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I was wondering how spiceworks could be used for supporting multiple clients via flat fee service support contracts.

Thanks!

7 Spice ups
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There are many Spiceworks users running MSP companies. You might want to search the community for MSP - lots of discussions will be returned.

Also, you might want to look at this group: http://community.spiceworks.com/forum/22

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I will ask Lawrie (Service providers GA) to come over too.

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Great idea Yasaf .

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Hey guys, thanks for the heads up Yasaf,

Hello to you too Oleg6219,

Well there are quite a few of we MSPs using Spiceworks with varying mumbers of clients and methodologies. Firstly I’d point you to the Group specifically for MSPs: IT Service Provider. There have been quite a few discussions about how we use Spiceworks, deal with issues, etc., you might find it interesting and may find some discussions to contribute to or participate in.

We’re an MSP and we use Spiceworks to monitor/manage a number of clients networks and infrastructure in the SMB and SME realm. We use Remote Collectors on the smaller sites and on the larger sites use not client facing full installs of Spiceworks, where the clients are not given access to view or use Spiceworks. We have all the client installs mail alerts back to our helpdesk to automatically raise tickets.

Other tools we use to access Spiceworks on remote sites include: publishing Spiceworks using SSL, VPN, RDP, Logmein and VNC. But Remote Collectors is the preferred method by many users and Spiceworks themselves.

We present this to the clients as one of the tools we use to manage their network and infrastructure.

We also operate a 3 level helpdesk for all our clients at our office, not using the remotely installed SW for Helpdesk operations at all. We have a method using ODBC to extract data from the remote full installs and at our office combine that data in an SQL database for detailed reporting for both clients and ourselves.

As for charging, costs and contracts, (in relation to our use of Spiceworks) this is not something the client is concerned with, aspecially since we do not use Spiceworks client facing. It is presented as I’ve said as one of the tools we use to manage their IT infrastructure. The ability to submit tickets is actually free to the clients and included as part of being a client. The processes and services relating to resolving tickets are handled specifically under the terms of the Agreement or Contract as the case may be.

I don’t think we’d be too keen on an arrangement where there was a set fee for resolving any issue, that would make way too much risk of loosing money and time, or even sharing the cost of resolutions with the clients, which is not on.

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DouglasJ wrote:

Great idea Yasaf .

^^ That’s why I wanted to get Lawrie here - Can’t beat him MSP wise…

I hope you have that reply canned somewhere Lawrie:)

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adding Lawrie to my list of people to refer to…

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Yasaf Burshan wrote:

DouglasJ wrote:

Great idea Yasaf .

^^ That’s why I wanted to get Lawrie here - Can’t beat him MSP wise…

I hope you have that reply canned somewhere Lawrie:)

Not exactly canned, but custom intro, canned body and custom conclusion.

I’m not convinced I’m the pinnacle of MSPs SAM (Niagara) is/are pretty hot and there are plenty of other very cluey, self employed MSPs in the community. But I certainly apreciate the thought. Thank you.

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Thanks Lawrie :slight_smile:

Niagara uses a different approach as an MSP foregoing the remote collectors and central administration in favour of having each customer set up as an independent company and exposing their interfaces via HTTPS so that we can access it easily. We then manage account and administrative information via a SharePoint site of our own (thanks to Rackspace) that makes coordination of many SpiceWorks sites pretty easy.

Alerts can then be forwarded to us from those so that we still get that functionality but this means that customers can use their own systems too, sharing duties with other MSPs/ITSPs is easy, different scanning needs are easily handled, etc.

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Scott Alan Miller wrote:

Thanks Lawrie :slight_smile:

Thank you Scott,

A very just referal/submission, as I’m sure you know.

Just on the subject of the way Niagara uses Spiceworks, do you guys have individual people assigned to individual client(s) or is everything operated as a group?

I’m interested what mechanism you (Niagara) use(s) to ensure clients with issues are attended in a timely manner?

Having operations overseen, SLAs and expectations managed adequately, along with general CRM issues is an interesting and critical issue for MSPs and I’m very keen to read some of your thoughts and if at all possible Niagaras’ procedures for these MSP management issues.

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Each client has a Technical Account Manager who is responsible for anything involving that client. They may not be directly involved in servicing them but they are the single point of coordination for them.

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Scott Alan Miller wrote:

Each client has a Technical Account Manager who is responsible for anything involving that client. They may not be directly involved in servicing them but they are the single point of coordination for them.

Thanks Scott, that covers it nicely.

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Hello Oleg6219,

Did you get your a satisfactory answer to your question?

If you did, could you mark the Best Answer and/or Helpful Posts?

Thanks, Lawrie.