SkyKick enables Compete366 to build a thriving cloud based IT services practice

A cloud first approach to IT services

When Jon Milward and Warren Duke co-founded Compete366 in 2014, they made a conscious decision to keep their business’ focus very narrow. Instead of following the well-worn path used by most of their competitors and becoming a managed services provider (MSP), they opted to only work with clients who wanted to manage their own IT environments. In fact, Compete366 does not offer any managed services at all. Compete366’s mission is to help small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the U.K. market migrate all their information technology into the cloud. Compete366 then provides the ongoing Microsoft Office 365 licensing and Azure consumption on a month-to-month basis, with no long-term contracts. Unlike other IT providers, Compete366 is strictly a cloud-only, Microsoft based firm.

SkyKick was a core part of Compete366’s business strategy from day one

While their business was still in the planning stages, Jon and Warren attended Microsoft’s annual Worldwide Partner Conference (now MS Inspire). It was there that they were introduced to SkyKick and its Migration Suite product offering. Compete366 launched in September 2014 and won their first email migration project, for which they used SkyKick Migration, at the end of 2014. They quickly discovered that SkyKick worked even better than anticipated.

SkyKick makes the migration easy

Here are the reasons why Compete366 continues to rely on the SkyKick Migration Suite for Office 365:

• Standardized process – “Using SkyKick Migration,” Jon says, “means that every project is the same. We’ve documented it. We have templates and procedures. This simplifies things for us and reduces risk for our clients.”
• Efficient use of consultant’s time – The Compete366 team finds SkyKick’s automated tools and usability so compelling that they usually are able to multi-task during the migration. Since they know exactly what will happen each time, the migration doesn’t require their full, continuous attention.
• Minimal use of customer’s time – There is very little that the customer and their end users must do to help facilitate the migration.
• Low Risk – “A big benefit for the customer,” Jon points out, “is that you’re copying things rather than moving them. This makes the migration very low risk and provides an easy roll-back plan.”
• Exceptional support – “The quality of the support is fantastic!” Jon exclaims. “You’re never on your own. The people are friendly, respond quickly and have a high level of expertise.

Cloud Backup – more than an „insurance policy“

Compete366 also makes a point to pitch customers on SkyKick Cloud Backup. What they like about the service:

• Recurring revenue – This is at the core of Compete366’s business strategy.
• Broad backup options – SkyKick can back up all of the key categories of Office 365 content, including mailboxes, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive.
• Easy management and use – “Our customers manage their own backups,” Jon notes. “As part of setting it up, which in itself is very easy, we offer a driving lesson around it. However, once a customer takes a look, they see that this backup is so obvious and intuitive, they don’t need instruction.”

SkyKick as a key business enabler

Jon appreciates the significant alignment between Compete366’s and SkyKick’s strategies and approaches. Both specialize in Microsoft offerings, are cloud-native companies, and are laser focused on providing excellent customer service. To this end, SkyKick has helped Compete366 succeed as a cloud services provider, while Compete366 has enabled their own customers to grow and thrive in the cloud.