20 01732 759725 Project overflow Channel Sales Director James Pittick adds that while the most in-demand service is technology break-fix, FUTERA is seeing growing interest in logistics, e.g. deliveries and installations, and project overflow, where a business may have the capacity to do something but not at scale. “Say you’re doing network cabinet remediation for a customer across multiple sites. If you’re in Newcastle, you might be able to get to your customer’s sites in the north-east, but not to their site in Brighton or their site in Gloucester. You might need help with the regional overflow, which is what we can provide,” he explains. “A term we use is ‘smart hands’, using one of our team to be your eyes and ears and hands on-site. You might be able to configure things remotely but need us to go and plug something in or relay what’s displayed on a screen. Having a competent person with good fundamental knowledge to help with that is an easy service for people to plug in.” Manning adds that IT outsourcing gives customers the flexibility to accommodate changing requirements as they scale. “Growing MSPs might outsource for a bit, then get to the point where they’ve got 50 or 60 staff and decide to bring somebody in-house. Then they realise, as they scale to 150 staff, that one person’s not enough, so they’ll outsource again. Then, when they get up to 300 staff, they might go ‘right, we’ll have a full desk now’.” Today, FUTERA has 16 service lines that CEO Lee Manning describes as the company’s ‘engine of growth’. The same could be said of the company’s channel sales. IT outsourcing FUTERA already provides IT outsourcing services to hundreds of channel businesses and, following a period focused on integrating its employee ownership model and strengthening its operational foundations, it is now actively targeting IT MSPs that may not have the scale or resources to deliver those services themselves. For them, FUTERA offers a compelling proposition, particularly at a time when profit margins are under pressure, the cost of employing people has gone up and SME customers are consolidating their supplier relationships and expecting a trusted technology partner to deliver an expanded range of services. Its services give IT MSPs the ability to add capability without having to invest in headcount and systems, often to meet short-term capacity constraints or the requirements of a specific project, such as last year’s Windows 11 upgrades or changes to ISO 27001 requirements. FUTERA has even been asked to quote for a roll-out of 2,500 connected coffee machines. As Manning says: “It’s not specifically IT, but we’ve got the warehousing and logistics and smart people to do it.” Technology services provider FUTERA is poised for strong double-digit growth this year, and the IT MSP community is central to its plans. One year after establishing its new identity and new ownership – it is now an employee-owned business – FUTERA is anticipating growth of around 30% this year, based on its Q1 performance. Formed last year from the merger of IT and managed print services provider United Business Group (UBG) and Paralogic, a provider of channel-only support & logistics services (acquired by UBG in 2023), FUTERA provides a comprehensive range of technology services both to end user business customers and IT MSPs. These include managed print services, in which it has almost 40 years of experience; managed IT services, which UBG started offering almost a decade ago and has been expanding ever since, organically and through acquisitions like that of cloud and IT support provider Turncloud in 2021; and essential support services such as field servicing break fix, logistics, installation, pre-delivery inspection and secure disposal. Doing things the right way COVER STORY James Pittick How FUTERA is helping IT MSPs grow faster and provide a better customer experience
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDUxNDM=