Office 365 Backup & MSP Sales techniques

[thecomputerguy]

Backup for Office 365 has kind of been an area of my business that I've neglected for some time, but it's something I'd like to begin so that I can further the redundancy of my clients, add a line item for MSP, and lower my overall liability.

There are some bullet points that I keep circling back to that I'm curious as to what others thoughts are, and how you would answer them when attempting this up sale into your MSP platform.

Below are some questions that my client, or even I might have while explaining the purpose of the product (DropSuite).

General:
We've been with you for X years, and used O365 for X years, why now all of the sudden do we need this, we've never had a problem before?

Exchange:
When we delete something doesn't it just go to our Deleted items and we can recover it from there?
So you say our Deleted Items has a retention policy of 30-days, don't you think I'd know if I deleted something on accident by that point?
Even after it's permanently deleted, can't we still retrieve it for 14-days?

OneDrive:
When I delete something can't I just grab it back from my recycle bin after I delete it?
If I delete something and empty my recycle bin don't I have 30-days to recover it, don't you think I'd know if I deleted something on accident by that point?
If I make a mistake on a file can't I just revert it back to it's previous version?

Teams Data:
We just use teams for chat and video conferencing, why would we need to back that up?

Sharepoint Data:
If an employee deletes something from a synced Teams folder, can't we just find it in their recycle bin?
If we can't find it in there isn't there a recycle bin for our Server? (Sharepoint Library).

----------------

I think the above are all valid questions that I might need to answer when trying to sell this product. I can very much see a purpose in this in the event that someone renames a file, or moves a file into a different directory mistakenly and how it might be difficult to retrieve something like that but I'm curious as to how others would answer the questions above.

I also understand retention wise I can have Dropsuite extend retention far longer than 30 days, which of course is a benefit.

I also understand the MS is not responsible for backing up your data, so in the event that something catastrophic happens for one reason or another whether it be on the MS end or the user end, it's not MS's problem no matter what.

@YeOldeStonecat

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

So 3rd party 365 backup is soooooo cheap. There's one point.
Sure, "previous versions" in OneDrive/Teams is quite easy to roll back or fetch a hosed file.

But, sometimes, going back on email is not easy, nor granular, with native 365 tools.
And the first time someone deletes a large folder in a document library in Teams/SP...and you find out how excrutiatingl tedious it is to restore those files 1x at a time...yes...1x file at a time..OK...1x page at at time.....yeah, sucks big time.

Often compliance policies that a business falls under requires backups.

Ransomware is always evolving...know how it can nuke previous version with on prem servers? Who knows when it can whack those in 365.

I modify those default retention policies to "never delete". The 30 is too short for me.

 

[thecomputerguy]

So 3rd party 365 backup is soooooo cheap. There's one point.
Sure, "previous versions" in OneDrive/Teams is quite easy to roll back or fetch a hosed file.

But, sometimes, going back on email is not easy, nor granular, with native 365 tools.
And the first time someone deletes a large folder in a document library in Teams/SP...and you find out how excrutiatingl tedious it is to restore those files 1x at a time...yes...1x file at a time..OK...1x page at at time.....yeah, sucks big time.

Often compliance policies that a business falls under requires backups.

Ransomware is always evolving...know how it can nuke previous version with on prem servers? Who knows when it can whack those in 365.

I modify those default retention policies to "never delete". The 30 is too short for me.

I'm looking at a cost under $3 per user from Dropsuite and to maximize it, I'm looking at trying to resell it at $10 per user per month, since I'll be the one who's ultimately responsible for it, I don't want to make pennies on this product.

Thank for the information

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

What you charge is up to you, we resell at MSRP.
We make our money on:
*Core fee...each of our Level plan options has a core fee, just to get in the door
*365 tenant management fee. 365 is really another server to manage...while we're not doing monthly Microsoft updates and reboots, and we're not monitoring hardware, drive space, failed drive, etc...it's actually more time consuming than a typical on prem server. There's so much more to do. At least to stay "proactive".

Either approach works, so far we've been "per device" pricing, combined with "per line item"...everything's a line item. However, the "stack" is starting to get a bit high, we're starting to discuss the idea of "per user" pricing to get the whole stack.

