Managed Security Packages - A Good Sell for MSPs?

Do you still have clients running traditional antivirus packages on their PCs and servers?

If so, you could be missing out on revenue and giving yourself unnecessary work in monitoring and maintaining the software.

Even if you have an Internet security product that you are familiar with, and perhaps a partnership with a vendor that pays commission, it is still worth investigating the various managed security solutions that are becoming firmly established in the marketplace.

What is Managed Security?

Managed security solutions allow you to sell Internet security to your clients as a service, rather than as product that it then becomes your responsibility to support.

Many security solutions are cloud-based and provide for easy deployment on client sites. Once a small agent is installed on each machine, you gain central control of Internet security  - across multiple users, sites and clients.

Rather than constantly remoting in to individual machines and servers to look at issues, you can take action via a central dashboard.

Some solutions even provide patch management functionality, allowing you to take control of the deployment of fixes and updates.

The Opportunity

Selling your clients security as a service allows you to grab your share of the constant revenue associated with Internet security. This is preferable to passing it all to the traditional antivirus vendors.

Exactly what you charge and how you integrate security with your existing MSP services is up to you.

However you sell it, however, the administrative benefits of a central security console should allow you to save time and cut back on repetitive tasks.

How to Sell the Benefits

It won’t be easy to get your clients particularly excited about managed security, so it’s good to have a clear idea of the benefits to assist with your sales pitch. Here are five important points to highlight:

1. Managed security can be provided as part of your MSP contract – meaning a central point of contact and one less vendor to deal with.
2. The cloud-based nature of many managed security products means that the software that must be installed on each machine is light in weight and low in resource-usage. This means an end to machines being slowed down by their security software.
3. The central console provides you with clear visibility of any security issues, where traditionally you may have been dependent on users reporting problems to you.
4. The monthly service-based nature of managed security means no annual license expiration renewal process.
5. The chance to integrate patch management means you can provide extra peace of mind as part of the same service.

Managed Security Packages - A Good Sell for MSPs?

Given that Internet security is essential for every network, selling this type of package only requires you to convince your clients to do something they already do, but in a different way. If you’re not already making money from it, it may be time to break away from your established ways of doing things.