Tom’s Franchise Information Blog

I really enjoy writing franchise reviews about all categories of businesses, but taking a look at technology companies are the most fun. The Utility Company and their less-than-five year old Beyond Managed Service franchise operation out of Ottawa, Canada, brings some exciting new ideas to the business of providing enterprise-quality information technology support to small and medium businesses.

Is there anything new here or is this your fathers IT support?

Let’s say you were going to develop a business model from scratch that generates a stable revenue stream in the highly competitive niche of technology support to the small/medium business market. You might look to:

- Minimize expensive direct/indirect labor costs. Centralized enterprise class remote diagnostic tools allow The Utility Company to remediate over 95% of trouble calls without dispatching a technician.

- Address the holistic technology requirements of Small/Medium Businesses. Voice and fax converge to IP-based networks. Copier machines are network friendly. Smartphones become as powerful as desktops. The Utility Companys managed care programs are positioned as a single point of responsibility for all technology related / business affecting issues.

- Support critical business applications. Fix and repair hardware support is barely half the solution as users need to have support for business critical software applications. The Utility Company maintains a list of standard business applications they support and cover under managed care plans.

- Guide customers in optimizing new technology. Virtualization and other cost saving information technology techniques are being used extensively in the enterprise space and will enable similar savings downmarket. Customers of The Utility Company have access to consultative services for evaluating upgrades and perform migration planning.

Operating this form of franchise business would appear to be quite different from the standard computer repair service operation. Customer calls and over 95% of service remediation is accomplished via a centralized help desk at headquarters which also operates a centralized telemarketing group. Beyond the small percentage of service calls that require an on-site visit, the franchisee will primarily be responsible for local sales and marketing.

A relatively low franchise fee of $30,000 and a standard 7% royalty fee get you into the game. The ability to aggressively execute local sales and marketing strategies including networking, cold calling and mail campaigns will be a key success factor. Many entrepreneurs have adopted new marketing techniques and alternatives to traditional franchising. Now is the time to find out what they already know by clicking to http://www.decidefranchise.com.

Michael Petriello teaches, mentors and coaches aspiring online marketers and business owners how to build profitable online businesses. Discover his formula to online success and get FREE access to real training sessions by visiting him now at http://www.decidefranchise.com/.