Every new quote I do...here's sorta a typical one.
Example...MSP Level 1 plan (no remote or onsite support included, those are billed hourly)
*Level 1 Core....$120.00 (level 2 is more, level 3 is even more)
*Level 1 Server (if an on prem server) $120.00 per server
*Level 1 Workstation...$15.00 per workstation (includes patching and AV)
*365 Biz Prem...$22.00 per user
*365 Tenant Management ...say, $75.00 - $125.00 for most tenant sizes. More for larger. We're still tweaking this one.
*Dropsuite...$15.00 per 5-pack (we only sell in 5-packs)
*DNS Filter...$10.00 per 5-pack (we only sell in 5-packs)
*If any on prem that needs backup, Datto...blah blah

Access to HUDU, and BreachSecureNow, including in level 2 and level 3 plans

 

[putz]

Backup for Office 365 has kind of been an area of my business that I've neglected for some time, but it's something I'd like to begin so that I can further the redundancy of my clients, add a line item for MSP, and lower my overall liability.

There are some bullet points that I keep circling back to that I'm curious as to what others thoughts are, and how you would answer them when attempting this up sale into your MSP platform.

Below are some questions that my client, or even I might have while explaining the purpose of the product (DropSuite).

General:
We've been with you for X years, and used O365 for X years, why now all of the sudden do we need this, we've never had a problem before?

Exchange:
When we delete something doesn't it just go to our Deleted items and we can recover it from there?
So you say our Deleted Items has a retention policy of 30-days, don't you think I'd know if I deleted something on accident by that point?
Even after it's permanently deleted, can't we still retrieve it for 14-days?

OneDrive:
When I delete something can't I just grab it back from my recycle bin after I delete it?
If I delete something and empty my recycle bin don't I have 30-days to recover it, don't you think I'd know if I deleted something on accident by that point?
If I make a mistake on a file can't I just revert it back to it's previous version?

Teams Data:
We just use teams for chat and video conferencing, why would we need to back that up?

Sharepoint Data:
If an employee deletes something from a synced Teams folder, can't we just find it in their recycle bin?
If we can't find it in there isn't there a recycle bin for our Server? (Sharepoint Library).

----------------

I think the above are all valid questions that I might need to answer when trying to sell this product. I can very much see a purpose in this in the event that someone renames a file, or moves a file into a different directory mistakenly and how it might be difficult to retrieve something like that but I'm curious as to how others would answer the questions above.

I also understand retention wise I can have Dropsuite extend retention far longer than 30 days, which of course is a benefit.

I also understand the MS is not responsible for backing up your data, so in the event that something catastrophic happens for one reason or another whether it be on the MS end or the user end, it's not MS's problem no matter what.

@YeOldeStonecat

The answer to all those questions is that data backup is an insurance policy. Nobody can predict all scenarios that could result in data loss, but there are many. Also as you touched on, MS recommends it. Recreating important company data takes time which costs money, and with some data, recreating it may not be possible. Also, time is money on your end too. It's not always feasible to spend countless hours tracking down where or how data went missing. If you're billing your client hourly for support that means they're paying you more money the longer it takes. If you checked all the obvious things and the data is gone, having the option to restore from a backup saves your client lost time.

 

[Archon Prime]

SaaS backup isn't going to break the bank. This is going to give peace of mind for sure. It's going to be a bigger headache and possibly more money lost/spent to endure the lost email, file, etc. vs. the actual cost of the backups. It's a no-brainer with SaaS backup.

 

[brandonkick]

So to @YeOldeStonecat point about restoring nuked folders. Damn. That wasn't QA tested very well....

So if I delete a whole folder (with many nested files and sub folders)... when I restore that parent level folder from the recycle bin... it restores... JUST. THAT. FOLDER.

Wow. How dumb is that haha. You have to then identify everything else that SHOULD be in that parent folder, and restore those one at a time (or like mentioned... one page at a time). Not great UI/UX design there.


The real problem with most every client (as so many have said on here for years) is that problems are never problem until they are. There's no real magic to make people understand. No pitch. It's just straight from the heart. Look. We wear seatbelts because we want to be protected when disaster strikes. Just because we motor on down the highway at 80 mph every day for years, never wrecking... doesn't mean that seatbelt (or whatever other car safety features) aren't important. That ONE time you T-Bone another car that pulled out in front of you... those safety features just might save your life. The 0365 backup is the same thing. That ONE time you get hit with ransomware... this $3 per user, per month safety net could very well be the difference between this being a minor annoyance, or you shutting your doors for good.

So there can be some importance in the deliver, drawing a good analogy and such. But you just can't make them accept that there is a real danger and thus NEED for the extra protection if they don't want to believe it.


Honestly... if I resold and managed 0365... I don't even know that I'd make it optional. You get it, you pay for it... regardless of if you want it or not. Then when you call me stating half your files got deleted by the new hire who can't work a can opener, or you got infected with ransomware, or you got a court suponea and you need detailed journal level archive backups of your companies mailboxes.... well hell... I'm your huckleberry.