Azure Lighthouse is launching the “Azure Lighthouse Vision Series,” a new initiative to help partners with the business challenges of today and provide them the resources and knowledge needed to create a thriving Azure practice.
We are starting the series with a webinar aimed at helping our IT service partners prepare for and manage a new global economic climate. This webinar will be hosted by industry experts from Service Leadership Inc., advisors to service provider owners, and executives worldwide. It will cover offerings and execution strategies for solutions and services to optimize profit, growth, and stock value. Service Leadership publishes the Service Leadership Index® of solution provider performance, the industry’s broadest and deepest operational and financial benchmark service.
The impact of a recession on service providers
As we continue through unchartered economic territory, service providers must prepare for possible recovery scenarios. Service Leadership has developed an exclusive (and no-cost) guide for service provider owners and executives called the Rapid Recovery™ Planning Guide, based on historical financial benchmarks of solution providers in recessions, and likely recovery scenarios.
The guide unlocks the best practices used by those service providers who did best in past recessions, as evidenced by their financial performance from the 2008 recession to the present day. As noted in the guide, through their Service Leadership Index® Annual Solution Provider Industry Profitability Report™, Service Leadership determined that:
- In the 2001 and 2008 recessions, value-added reseller (VAR) and reseller revenue declined an average 45 percent within two quarters.
- In the 2008 recession, mid-size and enterprise managed services providers (MSPs) experienced a 30 percent drop in revenue within the first three quarters.
- Private cloud providers saw the smallest average dip, only 10 percent, in past recessions.
- Project services firms experienced the most significant decline, having dropped into negative adjusted EBITDA back in 2008.
The upcoming webinar will explore methods used by the top performing service providers to plan and execute successfully in the current economy.
Tackling the challenges of today and tomorrow
Service providers have an essential role to play in our economic recovery. As we shift to a remote working culture, companies across the globe are ramping up efforts to reduce cost, ensure continuity in all lines of business, and manage new security challenges with a borderless office.
The chart below shows how three Service Provider Predominant Business Models™ have performed since the end of the last recession.
During the webinar, Service Leadership will provide estimated financial projections using multiple economic scenarios through 2028. These predictions, coupled with service provider best practices for managing an economic downturn, will be at the heart of our presentation.
Navigating success with Azure
Our Principal PM Manager for Azure Lighthouse, Archana Balakrishnan, will join Service Leadership to illustrate how Microsoft Azure Management tools can give service providers the tools needed to scale, automate, and optimize managed services on Azure.
Join us to learn how you can build and scale your Azure practice utilizing one native Azure solution to centrally manage your customer environments, monitor cost and performance, ensure compliance and proper governance, and optimize using the latest capabilities of Azure Lighthouse and Azure Arc.
Event details
Azure Lighthouse Vision Series: Rapid Recovery Planning for IT Service Providers
In this session, industry expert Paul Dippell, CEO of Service Leadership Inc., and Principal PM Manager for Azure Lighthouse, Archana Balakrishnan will cover these topics:
- Likely upcoming macro-economic scenarios.
- Likely service provider revenue and profit paths through recovery.
- Suggested actions for service providers to maximize revenue, profit, and safety.
- Azure Management tools for building and scaling services on Azure.
- Closing advice for partners.
Paul and Archana will be available for a live Q&A with attendees during this session.
The webinar will be held on Monday, June 29, 2020 from 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PT. To register for this free event, please visit, Azure Lighthouse Vision Series: Rapid Recovery Planning for IT Service Providers.
