Schneider Electric has partnered with IT distributors in the UK, Netherlands, Germany and Austria to support them in delivering a market-first managed services offer for IT channel partners.
Available through ALSO, Ingram Micro and TechData, Managed Power as a Service combines Schneider Electric’s APC™ Smart-UPS uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) with its award-winning Monitoring & Dispatch services, to help partners create their own “as a Service” offer, with flexible finance options from the participating IT distributors.
Here’s everything partners need to know to generate recurring revenue today.
During the last twelve months, we’ve seen an unprecedented acceleration of distributed IT across a wider variety of segments. As critical IT equipment and data have increasingly moved away from centralised processing in data centres and the cloud, towards the edge of the network. In fact, Gartner has stated that by 2025, 75% of enterprise data is expected to be created and processed at the edge and that by 2029, more than 15 billion IoT devices will connect to enterprise infrastructure.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic the growth of technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G, meant IT was already moving closer to where data was generated, processed, and consumed. The global health crisis has only served to highlight that digital transformation projects are now becoming imperative across all industries
Edge adoption in retail, healthcare, education, and finance means more devices and remote points of presence have become connected, which sees a vast amount of data being generated on edge infrastructure.
As a result of these changes, many organisations report that their IT challenges are becoming more acute, and the distributed nature of IT is becoming harder to manage. Subsequently, businesses are looking to the IT Channel and managed service providers (MSPs) to fill their skills gaps and bolster in-house capabilities. IDC predicts that 80% of end-users plan to deploy more IT services at the edge, with around 40% of end-users planning to outsource their edge initiatives in future. This all represents a significant opportunity for the IT Channel.
Current Challenges
With digital transformation adoption rates growing, many organisations recognise they need to modernise their critical infrastructure to remain competitive in the current market. Modernisation is a key requirement for businesses dependent on IT, but capital expenditure (CapEx) budgets are becoming constrained, limiting the ability of decision-makers to move quickly.
Underpinning this is a need for resilience, where real-time visibility and remote monitoring become crucial. One of the biggest challenges remains in preventing downtime. Outages are fast on the increase, becoming both more damaging and expensive, and according to a recent survey from the Uptime Institute, 75% of organisations believe downtime could be preventable with better management, process, or configuration.
Edge infrastructure is geographically distributed, often without IT personnel stationed on site. This means it invariably requires remote monitoring and management, which paves the way for opportunities for partners to provide managed power services.
These challenges present a huge growth opportunity for channel partners specialising in data centres, edge computing and uninterruptible power.
The move to Managed Power as a Service
Managed services currently represent almost $160 billion in IT revenues through IT solution providers, and globally, the managed IT services market is expected to reach €300.2 billion by 2026. Such exponential growth in edge computing is driving the need for remote monitoring and the expertise of external service partners. Yet, while this is a huge opportunity for IT solution providers, today only 27% offer managed power services to their customers.
At Schneider Electric, we’ve long been developing the technologies and service propositions to help IT Solution providers drive transformative change. As an IT Channel, we are uniquely positioned to solve these challenges when we work together in an Ecosystem.
We have therefore been working closely with our authorised distribution partners and have supported them in delivering a market-first managed services offer for IT channel partners. Managed Power as a Service wraps our authorized distributor’s financial services around our managed power solution, transforming single hardware transactions into a monthly service proposition
So how does it work?
Managed Power as a Service enables channel partners to combine APC™ Smart-UPS and services into a single, customer-focused solution, including uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), remote monitoring and 24/7 technical support via a flexible monthly fee.
It includes:
- APC Smart-UPS – single-phase UPS models with preinstalled network management cards for secure, remote monitoring.
- EcoStruxure IT software – award-winning remote monitoring solution offers real-time performance data with proactive recommendations to enable secure, wherever-you-go visibility.
- Monitoring & Dispatch Services – offering 24/7, expert IT support to minimise downtime and business interruptions.
- Flexible finance terms – from participating IT distributors, including contract lengths at 1, 3 and 5-year terms. Agreements are designed to help end-users transition from CapEx-based IT investments to OpEx models and move channel partners from transactional sales to recurring revenue.
By creating an OpEx-based business model with flexible monthly payment terms offered through our authorized IT distributors, IT solution providers are able to help end-users gain access to the technology they need now, reducing the risk of downtime, and removing CapEx constraints.
The benefits are clear for partners: By combining Managed Power as a Service with their own ‘Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS)’ offer, they are now able to extend or launch their managed services capabilities, offering more value-add to customers and generating predictable recurring revenue.
Furthermore, it enables partners to add digital services to hardware sales, and drive revenue (by up to 40% per transaction), while helping customers overcome budgetary constraints.
Getting started with Managed Power as a Service
Managed Power as a Service has been designed to help partners and IT distributors alike combine technology and digital services to meet the changing needs of modern business environments.
For the IT solutions provider looking to develop new business and add data-driven value to their customers, it provides a cost-competitive, flexible, and accessible OpEx model with working capital improvements. Further, it creates a predictable recurring services revenue model, with upfront monthly payments, enabling IT solution providers to add digital services to hardware sales and drive revenue.
Ultimately, Managed Power as a Service enables channel partners to solve key customer challenges such as poor visibility, a lack of in-house technical support and the need to manage distributed IT environments, with an all-in-one solution.
It also meets end users’ immediate requirements for hardware, software, and 24/7 maintenance, with flexible financial services added by IT distributors.
To learn more about the benefits of Managed Power as a Service and options to fit your business, please contact ALSO, Ingram Micro or TechData, or reach out to me directly.
Additional resources
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