Chapter One: Playbook Overview
Market Context
Cloud service utilization and budget spend continue to expand for small, medium, and large enterprise businesses. According to Gartner research, the worldwide public cloud service market is projected to grow 17.3 percent in 2019 to a total $206 billion, growing 21 percent from $145.3 billion in 2017. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is the fastest growing segment, forecasted to grow to $39.5 billion, a 27.6 percent increase from 20181.
According to Markets and Markets, the managed network service market will grow to $59.3 billion by 2021 with a CAGR of 9 percent2. Network infrastructure and security are essential for businesses to access the cloud and all the associated digitally innovative services and capabilities. This presents an excellent opportunity for Meraki partners to address customer pain points, offer managed services to customers, and address these ever-growing demands.
Focus on Your Customer Needs
Central to your success in launching new managed services will be your ability to apply these market insights to your local customers’ needs. You should have or obtain a good sense of your customer pain points that your new managed services will solve. While certain pain points may be obvious, others can be uncovered through the unique view you have (and your competitors do not) into your customer behaviors and your intimate knowledge of their existing and future challenges. Leverage those insights, along with market trends, to guide you through this practice development process to mitigate your risks and accentuate your differentiation.
Why Build A Cisco Meraki Managed Services Capability?
The Meraki platform provides the opportunity to create managed services without many of the typical start-up costs and investments. Meraki offers a complete portfolio of 100% cloud-managed LAN, WAN, endpoint management, smart camera, and security solutions. The Meraki MSP dashboard allows you to remotely and centrally manage any number of customer networks without the traditional capital expenditures associated with dedicated monitoring hardware and data center buildouts. Additionally, the dashboard affords you the ability to provide co-branded customer portals with role-based access, rich analytics, simplified support ticketing across multiple organizations, location analytics, and remote live tools, such as rogue DHCP detection and containment. This intuitive platform is simple for sales to position, requires reduced Network Operation Center (NOC) resources, and provides the ability to easily scale large customer deployments.
Some key benefits of Meraki-powered managed services include:
Proven Meraki Managed Services Business Models
The most tangible opportunities for Meraki managed services can be segmented into two main models:
Business services are typically vertically-targeted and focused on either providing a business activity or outcome. An example would be a retail credit card payment solution or an auto-dealership inventory system. The network devices and services, such as WLAN infrastructure, are critical components of a broader service delivery, but the network is not a component of the service itself. Business services are typically offered for a fixed monthly service charge, plus usage fees (i.e., point-of sale transaction fees) or other add-ons. From an end-customer perspective, these services are typically consumed as operating expenses (OpEx) over the life of an agreement. There are typically very minimal, if any capital expenditures (CapEx).
Managed network services can be either turn-key or custom network solutions that would include the network services, as well as 24x7 monitoring, break-fix support, moves, adds, and changes (MACs), and other MSP-differentiated support and lifecycle services. From an end-customer perspective, these services can be entirely OpEx or can sometimes have a CapEx component if the customer seeks to maintain title. Often, there are one-time, non-recurring services for implementation, onboarding, and configuration of the management and end-customer portals. Then there are recurring fees for the MSP-provided management service(s).
If not providing managed services today, both service models will likely require investments in people, process, platforms, and tools to be successful. Selling and delivering managed services, regardless of service model, requires a re-allocation of existing resources or the investment in some new roles, skills, and people. For example, cloud-based network services may not require as many certified engineers for service implementation; however, a service desk will need to be staffed if one does not exist. New NOC and service desk processes and hand-offs will also need to be established. Some of this can be automated through professional services automation platforms, such as ConnectWise, which aggregates network management, ticketing, and periodic billing. The reallocation of and/or investments in people, process, platforms, and tools are all considerations when assessing readiness to develop a Meraki managed service practice.
This playbook will go into these considerations in greater detail in the subsequent chapters. It will be important to identify the required service desk and NOC investments, including people and tools, when modeling anticipated financial performance and developing a managed service practice business plan (Chapter 3). Chapter 5 will go into more detail about establishing NOC and service desk capabilities.
Qualification and Readiness
With the market clearly shifting towards a cloud consumption model, this playbook seeks to simplify and accelerate the process to launch Meraki managed services. However, the process to develop these capabilities may require new business models, investments, and have cash flow implications.
