Newfoundland Adviser Helps Clients Double Their Revenue

Zero downtime and great technical support. Those are two reasons Steve French has been a SherWeb partner for the last 10 years. It also explains why he didn’t move directly to Microsoft when he had the chance.

French is the president and founder of infomatix, a Newfoundland-based business consulting firm that serves SMB clients across North America. Aside from its unique brand of consulting, infomatix also sells Office 365, Hosted Exchange and Hosted SharePoint to about 40 clients in the healthcare, legal and manufacturing sectors.

French, who’s been using Microsoft email products for more than 20 years, said he first came to SherWeb after a poor experience with another provider. He said the fact that SherWeb was providing its own Hosted Exchange services was a real plus.

"It enabled us to take the burden of very expensive server hardware and software investments away from our clients and give them to a reliable partner that we knew was going to provide a very stable, very reliable service. And you’ve been doing that for a long, long time."

Fantastic Onboarding

French said when Microsoft launched Office 365, infomatix had the opportunity to work more directly with them, but chose to stay with SherWeb. He cites SherWeb’s onboarding service and technical support as the main reasons behind his decision.

"I think your onboarding process is fantastic. I think you do that better than anybody else. I had experience dealing directly with Microsoft’s Office 365 tech support and it didn’t come close to the level of service that you provide."

infomatix also liked the fact that SherWeb focuses on the SMB market.

"Most of our clients are small-or medium-sized businesses, and 10-15 person companies have been our sweet spot. A lot of people don’t play in that market, but SherWeb makes it easy to work with smaller accounts."

Helps Clients Double Their Revenue

The MSP market is changing and French said Infomatix has carved out a niche for itself by offering a unique brand of business consulting to its clients. It’s called Double Your Business and it's allowed the three-member company to help several of its clients double their revenue in 3 years or less. In fact, one of French’s clients, a large manufacturing firm, has doubled its business 3 times in the last 10 years!

So, what’s the secret? According to French, it’s all about creating a plan that puts people and processes first instead of just focusing on the technology they need. French said too many MSPs put all their efforts into pure IT consulting, which doesn’t always go far enough.

“The secret is really people, process and technology in that order. You can only recommend the right technology when you understand how the people are going to react, when you understand how they’re working today and what kind of an impact whatever technology solution you’re going to recommend is going to have. We have a unique process that is much more repeatable and successful than what most technology firms provide."

Not Your Typical Technology Integrator

French, a former CIO for an $800 million publicly-traded company, said infomatix doesn’t operate like a typical technology integrator.

"I’ve always really understood the overall need of the business. I’ve worked with some very large companies and I love having discussions with entrepreneurs who are in need of our services. Just like a great accountant or lawyer that is more than just numbers or law, we are much more than technology and quickly become a trusted adviser for our clients. We go from idea to execution in a matter of weeks. It’s got to have an impact. It’s got to make their lives better."

The plan seems to work. French has boosted his company’s revenue to the tune of about 25% a year since he started offering this service 13 years ago.

Core Infrastructure Comes First

The Double Your Business concept is part of a overall process French developed called The InviStructure Formula (taken from the words Invisible Infrastructure). It’s designed to teach companies to ensure they have a solid core infrastructure in place before they even start creating new solutions for the marketplace.

"A lot of small businesses really get stuck in thinking that they’re completely unique. By thinking they’re completely different, they also think they have to create solutions that are completely different. I say, ‘Look, 80% of business is exactly the same, so we need to get the basics right: create a great client experience, a great website, and an easy accounting package. So, let’s focus on doing all those things the best way we can, using the processes and tools that have already been proven. Once we get all those core infrastructure things working properly, that’s when we can go out and do the things that are going to be unique for you, that will create new, more profitable revenue streams."

MSPs Should Develop New Skills

French is actively working to expand The InviStructure Formula unique process and is currently working on a new platform to do this. His goal is twofold: to open The InviStructure Formula to more clients using online tools and to license The InviStructure Formula for MSPs.

He said his biggest challenge right now is that he’s working with a small team, so he is looking to leverage new relationships to bring The InviStructure Formula message to more small businesses. He said many MSPs could offer good business advice to their clients, but they don’t necessarily have the skills they need.

"The challenge is that a lot of folks in the MSP world don’t have that (business) background. They don’t know what they don’t know. If I sat down with a client and asked a series of questions, depending on the responses I got, I would ask a whole different series of questions than a normal MSP would. That’s just because of my experience and background. It’s what MSPs need to do to go to the next level, but it’s a much different skill set to be able to get there."