Adding a new product to your software stack

[HCHTech]

@YeOldeStonecat said something in another thread about a new Huntress feature:

ALSO..their upcoming ISPM module...which they released to some beta testers about a month ago (of course I signed up). Identity Security Posture Management. This will be a pay for add-on once it's fully released....it is part of the addition to their stack since they purchased "Inside Agent 365". There's another component from that tool but only avail if you also use their full SEIM.

This brings up a point I've been meaning to post about. When some software in your stack comes out with some new thing that will cost more, or you just discover something new you want to add to your protection suite, how do you handle this as a company? Do you:

• Make another sales pitch to all of your clients and charge more? - This results in a slow, painful rollout that never ends.
• Roll it out and eat the cost for now, pledging to increase the cost when everyone's contract renews? - This results in an immediate lowering of your profit margin across the board, but at least the rollout is quicker - not quick exactly, just quicker than the first choice.
• Something else?

It seems like no matter how you do it, it's a lot of work (not to mention the learning curve). Everytime something new comes along, we're faced with this decision and it's never a happy one. Maybe I'm missing the point, or just getting old and cranky - haha.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

[*]Roll it out and eat the cost for now, pledging to increase the cost when everyone's contract renews? - This results in an immediate lowering of your profit margin across the board, but at least the rollout is quicker - not quick exactly, just quicker than the first choice.

It's a good point..and we default to above.

In the past, we used to (once contract is up)....add the line item onto the monthly.
Which results in that long list of items bloating over time. Patch management, endpoint security, DNS filter..for workstations. For 365...stack on management..stack on cloud backup...stack on monitoring...stack on best practice templates.....

...so now we have 1x line item for workstations. And it currently includes..patch management, endpoint security, DNS Filter. Just...the price per workstation went up.

And for 365...we have 1x line item per user...which covers the 365 security (75% secure score minimum)....cloud backup....user monitoring...and cyber security training)....

The cost of things like ITDR, or Augmentt...SaaS Alerts, whatever....really isn't all that much.
We used to just toss a fixed price per client for 365 Tenant Management (basically our time to tweak the tenant to best practices, and monitor it)...and then also add cloud backup. We'd start at like...I think $125/month....no matter what size client (maybe adjust a little less or more if a small client of 2 or 3 users..or over 75 users). But now we do a fixed "per user" of $20/mo...to cover the tenant management, cloud backup, help absorb the cost of tools like Augmentt (for now) and Huntress ITDR, and then cover cyber security training (BSN). This scales well...keeps it fair for the small clients, and keeps use from getting hurt from big clients.

365 licenses per user we do not bundle in that, those get sold at monthly price MSRP to clients....so usually $26.40 per user per month because I don't want to deal with lower than business premium.(except for those apps for biz clients)