Table 1 provides a scorecard that can be used to evaluate your qualification and readiness. This can be an effective tool in assessing your readiness and to proceed and timing, particularly when there may be competing priorities and requirements for people, and budget. Note that this is not exhaustive, nor will every attribute apply to your specific situation.
Table 1 – Qualification and Readiness Assessment
* Values for score, weight, and total to be completed as applicable to your business.
Attribute |
Score |
Weight |
Total |
Managed Service Practice Business Plan |
|
|
|
Creating a managed service practice is one your firm’s top 3 business priorities |
|
|
|
Your firm has allocated an executive sponsor to the development of a managed services practice |
|
|
|
Your firm has allocated sales, delivery, support, and marketing resources to this initiative |
|
|
|
Your firm has allocated budget to the development of a managed services practice |
|
|
|
It is expected that new managed service capabilities would be consumed by more than 25% of your installed base of customers over time |
|
|
|
It is expected that new managed service capabilities would enable your firm to reach new customers and expand markets |
|
|
|
Your firm’s current services’ mix is greater than 20% of your overall revenues |
|
|
|
Managed Service Offers |
|
|
|
Your firm has established managed services capabilities (not yet Cisco Meraki focused) |
|
|
|
Your firm has existing, defined, and differentiated managed service offers |
|
|
|
Your firm has a management platform to support your managed service offers |
|
|
|
Your firm has existing managed services customers |
|
|
|
Your firm has dedicated resources supporting your managed services |
|
|
|
Service Desk |
|
|
|
Your firm has a service desk in place |
|
|
|
Your firm has defined service desk processes |
|
|
|
Your firm currently manages moves, adds, and changes (MACs) for your end-customers |
|
|
|
Your firm offers helpdesk services for your end-customers |
|
|
|
Your firm maintains ITIL Foundation certification |
|
|
|
Your firm has dedicated resources supporting service desk functions |
|
|
|
Chapter Two: Securing Executive Commitment
Chapter Objective
Provide specific requirements for establishing executive and functional leadership sponsorship, as well as initiative accountability when launching a Meraki managed services practice.
Owner
Your executive team (CEO, COO, CTO, CMO, CRO, CFO, or those business leaders that can commit and prioritize this initiative and allocate the required resources).
Prerequisites
A decision that developing Meraki managed service capabilities (or launching new Meraki powered services) is one of your firm’s top 3 initiatives.
Key Questions to Evaluate Need
Context For most VAR/SI partners, the development of new managed services capabilities can be significant, if not transformational. New managed service offerings can and should extend into managed break/fix, moves, adds, and changes (MACs), vendor and asset management, bundled hosted services, and even adjacent, or complementary, business services. Executive sponsorship, commitment, and priority will be critical your firm’s ability to execute the following essential managed service practice elements:
Note that the delivery of new managed services will be unlike those of other solutions you may currently resell. The service itself is how you will differentiate from your competitors. Chapter 4, Agile Service Creation, will go into detail on creating impactful services.
Given the magnitude of developing these new capabilities, the full alignment and commitment of your senior executive leadership is recommended to:
It is recommended you choose an executive sponsor who:
Building a new managed service practice and taking your new offers to market requires participation and contribution across your business, including, but not limited to, marketing, sales, professional services, and support. The commitment of your extended leadership team to ensure operational execution and performance is key to your success. Specific MBOs/OKRs should be aligned to your executive sponsor and tied to each resource needed for the development of your new managed service capabilities. Each future chapter of this document will outline key tasks and activities these resources must perform to fully develop, sell, and deliver your new Meraki managed service offerings.
The following are recommended leadership team and core stakeholder role descriptions:
Utilize the table below to identify your Meraki managed services practice development team.
Table 2 – Securing Executive Commitment
Role |
Name / Owner |
Executive Sponsor |
|
Managed Services Leader or Product Manager |
|
Marketing Leader |
|
Sales Leader |
|
Delivery Leader |
|
Support Leader |
|
Business Operations Leader |
|
Meraki Alliance Leader |
|
1“Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Public Cloud Revenue to Grow 17.3 Percent in 2019”, Gartner Press Release, September 12, 2018.
2“Managed Network Services Market worth 59.38 Billion USD by 2021”, Markets and Markets Press Release, February 2017.