It would certainly appear that an increasing number managed IT service providers are selecting a vertical specialization in an effort to become more profitable and scalable. And really, why wouldn’t you? That doesn’t sound like a bad gig!

The numbers demonstrate that when an MSP picks key vertical markets to infiltrate, they end up having enormous success. But why do so many companies elect not to do this, and become the experts in certain practices?

Why vertical specialization is important.

While at one time, simply offering a help desk, network admin, or backup was unique and innovative, this is just not the case today. Adding to this, the cost barrier to compete as an MSP has never been lower. And services such as service desk and NOC are easily outsourced. This influx of competitors and lower barrier to entry has certainly led to a bottleneck. A 2018 survey of the top 501 MSPs by Channel Futures reports that “only 22% of the companies that earned a spot on the MSP 501 this year offer no sort of vertical-market focus.”

It would appear that the best performing and higher growth MSPs have developed a vertical specialization.

Think about it… most business owners are seeking an IT provider they perceive understands their business the best. This is where vertical specialization will help to separate your MSP from the others.

Put yourself in the business owner’s position; all things considered equal from an IT support standpoint who would I trust my IT to more?  Chances are the MSP that exhibits the most business knowledge and understanding about their workflow will win the business.  Even better, this MSP will most likely be able to charge a premium for the same services.

We talked to some of our partners who specialize…

WCI Technology Solutions has historically focused on financial advisors as a primary niche. This particular niche also fits very well with one of WCI’s core focuses: “Protecting What You Value Most,” and The 20 has helped WCI confidently provide this to that niche. I believe WCI has been successful with financial advisors because we have always been very aware that we needed to keep our clients, and their information, safe… Combining The 20’s help desk, security tools (like Deep Instinct), mindset, and working with their strategic partners like The Compliancy Group, WCI is extending our focus to become known as “The Compliancy Experts.” This will enable us to successfully enter additional niches like medical and manufacturing.

–Bill Wright, Owner, WCI Technology Solutions

Stratocent Technologies has a strong partnership with professional services firms – tax and accounting, legal, engineering firms in particular. Each of these have deadlines, mission critical data, regulation, compliance concerns, and a business model that relies heavily on their computers and networks. Our focus on mission-critical environments and workflows has worked very well to prevent downtime, increase confidence and productivity for our clients, often saving them money or increasing profitability in the process.

–Jim Bachaud, CEO, Stratocent Technologies

In our 10th year, BLOKWORX went channel-only when the majority of our new business was peer team and other MSPs looking for assistance. We have a strong presence in financial and other compliance-based industries.

–Rob Boles, President, BLOKWORX

…[TechNoir Solutions provides] IT support to nationwide co-working spaces (commercial real estate). Not only do we get their network up and running, but we can deliver ongoing support to the small businesses that comprise those spaces… Our mission is to be the technology advocate for startups and rapidly growing businesses that are experiencing technology growing pains.

–TJ Mitchell, Director of Sales and Marketing, TechNoir Solutions

How does an MSP determine a vertical specialization?

Look across your client base and study each of your clients. See what you got. And know that verticals aren’t just about particular industries — it’s a melting pot of many factors. Here are items to review when selecting verticals:

• Industry verticals: What particular industries are technology-dependent or see technology as a strategic asset?
• Technology verticals: Do you have knowledge of a particular technology that is in demand? Do you specialize on a particular security offering? Maybe it is document management or some other technology that many MSPs seem to not bother with.
• Geography: Are there particular geographies that are more lucrative than others? Are their parts of your city or state that are not serviced well by all the other managed service companies?

What do you have to lose?

Looking to fast track the growth of your MSP? Click here to learn more about The 20.

Tell us a little about your MSP…

Cirrus Technologies is located just north of Dayton, OH, and service the greater Dayton region, Cincinnati, and Columbus. We support clients and technology in 16 states and 2 countries. We were founded in 2015.

How long have you been a member of The 20?

We’ve been a member of The 20 from day 1 of our business.

Why did your MSP originally look to partner with The 20?

I wanted the ability to scale and grow quickly, and this meant having the team and resources of The 20 behind me vs. going alone as a “one-man-band.”

Tell us about the biggest change in your business since joining The 20…

We’ve had triple digit growth, and achieved an annual revenue that puts us at the top 4% of the industry!

What do you like most about being a member of The 20?

The community, collaboration and sharing of best practices and collective knowledge.

What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?

Tenacity. The going will get tough, but it’s those who persevere and don’t give up who succeed.

What are your biggest business challenges?

Continuing to build reliable lead generation oil wells to grow at the same pace we have been.

What are your areas of focus for 2019?

Sales operations and marketing.

What advice would you share with an MSP looking to scale their business?

