Onebyte evolves to MSP 2.0 with ConnectWise

Quality – Onebyte can now take a more proactive approach to prevent problems from recurring

Revenue – Revenue, profit, and earnings per customer have all increased

Business – Onebyte drives differentiation by working closely with customers to advance their IT maturity

Challenge

To deliver greater value for its customers, Onebyte needed to move beyond constant break-fix tickets and play a more active role in high-level decision-making.

Solution

Onebyte has built a standardized base customer offering on ConnectWise services, complemented with select ConnectWise services tailored to their needs.

Results

Onebyte has elevated to a more strategic—and profitable—role in its customers’ business.

“Instead of talking to business owners about ticket counts or servers that need replacing, we’re discussing where they want to take their business next and how technology can help them achieve their goals. They perceive much more value in that—it’s been extremely well received. We’re happier to talk to them, and they’re eager to take our calls.”

- Warren Pountain, CEO, Onebyte

After growing from a one-person break-fix business to a full-fledged hosted desktop provider with a staff of 10, Onebyte had hit the wall. “We’d thought our managed services model would mean fewer problems to deal with, but every day we were jumping from one customer issue to the next,” recalls CEO Warren Pountain. “We weren’t happy coming into work anymore—we were fed up and disillusioned.” Hiring additional operations staff hardly made a dent in the situation, as signal noise and repetitive issues made it all but impossible for the Onebyte team to focus on fixing root causes.

Pountain initially implemented ConnectWise Command™, formerly a Continuum solution, to put the ConnectWise Network Operations Center (NOC) to work for Onebyte’s customers. “Overnight, they solved server problems that had been around for a long time and our tickets fell. It’s brilliant—it just works,” says Pountain. Encouraged by the immediate impact on his business, Pountain took the next step and outsourced the Onebyte help desk to ConnectWise as well, a move that freed his team to focus on higher-level work. “Help Desk has allowed me to change my business model considerably. We’re much further down the road than we could have been otherwise.”

In addition to ConnectWise Command with Help Desk, Onebyte also uses ConnectWise Recover™, formerly a Continuum solution, for comprehensive backup and disaster recovery. “There are other solutions that offer BDR, but they don’t have the backing of the ConnectWise NOC,” says Pountain. “We’ve seen the value of that integration a number of times—it allows our customers to keep working while we’re solving underlying problems. It’s been flawless.” Onebyte is currently incorporating ConnectWise Cybersecurity Management, formerly a Continuum solution, services into its customer offerings as well.

Freed from day-to-day firefighting, Onebyte has now embraced a more proactive customer engagement model—an approach Pountain calls MSP 2.0. “In the enterprise, CTOs and CIOs now sit at the board level because they’re not just supporting the business function—they’re enabling it and driving it, helping increase ROI and profitability while reducing risk. With ConnectWise, we’re in a position to play that kind of role for our SMB customers and help them find new ways technology can improve their business.”

Higher quality enables better customer results with a smaller staff

As part of the firm’s MSP 2.0 model, a Onebyte technical alignment manager meets face-to-face with each customer on a regular basis to define and document standards, anticipate future needs, deepen relationships with on-site staff, and identify new opportunities to add value. “We’re not just going to customer sites with a box of tools— we’re helping them stay ahead of the curve, from maintaining compliance with GDPR and other regulations, to understanding their emerging needs, to improving the efficiency and reliability of their systems as a whole,” says Pountain. At the same time, Onebyte has been able to reduce its tech team from 12 members to five while still supporting the same number of users.

A refined service delivery model boosts revenue and profits

Onebyte has standardized its customer offerings, providing a standard base set of services to each customer along with additional services tailored to their needs. In addition to increasing efficiency and consistency, this approach has helped the firm fine-tune its customer base. “We’re focusing now on the customers who can most benefit from our new way of working and fit in with our MSP 2.0 mission, which also tend to be our higher-margin, lower-noise customers,” says Pountain. “In this way, we’ve increased both revenue and profit.”

Business transformation deepens customer relationships

“Instead of talking to business owners about ticket counts or servers that need replacing, we’re discussing where they want to take their business next and how technology can help them achieve their goals. They perceive much more value in that—it’s been extremely well received. We’re happier to talk to them, and they’re eager to take our calls,” says Pountain. Onebyte lunch-and-learn events help customers use technology more effectively and build better businesses. “With ConnectWise, our business is evolving, growing, and becoming more mature every day—we’re a different organization every month,” says Pountain.

Moving forward

Onebyte’s business continues to evolve and advance. In recent years, Pountain has become involved with the Network Group, the UK’s leading technology community, following an introduction at a Continuum Navigate event. “I discovered a world of tools and information that have made a massive impact on me, and my partnership with ConnectWise has given me the time to fully absorb the latest thought leadership and business strategy to build my MSP 2.0.”

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.