident in FBP’s ability to continue growing and expanding— and knows that ConnectWise will play an essential role in the long-term success of the company’s managed services offerings. “We’re very excited about our future and continuing to work with ConnectWise,” he says. “Since I’ve joined FBP we’ve nearly tripled in size, and we expect to see continued growth and success as we further-enhance our managed services and onboard additional customers.”

Remote Monitoring & Management Software with Proactive Services

ConnectWise Command is a scalable remote monitoring and management (RMM) solution with built-in NOC services providing technology solution providers (TSPs) with the tools and services they need to exceed end-user expectations and grow their businesses. Intelligent alerting and ticketing, intuitive scripting and automation, and certified NOC technicians empower TSPs to provide proactive, high-value support across any device or environment, including servers, desktops, networks, and mobile devices.