2 things:

1. Find someone else successful and model their success; it’s foolish to try and re-invent the wheel.

2. This is a very unforgiving business to those who try to go it alone. Join a community and peer groups; join The 20 – you cannot be successful living on your own island!

What book are you currently reading?

Traction by Gino Wickman, Blue Ocean Strategy by Chan Kim, High Probability Selling by Jacques Werth, and Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself by Mike Michalowicz are all on my short term reading list.

Favorite blogs / podcasts?

EntreLeadership, Lead to Win by Michael Hyatt, and The Brendan Show by Brendan Burchard.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an idea that could radically alter our relationship with technology. The promise of a world in which all of the electronic devices around us are part of a single, interconnected network was once a thing of science fiction. But IoT has not only entered the world of nonfiction — it’s actually taking the world by storm.

While the possibilities of these new technologies are mind-boggling, they also reveal severe IoT cybersecurity challenges. During the last few years, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the number and the sophistication of attacks targeting IoT devices.

A Growing Network

IoT devices are no longer a niche market. They have started to move from our workspaces into our (smart) homes, where IoT devices are expected to have the most significant impact on our daily lives. Most smart home devices will be benign, everyday appliances like kettles and toasters. Even if these devices are hacked and compromised, short of ruining your breakfast, there’s not a lot a hacker can do to cause you grief. However, IoT will encompass a significant portion of the electronics around us in a variety of settings. This includes situations involving intruders and could have lethal consequences.

IoT Cybersecurity Challenges

Numerous cybersecurity experts have exposed severe security flaws in IoT architectures. Some have demonstrated how cars can be hijacked and controlled remotely. Perhaps more alarmingly, they’ve shown how medical devices, such as pacemakers, can be switched on and off at will. While this is undoubtedly alarming, what makes it even more shocking is just how little attention people pay to cybersecurity. IoT cybersecurity challenges are plentiful—and those are just the ones we know of.

Researchers who were able to access a multitude of IoT medical devices found that they weren’t password protected. And when they were password protected, many were using default passwords that an experienced attacker with information from the device manufacturer could crack in a few seconds. We can’t afford to have such basic cybersecurity blunders jeopardize the promise of IoT.

Regulate and Standardize Cybersecurity

Consider the difference in the number of security threats that exist for iPhones versus Android phones. Because all iPhone generations run on the same hardware—representing standardization across devices—it’s much easier to secure them from attacks, implementing comprehensive security measures.

If the IoT revolution is going to succeed, we need to have a robust regulatory framework in place to ensure that device manufacturers adhere to minimum, mutually intelligible IoT cybersecurity standards. We should also standardize device-level security protocols to ensure that each network element is part of a general strategy for combatting common threats. We can’t afford to leave any weak, low-level links unguarded.

With new types of cyber-attacks emerging constantly, it’s essential to get ahead of the curve as soon as possible. Every IoT device has a corresponding IP address. Therefore, each small device can have serious implications for global network privacy. An attacker could potentially infiltrate the network and follow a trail of data from any given device to an end-user.

The next few years will be critical for IoT. The entire concept may well rise or fall on the basis of how well we collectively address cybersecurity risks. Connectivity is always a double-edged sword, and most IoT cybersecurity challenges have yet to be overcome. Fortunately, it seems that device manufacturers are being spurred into action.

It would appear that the airline industry needs The 20.

If you had a ticket on Delta Air Lines a couple of weeks ago, your flight may have been delayed a few hours – and this is something we’ve had to get used to. Flight delays due to a “technology issue” are quickly becoming the new normal for air travelers.

The number of technology-related outages among domestic airlines has risen unevenly during the past decade, from 3 in 2007 to 6 in 2017, with the highest number being 11 in 2015.

IT problems seem to be growing. And while the causes are complex, the contingency plan is as simple as ever. When an airline cancels your flight and blames technology, you can’t accept it with a shrug.

Technology “issues” are getting worse

A recent study conducted by Qualtrics noted that just a single outage can drive away a significant number of customers. More than 34% said they would not book another ticket on an airline with a technology-related service disruption.

In August, Spirit Airlines experienced a system-wide service interruption, which prevented it from checking in passengers. And in June, American Airlines suffered a service outage after a “serious” computer problem. More on that in a minute.

And it’s a worldwide problem as well. Earlier last month, for example, Pakistan International Airlines reportedly delayed its flights after its entire booking system “went down.” Turns out the carrier was switching to a new Turkish web-based product appropriately named “HITIT.”

Delta’s IT problem remains something of a mystery. At 8:28 p.m., the airline announced that its IT teams were “working diligently” to address a technology issue affecting some of its systems. “We have issued a Delta ground stop as we work to bring systems back up as quickly as possible,” the airline said. “There has been no disruption or safety issue with any Delta flight currently in the air.” By 9:20 p.m., Delta announced that it had restored all IT systems, blaming the flight delays on a “technology issue” that “briefly affected some systems this evening.”

