The document provides information on creating a successful vertical market focus for managed service providers (MSPs). It discusses how vertical markets can help MSPs differentiate, provide higher margins, and lead to discussions with C-level executives. The document outlines 3t Systems' journey developing a healthcare vertical focus, including building credibility in the market through industry events. It also provides tips for MSPs looking to develop vertical market strategies, such as speaking the industry language and gaining expertise in key applications.

1. Vertical Market Excellence:
Your Path to Success
December 6, 2012
Sponsored by:

2. Welcome
Joe Panettieri, Editorial Director
Nine Lives Media, a Division
of Penton Media
E: Joe@NineLivesMediaInc.com

3. What We’ll Cover
• Vertical market opportunities for MSPs
• How to create a vertical market practice
• Navigating obstacles and strategies for
meeting them head on
• Your questions throughout

4. Why Vertical Markets?
• Vertical markets help you differentiate
• Verticals can provide higher margins
• Vertical discussions lead to C-level
executives

5. Please Welcome
Ciaran Dwyer Greg Donovan
CEO VP, Service Providers
3t Systems CA Nimsoft

6. Welcome
Ciaran Dwyer
CEO
3t Systems
MSPmentor 250 Honoree

7. About 3t Systems
• Year Founded: 1994
• Headquarters: Greenwood Village, Colo.
• Number of Employees: 58
• Market Focus: Healthcare Vertical
• Types of Services Offered:
– Consulting
– Managed services
– Hosting, Cloud services, Virtualization
• Honors: MSPmentor 100,
MSPmentor 200, Talkin' Cloud 100

8. Welcome
Greg Donovan
VP, Service Providers
CA Nimsoft

9. About CA Nimsoft
First to Unified Monitoring First to Full Featured SaaS
First to Usage Monitoring First to Datacenter Power
First to Vblock Monitoring First to Unified IT Management
GROWTH MOMENTUM: NIMSOFT SINCE ACQUISITION
9

10. SERVICE DESK
Bridging the Gap between Business and IT
PROBLEM CHANGE
CONFIGURATION
INCIDENT
KNOWLEDGE
SERVICE CATALOG
AND REQUEST
SERVICE LEVEL
MESSAGE BUS MESSAGE BUS
VIRTUALIZATION
APPLICATION
MONITOR
USER EXPERIENCE
STORAGE
CLOUD
DCIM
DATABASE SERVER
NETWORK
10

11. CA Nimsoft MSP Center of Excellence
Areas of Focus:
• Service Catalog
• Team of individuals focused solely on the • Pricing and Packaging
Business Enablement of our Service
Provider partners • Contracting
• Focused in supporting the growth of our • Onboarding
service provider partners by delivering • Service Level Agreements
advisory and enablement services to sustain
momentum and success • Service Offering Launch
• Core Principles of the COE: • Marketing Collateral
₋ We succeed only when you succeed • Sales Enablement & Training
₋ How you define success is unique
• Demonstrating Value
₋ Simple doesn’t mean basic
• Avoiding Commoditization
11

12. Polling Question
Is your company exploring any of the
following vertical markets? (choose one)
A. Healthcare
B. Financial
C. Education
D. Other
E. Not yet, but we plan to soon

13. Vertical Market Focus: The Benefits
• A vertical market focus aligns you with
clients’ businesses
• Your industry knowledge commands a
premium charge
• Vertical expertise keeps you ahead of
commoditization curve

14. Creating a Vertical Market Focus,
First Steps
• Talk to people, go to industry events,
network
• Sign up for vertical industry newsletters,
trade associations
• Read shortcut books for the verticals, i.e.
Health IT Body of Knowledge:
http://www.himss.org/asp/topics_hitbok.
asp
• Be honest – don’t pretend to know the
language fully if you don’t
• But ask questions and keep learning

15. The 3t Systems: Healthcare Vertical,
The Beginning
• 3t had concentration of healthcare
customers without deliberate focus
• Half of 3t recurring revenue from
Healthcare customers
• Conducted analysis of healthcare market
focus for 3t
– Healthcare market outlook
– 3T culture aligned with Healthcare culture
– Healthcare open to outsourcing

16. 3t’s Healthcare Vertical Strategy
• Established timeline, target geography
• Built up 3t credibility in Healthcare
market, filled credibility gaps
• Created Executive Healthcare Forum
– 3t moderates healthcare IT trend discussion, no
technology talk
– C-level experts across client base, network
– First event in June
– Held every two months
– Last one attracted 120 participants

17. 3t’s Healthcare Vertical, Next Steps
• Created video case study with CEO of
Healthcare center
• Built on existing knowledge around EHR,
healthcare organizations from IT
perspective
• New hire made from healthcare
organization
• Acquisitions focused on healthcare IT
practices

18. Vertical Market Best Practices
• Speaking the language of the business
vertical differentiates you
• Application knowledge is essential to
success
• Leverage the knowledge of application
vendors

19. Vertical Market Applications:
Best Practices
• Learn the main applications for your vertical
• Establish good support relationships with
vertical application vendors
• Gain tech expertise in deployment,
performance management of these
applications
• Understand the difference between
application software and IT infrastructure
• Understand and manage the variables that
go into providing a good user experience

20. Vertical Market Tips
• Find verticals that have an appreciation
for technology
• Excellent verticals include healthcare,
legal, accounting
• Don’t brand yourself as vertically-focused
too soon
• Do perform market analysis before you
jump in

21. Ask the Experts
Ciaran Dwyer Greg Donovan
CEO VP, Service Providers
3t Systems CA Nimsoft

22. Where Can I Get More Information?
Nimsoft.com
Nimsoft.com/mspzone
Modern IT Blog: blog.nimsoft.com
Socialize with CA Nimsoft!
Twitter: @nimsoft
FB: facebook.com/Nimsoft
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/Nimsoft/
SlideShare: slideshare.net/NimsoftMonitoring
YouTube: youtube.com/user/Nimsoft

23. Our Next Channel Expert Hour Webcast
Date: Dec. 13
Time: 11:00 a.m. PT/2:00 p.m. ET
Topic: Weathering the Storm: What Every
Solution Provider Should Know About
Disaster Recovery
Register: mspmentor.net/events

24. Nine Lives Media Contacts
Editorial
Joe Panettieri, Editorial Director
E: Joe@NineLivesMediaInc.com
Sponsorship
Amy Katz, President
E: Amy@NineLivesMediaInc.com