MSP

Collabrance’s “White Glove” IT Service for MSPs: A Closer Look

Collabrance, a Master MSP that offers help desk, NOC and sales support services to peer MSPs, ended its fiscal 2017 with record revenue growth and stellar customer satisfaction, the company claims.

Among the metrics to watch: Collabrance customers reported 97.2% satisfaction level and a 95.3% success rate in remote ticket resolution. Actual revenue and profit figures, however, were not disclosed.

Greg VanDeWalker
Greg VanDeWalker

Collabrance launched in 2009 under the GreatAmerica Financial Services umbrella to help copier dealers and office equipment specialists address customer support. From the outset, Collabrance offered so-called “white glove” service by focusing on select equipment platforms.

In November 2016, Greg VanDeWalker transitioned from GreatAmerica to become senior VP for IT channel and services at Collabrance. Speaking with ChannelE2E late last year, VanDeWalker said he had two key priorities: expand the number of partners and increase services.

VanDeWalker said in December 2016 Collabrance “will not sacrifice our service levels amid our growth. Our white glove treatment of partners and their customers will continue.”

The Eternal Question: To Build Or Outsource?

GreatAmerica is perhaps best known for its financing options and Hardware as a Rental (HaaR) solutions for channel partners. But the company doubled down on Collabrance last year. The move came at a time when many MSPs and IT channel partners were trying to decide whether to build or outsource their help desks and network operation centers.

There’s been a push by many third-party companies to offer outsourced NOC and help desk services to MSPs, but supporting so many platforms across the country requires a lot of infrastructure and keeps the barrier to entry quite high.

Other key players in the market include Continuum, GMS Live Expert, Inbay, Live Virtual Help Desk, NetEnrich and ConnectWise.

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