The New York region has had a thriving managed service provider (MSP) industry for decades, which serves a variety of verticals. In this saturated market, it can be hard for MSPs to stand out from the crowd and stay competitive. Succeeding requires catering to many different industries while offering ultra-reliable services at competitive prices.
This is a challenge that North Atlantic Information Systems, an MSP based in Latham, New York, has solved with the help of MSP360 Backup. Here’s the story of how the company has managed to stand apart in a highly competitive, dynamic market by delivering (among other services) high-performance data backup at strong profit margins.
The Challenge: MSP Market Saturation and Diverse Verticals
Founded in 1996, North Atlantic Information Systems offers several managed services, including network monitoring, remote support, and data backup. The company serves around a dozen small and medium-sized businesses and manages about 25 terabytes’ worth of data backups.
Although the company has been an established MSP in the northeastern United States for decades, it operates in a saturated market, as noted above. In this densely populated area, clients have a large selection of MSPs to choose from when searching for managed IT services. What’s more, the region is home to many different industries.
This makes North Atlantic Information Systems’ business goals somewhat harder to meet than those of a typical MSP. Unlike MSPs that operate in parts of the United States that are dominated by just a handful of industries, North Atlantic must be able to work with clients whose businesses span a range of different verticals, and whose IT needs, therefore, take many forms. Some of its customers are subject to HIPAA compliance, while others are not. The company also supports a diverse infrastructure.
What’s more, because MSP businesses have existed in the region for so long, North Atlantic must adapt on an ongoing basis to meet customer demand to remain competitive with other local MSPs. The company does not have the luxury of operating in a market where MSPs are few and far between, and where clients will, therefore, accept outdated reliability standards or other shortcomings.
Delivering Exemplary Backup Services
The reliability of MSP360 Backup is a crucial factor in helping North Atlantic to meet customer demand, too. “If something goes wrong with a backup, I can find out exactly what happened,” John A. Janes, CEO at North Atlantic, said. “And in the rare cases I can’t, I’ve always had good experiences with customer support.”
In addition to helping North Atlantic to thrive in a tight market, MSP360 Backup has allowed the company to expand its profit margins. The MSP has been able to increase the price of its backup service while remaining attractive to clients due to the reliability of the backups. “I’m charging more for backup but my customers don’t mind due to the reliability,” Janes said.
Profitability has also been helped by the fact that MSP360 has helped North Atlantic to move its backup data to cloud-based storage, which lowers the company’s hardware management and maintenance overhead. “Remote storage was the way to go, and now I’m making approximately a 50% profit more under most circumstances,” Janes said.
Managed backup and recovery services based on MSP360 Backup have proven so successful for North Atlantic that the company is currently building a marketing website for the sole purpose of promoting backup services, allowing the company to continue to guard its edge over competitors in New York.
Conclusion
While data backup is only one factor in North Atlantic’s success, being able to offer fast, reliable and cost-efficient services has given it a crucial leg up. Other MSPs in highly competitive markets are likely to reap similar benefits by switching to a streamlined, cloud-based backup solution using MSP360 Managed Backup.
