Soul Technologies (MSP) sees 20% annual growth of their managed hosted cloud solution using Parallels RAS and the Partner Program.

Soul Technologies is an MSP (Managed Service Provider) located in Guatemala and has been a customer of Parallels RAS since 2009 when it was known as 2X Client RDP.

Soul Technologies had built a business plan that revolved around their research which showed that with the rapid changes in technology, many companies needed services around data security, hosting, infrastructure, networking and applications. What’s more, they wanted services offered by a local company who understood their needs and could respond in a personalized and agile manner.

Soul Technologies was confident the MSP offering they were developing could be the solution these companies needed. However, Soul was still looking for that last component that would help them scale.

The Challenge Managing client data efficiently and securely while ensuring ease of scalability.

Soul Technologies was looking for:

• Centralized data and application management
• Easy deployment and administration
• Security

Back in 2009 when Soul Technologies was building their business, they recognized many of their potential clients were small to medium companies, but with the same needs as enterprise businesses; they required data protection, clear communication with databases, and seamless synchronization with IT systems. It was alarming to the Soul Technologies team to learn these businesses were paying exorbitant costs for maintaining their databases and not actually using most of the infrastructure they were paying for.

At the time, “cloud” wasn’t a commonly used term, but Soul knew that offering managed services via the cloud would help them scale and provide solutions to businesses that would otherwise not be available at costs they could afford.

The challenge was finding a solution that would support their business plan.

Christian Lowenthal, COO, began his research by evaluating terminal service solutions but none met their requirements. Microsoft RDS required too many layers and tools to manage. And Citrix was too costly and complex; basic deployments never went smoothly, and its printing capabilities regularly needed attention. They also suspected the amount of ongoing customer support would be a detriment.

The TestCan a multi-tenancy model enable a version of managed services that everyone could use?

As they investigated Parallels RAS, they were impressed to see that it offered a centralized management solution, printing was seamless, security was solid on their disaster recovery systems, and the learning curve was minimal.

They immediately saw the potential in both time savings for their IT team and cost savings for data protection.

A demo was set up on a small server connected through DSL. Christian immediately saw that very little bandwidth was required. Already a win for Soul Technologies.

They tested multi-tenancy and it proved to be very effective at keeping costs down since clients could share costs for such things as security, bandwidth, and tools. Soul quickly realized that multi-tenancy would allow them to create a version of their managed services that everyone could use. The wheel didn’t need to be reinvented for each new client —another confirmation that time and money would be saved.

For the next three months, Christian performed a complete evaluation on 2000 desktops, and it was clear Parallels RAS was the right solution to help Soul Technologies propel their MSP business.

The SolutionParallels RAS SPLA licensing model bolsters business immediately.

At the time, with customers bringing their own ERP licensing and by using open-source tools for VPN (they now just use RAS as their security tool), Soul was able to develop managed hosted cloud services (including providing backups) with a final cost that was advantageous for all parties.

One key element is that Soul has their own data center where they host their solutions. This is beneficial for their clients as it offers an extra layer of security, increases productivity with 24/7 access to data, and provides scalability. This accommodates and enables Soul’s expansion alongside their clients’ growth.

With Parallels RAS, Soul could confidently illustrate how their solution would keep their customer’s infrastructure running just as well, or even better, than their previous solutions while reducing maintenance infrastructure costs.

Their clients were convinced they no longer needed to worry about the security and maintenance of their infrastructure.

Participating in the Parallels Partner Program has been an incredible asset and helped to kick Soul Technologies’ business into high gear. As a Parallels Partner, they have access to sales and marketing tools, technical training and certifications, and 24/7 support.

The SPLA (Service Provider License Agreement) has been advantageous for them as well. Knowing they don’t need to spend time maintaining and monitoring licensing—it’s taken care of by Parallels—takes a big weight off their shoulders. They have redirected the time saved to focusing on testing and improving their offerings for their clients. As a result, Soul’s business has taken off.

Currently, they are amplifying their business by participating in LinkedIn ad campaigns funded by the Partner Program’s MDF (Marketing Development Funds). Through this MDF campaign, they expect to see an increase in brand awareness and help bolster their third quarter sales by more than 20% over the same period in 2022.

The ResultCustomer growth of 20%, reduced costs between 15%-40%, ease of use due to minimal training, accelerated customer deployment.

By adding Parallels RAS to their MSP toolbox and taking advantage of the SPLA, Soul Technologies has been able to provide their customers with an all-in-one managed hosted cloud solution—including customer support and data backups—resulting in 20% client-base growth year over year.

Additional benefits experienced by the Soul team:

1. Time savings: Deployment on the client’s side takes anywhere from 5-15 minutes. This is a savings of approximately 15% compared to their previous solution.
   Bonus: the time saved is now used for testing applications deployments, file transfer from computer to server, etc.
2. Simplification: There is no need to manage and keep up to date with several tools given that Soul Technology can host and manage their clients’ data and applications from a centralized console. The learning curve is minimal.
3. Accelerated security and cost savings: With the extra layers of security that Parallels RAS offers, such as Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and encryption tools, Soul Technologies no longer needs an additional robust firewall, saving them up to 15% of their infrastructure security budget.
4. Ease of use: When it comes to printing, Parallels RAS avoids the need for additional printer drivers and technology which often don’t work well with terminal services.
   Bonus: Time reduced from minutes to mere seconds.
5. Reduction in printing support tickets: While support tickets related to printing have been reduced by about 15%, the time spent on printing support tickets has been reduced by up to 40% since the implementation of Parallels RAS.

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