When Michael Andrea came on board as a principle at Parallel Edge, the MSP was undergoing a major shift in its business model. “We were in the process of making managed services contracts a

must-have for all new clients, and working to transition some of our legacy clients as well,” says Andrea. “It was a major shift in sales strategy and ser-vice delivery, but we knew that the only way we could properly manage our clients’ infrastructures without doubling the number of our technicians was to remotely monitor and manage their IT assets.” To get things moving quickly, the MSP did away with long-term contracts and offered clients’ monthly service plans. “We’ve always believed that contracts create a lose-lose situation,” says Andrea. “Customers feel stuck and service providers’ renewal rates drop, which defeats the whole purpose for wanting to lock customers into lengthy contracts in the first place.” While some may view this as a poor business decision, Parallel Edge’s consistent growth and customer retention rate prove otherwise. “To date, we have more than 80% of our customers on a managed services program and our custom-er retention rate is very high.” But something was missing. Shortly after its transition into managed ser-vices, Parallel Edge realized it ran the risk of offering a “me too” service and needed to differentiate itself from competitors and direct RMM players. After researching several options, the MSP decided to expand its offering to include data backup and recovery services. While the idea was a good one, finding a reliable backup vendor turned out to be a whole other matter.

Finding a Viable Alternative to Tape Backup“After reviewing some of our customers’ backup systems and processes, we ruled out selling tape as a viable backup option and began looking at cloud backup vendors,” recalls Andrea. Through its affiliation with the ASCII Group and other channel organizations, Parallel Edge went on the hunt to find a more reliable data backup option that would appeal to clients and offered better security, usability and business availability, without being too pricey. The MSP received his answer when peer after peer recommended he look at Intronis. “Right away we liked the measures Intronis took to protect and store customers’ data in a reliable and secure cloud data center,” says Andrea.

Parallel Edge breaks Into new markets and generates record revenues with Intronis.

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sales@intronis.com 800-569-0155 www.intronis.com @intronisinc

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StrategyWe knew that the only way we could properly manage our clients’ infrastructures without doubling the number of our technicians was to remotely monitor and manage their IT assets.

BDROur financial services customers are on the move and typically use laptops to get business done from just about anywhere. It was risky business, but with our cloud BDR solution, the client only needs an Internet connection for backups to work.

IntronisWorking with Intronis gives us and our clients’ complete assurance that their data can be recovered from any situation. Plus, it’s great to work with a business partner that’s 100% committed to growing its business by helping us grow our business.

Michael Andrea’s take on:

The Secret to Standing Out in a Crowd of MSPs

Company Name: Parallel EdgeYear Founded: 1994Headquarters: Wayne, PAVertical: Architects, engineers, and financial companiesURL: www.paralleledge.comEmployees: 11

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About IntronisIntronis Cloud Backup and Recovery is a world-class cloud backup solution for the IT channel. Intronis provides

the industry’s easiest-to-use secure data solution for offsite and local backup, which generates a monthly recur-

ring revenue stream for your business. Intronis offers the best Exchange and SQL backup on the market, supports

virtualized environments with native VMware backup, and is integrated with major solutions in the MSP ecosystem.

Partners receive expert customer support from Intronis’ U.S.-based team. The solution has been field tested by

thousands of MSPs, and the company has been named Best Revenue Generator seven times and Best Customer

Support three times by members of ASCII. Learn more at www.intronis.com or on Twitter at twitter.com/IntronisInc.

0Sign up for a no cost, no obligation trial of Intronis and read the Intronis Cloud Backup and Recovery Blog.

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“The fact that Intronis has backup monitoring functionality built into the software so we can confirm whether a backup was completed is a big deal, too. Now, if anything doesn’t go as planned, we are automatically alerted and can have the alert sent automatically to our PSA or directly to the client. And, if a client accidentally deletes a file, we can use Intronis to restore the file in no time.” Parallel Edge also uses Kaseya and N-able RMM platforms to manage its customers’ IT resources, and it uses ConnectWise for its PSA platform, which includes ticketing, CRM and billing. All of these managed services tools are closely integrated with Intronis, which enables the MSP to see all monitored client activities from a single portal. With Intronis at the core of its IT services portfolio, Parallel Edge’s business has experi-enced steady growth. And last year, Intronis made an introduction that would change the game for Parallel Edge. “The sales team at Intronis shared a highly qualified, local financial services company lead with us,” says Andrea. “What started out as a good deal has grown into a great business relationship. The firm is headquartered near our Boston facility, but they have franchises all over the country. In a little over a year ago, we’ve picked up 30 of their affiliate companies. That’s a big win.”

A New Backup Partnership Opens New Business Opportunities“The introduction has led to even more opportunities for Parallel Edge,” says Andrea. “Al-though finance wasn’t a vertical market we were initially targeting, the market potential for cloud backup services within finance-focused companies was undeniable.” “Our financial services customers are on the move and typically use laptops to get business done from just about anywhere,” he says. “At times, they’d go for more than a week before plugging back into the company network and backing up their files. It was risky business, but with our cloud BDR solution, the client only needs an Internet connection for backups to work.” To date, Parallel Edge is monitoring more than 15 TB of its customers’ data in its cloud backup vendor’s data center. Additionally, about 60% of Parallel Edge’s revenue comes from its subscription-based services and the company, which earned $2.7 million in annual sales revenue in 2012, is on track to far surpass that number for 2013.