The Utility Company releases 'Green IT Card' service 14 September, 2008 By Liam Lahey

PromoPipeline Exclusive Channel Promotions Find Out How You Can Make Money Today! ENROLL FREE! >> Factory Direct Should Not be Cheaper William Vanderbilt - Innovative Learning Channels Cloud Ecosystem II: A Candid Conversation with Oracle Beth Vanni - Amazon Consulting Cloud Ecosystem: A Candid Conversation with Rackspace Hosting Beth Vanni - Amazon Consulting Channel Manager Compensation William Vanderbilt - Innovative Learning Channels Financial Expertise William Vanderbilt - Innovative Learning Channels

The Utility Company fancies itself as an "Accenture/IBM Global Services organization for the SMB market", said Mark Scott, president and founder of The Utility Company.

"The SMB market is fragmented . . . it's a very difficult market to scalably [sic] market and sell technology to. We're looking at addressing it in a different way," he explained. "The 25 user companies out there don't need a full implementation of Exchange or an on-premise CRM system. More of them are looking at it being delivered as a Web-based service."

But there are challenges. He conceded there is much room for his company and for managed services to grow in the SMB space.

"Within the managed service space . . . we've seen purpose-built tools for the channel . . . the typical IT VAR wants to move away from the traditional break-fix model to a more proactive approach," he continued. "There's tons of hype about it but in reality managed services adoption is still relatively low . . . unlike Software-as-a-Service which has had game-changing companies like Salesforce.com, managed services hasn't had that rock star company for the investment community to point at and to excite end user adoption."

He likened the managed service market to the reseller market adding "it's fragmented with a lot of small organizations doing under half a million in revenue."

And it doesn't help that most small companies view technology acquisition as it would paying tax: a necessary evil.

"Our value proposition is a cost-saving, efficiency pitch," he remarked. "With an uncertain economy, SMBs are looking for better ways to leverage their existing technology . . . the Green IT Card is a great way to consume the amount of technology you want in a utility model and then grow over time as you wish."

Citing utility computing strategies like The Utility Co.'s 1-866-My-Utility Per Minute helpdesk, crosses the chasm from onsite to remote technology support and then eventually to proactive managed IT services and beyond.

"The Green IT Card provides new users with a great introduction to our Connected Office service portfolio and is designed specifically for the SMB market," he said. "With managed IT services end-user adoption currently sitting at only 10 per cent clearly there has to be a better option for companies to transition to more efficient (and green) technology service models. We feel the Green IT Card provides that first step and gets technicians, and their cars, off the road in 90 per cent of the cases."

The Green IT Card allows users to evolve from onsite to remote technology support with Utility's Per Minute Live Helpdesk service. Customers call 1-866-My-Utility (698-8454) when they need help and instantly receive support on demand for only $2 per minute. This means technology consumers are only billed for the support they actually use. The Green IT Card enables its holders to experience their first call, up to 30 minutes, free.

Benefits include: 8am-8pm ET access to live helpdesk service and support, over 90 per cent of issues resolved remotely, no minimum charges or travel, dramatically reduced waiting times and time to resolution, universal ID code for corporate use, great supplementary support for internal IT departments, and 50-80 per cent savings over typical break-fix support contracts.

Sign-up and service activation is available through www.theutilitycompany.com/perminute.

And despite its North American-wide presence (it has partners in 60 cities currently), The Utility Co. is on the hunt for more local partners to sign on to represent the service.

"We're definitely expanding," Scott told eChannelLine. "The real focus is growing out some of the major metro areas . . . we work in an exclusive territory model so it's different from the traditional way companies approach the channel.

"We're recruiting all across North America . . . we need junior to intermediate level technicians to do occasional onsite service and people that have a good idea of sales and marketing."