How MSP Content+Cloud Turned a Cost Reduction Mandate into New Revenue Generation

To fix those problems, enterprises are investing in IT operations management systems that can handle the demands of modern technology. This is reflected in recent Deloitte Tech Trends findings in which 74% of IT leaders surveyed said the adoption of IT process automations had increased their operational efficiency, while 59% also reported automations had contributed an additional cost savings benefit of up to 30%.

That kind of return on investment alone is argument enough to ditch the old ways and move up to a more state-of-the-art posture for IT operations. AIOps platforms like the ScienceLogic SL1 that excel at reining in tech sprawl, providing contextual visibility across hybrid infrastructures, and infusing intelligent IT automations are delivering on that promise. Some organizations are even finding that, beyond mere cost savings, the ScienceLogic SL1 platform is enabling the creation of new revenue streams through the development of innovative new services.

In the latest edition of the ScienceLogic webinar series, our own Ken Vanderweel talks with Ste Pallett, head of Security and Networks at Content+Cloud, to learn how that MSP was not only able to drive costs out of their operating model through an investment in SL1, but also use the platform as a new revenue engine supporting the creation of value-add managed services.

In “How MSP Content+Cloud Turned a Cost Reduction Mandate into New Revenue Generation,” Ste describes how C+C shifted operational overhead costs to deliver more value to their customers through SL1 integration and automation, explaining how the organization drove more efficient IT operations by:

• Synchronizing CIs with their CMDB;
• Auto-aligning CIs with incidents;
• Auto-resolving commonly occurring incidents; and,
• Supporting the creation and delivery of new value-add managed services.

Addressing IT Inefficiency

Content+Cloud  (C+C, recently acquired by Advania) is an award-winning MSP operating out of the UK and South Africa with over:

• 750 staff
• 20 years of business experience
• Supporting more than 400 clients worldwide.

In addition to being one of the leading Microsoft Azure modern workplace and business application partners, C+C provides a market-leading breadth of innovative and proven delivery capabilities through the company’s organizational design and service models, and a focus on its “Three Cloud Strategy” centered on Microsoft’s cloud platforms, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Azure, and Dynamics 365.

C+C’s vision was to address IT efficiencies from two perspectives:

• Deliver more customer value at net-zero cost, and effect high availability and performance for mission-critical business services to keep clients happy and minimize customer churn; and,
• Relieve the burden of repetitive tasks, improve productivity through automation, and improve the retention of skilled IT professionals by increasing job satisfaction.

Choosing ScienceLogic SL1

To do this, C+C concluded they would need to consolidate on a single monitoring platform with the ability to achieve the company’s goal of driving efficiency, performance, knowledge, optimization, customer satisfaction, business satisfaction, and employee satisfaction. After researching options, C+C chose the ScienceLogic SL1 platform.

One of the things that stood out was the breadth of ScienceLogic’s technical partnerships and integrations, including many that complemented C+C’s existing partnerships, including vendors like ServiceNow, Microsoft, Cisco, and Fortigate. Ste said those out-of-the-box integrations allowed the company to quickly collect the data and performance metrics C+C needed to improve troubleshooting and establish automations. For example, SL1 allowed them to centralize client information in an operational data lake, then use that data lake to populate their CMDBs and keep them updated automatically.

C+C also created rich dashboards that delivered value to their clients by informing their incident management team of any issues affecting their clients. That includes both for situations unique to individual customers, and also those resulting from issues originating with a technology partner, such as Azure, that might impact multiple customers. SL1 also allowed C+C to consolidate onto a single platform for NOC services while retiring many legacy systems and streamlining their tech toolkit.

AIOps Delivers Measurable Results

Ste said that, as the company moves beyond the early stages of their adoption of SL1, the measurable results have been impressive, including:

• 35% reduction of downstream incidents through contextual, root cause analysis;
• 28% reduction in incidents overall (even as their client portfolio has grown);
• 33% reduction in high-volume, repetitive events across the client base; and,
• 50% per-client incident reduction over the last 12-18 months.

One example of the kinds of efficiencies C+C has gained by jettisoning their old tools and modernizing with SL1 is in the onboarding of new clients. The old way would require that someone manually update the CMDB in ServiceNow—a process that would normally take approximately ten hours for the average client. But with SL1, the process is now automated, not only saving the cost of ten hours of labor, but ensuring that the information is accurate.

By reducing the events, improving the efficiency of incident triage, and automating repetitive tasks and responses, C+C has been able to alleviate the time its staff would normally spend addressing issues manually, and reallocate those valuable, high-skill resources for work that adds to the bottom line. For C+C, that meant they were able to develop 50 new PowerPacks to deliver richer services to their customers, and 25 additional revenue-generating managed services projects that, resulting in a 15% increase in the company’s monthly recurring revenue (MRR) over just the last 12 months.

Passionate About AIOps

For more details about how C+C turned an investment in SL1 into cost-saving operational efficiencies and a significant increase in MRR, watch the full webinar, “How MSP Content+Cloud Turned a Cost Reduction Mandate into New Revenue Generation”. And if you’d like to make your organization more efficient, “Take advantage of a partnership with ScienceLogic,” Ste said. “They are passionate about AIOps and what it can do to deliver enhanced value to your business and, in turn, to your clients.”