And they apologized.

What’s causing these technology glitches?

“While the root cause of each occurrence varies, IT issues among the travel industry can be attributed to several overarching factors,” says Michael Levine, a senior associate at Schellman & Company, an independent security and privacy compliance assessor.

Airlines don’t like to spend a lot of money on technology, so their systems are antiquated before they receive long-overdue upgrades, say experts.

“The complex nature between many integrated systems — reservations, flight scheduling, staff scheduling, and so forth — can lead to breaks in the chain,” says Levine. “Airlines often work with regional subsidiaries, which means that they are affected by their IT infrastructure and outages as well.”

That’s what happened with American Airlines in June. PSA Airlines, a regional subsidiary of American, had a hardware issue with one of its staff scheduling systems. “It appears there might not have been a proper backup system in place, so the outage lasted a lot longer than necessary,” says Levine.

“It’s not just technology. The major airlines have made sufficient investment in redundant systems on multiple networks,” adds Levine. They have “incredibly redundant” storage arrays where the transactional databases running all their operations reside, and that data is backed up in near real-time to multiple locations and private clouds.

“The weak point in the chain,” he explains, “is humans.”

Employees and contractors aren’t adequately trained to monitor the system or to ward off cybercrime.

“It only takes 1 human to do something incredibly ignorant or stupid,” says Levine. The mistakes range from a programmer handling data insecurely or a marketing executive uploading client data into an unsafe third-party app.

“It takes a serious commitment from the highest level of executives to spend intelligently and adequately, to deter possibilities of major outages or data breaches,” he says.

Sounds like they need to be introduced to an unbeatable IT service with decades of experience and demonstrated expertise to solve their problems…

Contact us.

Yes.

Of course you should be.

Experts predict that by 2020 there will be 200 billion connected things. We’re talking cars, planes, homes, cities, and yes, even animals. Software is being placed everywhere, and it’s changing the way we live, and how we behave and interact with the world around us. As technology becomes more and more integrated into our day-to-day lives, we become more and more dependent on it. But this dependence makes us vulnerable if technology fails.

I mean, I know for me, when I’m on the road and my iPhone runs out of battery, it pretty much feels like the end of the world. Am I directionally challenged? Yes. But even more than my GPS being gone, I’m not able to access my contacts; my messages are disabled. In such moments, you realize how dependent you are on technology. It’s ridiculous, but it’s 100% true.

In today’s world, it’s important that technology is available, protected and secure. If not, we will all suffer consequences in our daily lives.

Cybersecurity Problems Are Everywhere

While I have a generally positive view of technology, I am worried about our future. I believe it’s important to be aware of the serious cybersecurity problems currently affecting technology.

And it seems that the same problems keep happening over and over again. We are not getting any better as far as what’s vulnerable and what’s secure. Technology appears to be becoming more and more insecure as we get more and more dependent on it.

From what I can see, most technology is vulnerable and can be hacked. We see examples of this every day: alarm systems, power grids, automobiles, traffic systems, the list goes on. Every year, thousands of cybersecurity problems are identified in technologies from well-known vendors. Some of those vendors are among the best at cybersecurity, yet they still have hundreds of security problems each year.

Cybersecurity Threats Are Increasing

A recent report on IoT cybersecurity found that 70% of devices did not encrypt communications, while this survey found that IoT cybersecurity and privacy are a top concern for people and companies.

Another report found that cyberattacks have been growing quickly over the last couple of years, and there’s nothing to indicate they won’t just keep increasing.

All of these cybersecurity problems make cyberattacks easier and more dangerous. So why are there so many cybersecurity problems in today’s technology? My research has shown that the main problems are threefold.

First, a lack of knowledge and awareness about the importance of cybersecurity. Some companies don’t care about cybersecurity, while others care but don’t know what to do or how to do it. Second, complex scenarios where old, new and different technologies are used together. This happens frequently as businesses update, and just one insecure component could make a whole system insecure. Finally, a lack of time and money for security. Products need to be built and released quickly. There is a “fail fast, fail often” mantra, which is only fine as long as you “fail safe.”

The Economic Impact of Cybersecurity Attacks is Significant

Cybersecurity problems and attacks cause billions of dollars in losses every year. For example, the smart alarm SimpliSafe hack that affected 300,000 devices, and the only possible fix was to replace all of them. The UK company TalkTalk was hacked and lost about £50 million. They also lost more than 100,000 customers, and their stock value declined by 20%. A car hack in 2015 resulted in 1.4 million cars being recalled by Chrysler. And we can’t forget the Sony hacking scandal that resulted in millions of dollars in losses.

It’s clear that there are growing cybersecurity problems. And beyond having an economic impact, they also have an impact in our daily lives as our technology dependence continues to grow. In 2018, we must work together to change this situation before it gets even worse.