Utility Company Unveils Business Assessment Service For MSPs

A free online offering available through The Utility Company's Web site, Meter Reading helps MSP franchises rate the efficiency of their SMB customers' technology spending and business management, said Mark Scott, founder of Ottawa-based Utility Company, and the former CEO of N-able Technologies.

Meter Reading works like a scorecard, and Utility Company partners populate fields of data related to customers' hardware and software expenses and answer questions about how a particular customer's environment is run. The process takes about 15 minutes, and solution providers that are not Utility Company partners are welcome to test drive the new feature, Scott said.

The idea behind Meter Reading is to help show MSPs and their SMB customers how effective their technology spending and business practices are, according to Scott. For example, if a typical SMB customer is spending about $360 per user, per month on technology and only utilizing 15 percent of it, Meter Reading will identify the inefficiency, he said.

Meter Reading now becomes an integral element for Utility Company franchise owners, which will be encouraged to have their meters read on a regular basis to maintain utmost efficiency, Scott added. "Meter Reading will be the key piece to our engagement model," he said.

Four meters cover technology spending, operations, organizational communication and management. The Spending Meter breaks down the costs of hardware, software and services on a per-seat basis. The Operations Meter identifies the effectiveness of technology in business terms. The Communications Meter charts how well interdepartmental communications is working, and the Management Meter scores the effectiveness of the overall business processes.

Solution providers who participate in the Meter Reading system become potential leads for The Utility Company to approach as new partners, Scott said.