5 Ways MSPs Can Derive Recurring Revenue From Office 365

We look at ways MSPs can derive recurring revenue from reselling Office 365. This includes controlling margins and bundling value-added products and services.

Owning the customer relationship in the long term is the most certain path to recurring revenue. Businesses that need quick resolution to problems in maintaining employee productivity will benefit from working with a highly qualified provider that can offer timely, dedicated expertise and professional support for Office 365. In fact, according to Gartner, 80 percent of future profits for organizations will come from just 20 percent of existing customers.

Controlling margins can amount to significant recurring revenue for MSPs. The amount earned is limited only by how much value the MSP is providing the customer above and beyond what Microsoft provides.

Migrating to Office 365 frees customers’ staff to focus on other areas of the business and opens opportunities for MSPs to provide support in these areas. According to Osterman Research, most organizations should be incorporating third-party products into their 365 Office implementation to supplement the suite’s native capabilities. Osterman recommends supplementing Office 365 in the areas of email archiving, e-discovery of archived content, anti-spam and anti-malware, advanced threat protection, encryption and business continuity.

Reselling Office 365 gives MSPs the opportunity to bundle other value-added services into the suite, shortening the sales cycle. One innovative value-added bundling option is customized training. There are several types of training MSPs can offer, including in-person classes, training videos, live webinars, virtual classroom training and individual coaching. While training on individual features and functions of Office 365 is valuable, MSPs can further increase their value by customizing the training based on the unique requirements of the customer.

Companies increasingly are looking for help within the cloud. According to IDC, worldwide cloud IT Infrastructure spend grew 21.9 percent to $29 billion in 2015, while traditional (non-cloud) IT infrastructure decreased 2.7 percent year over year. By joining reseller programs, such as Rackspace’s reseller program for Office 365, MSPs can get their foot in the door at organizations and use Office 365 as a launching pad to grow and evolve support for cloud services moving forward.