Over the next few months, we’ll take an inside look at how the NSCA 2019 Excellence in Business award winners have adapted to our constantly changing industry. The story of Vistacom is first on the list. For its ability to take advantage of its inherent strengths to increase managed services offerings, Vistacom was named an NSCA 2019 Excellence in Business award winner in the Strategic Transformation category.
It’s no secret that mergers and acquisitions within this industry are creating interesting business conditions. Smaller-sized firms need to continue to grow at rates they can manage while also trying to keep up with the large firms across the country (some of which keep growing!).
From 2012 to 2017, Vistacom’s 75-person staff increased company revenue by 80%, followed by a great growth year in 2017 when the company increased sales by 42%. To continue this momentum and not lose growth potential, however, Vistacom knew that more change was necessary. The solution? Bringing in revenue from non-traditional channels and creating a model that made recurring revenue realistic and beneficial for Vistacom and its clients.
Because Vistacom had dedicated time to internal review processes and SWOT analyses over a span of several years, the company was able to pinpoint its strengths: the success of its service department and customer satisfaction levels. The shift toward managed services was not only the answer to keeping up, but also something Vistacom could use its existing strengths to do.
Throughout 2018, Vistacom significantly expanded its managed services offerings to include:
- Training programs that designate a qualified employee as a “certified trainer” and offer ongoing training when clients need new employees to learn how to use existing systems
- A 24/7 help desk, which is a hotline that can be called for system support at any time
- Design consulting, where design services are offered at project conception to clients ranging from large universities to city governments
- Remote management, monitoring, and diagnostics, where Vistacom takes on full responsibility for the health of clients’ technology systems and connects through the cloud to fix, repair, update, and manage them
As a result of these shifts, Vistacom has not only seen a continued increase in customer satisfaction, but also experienced an increase in recurring revenue. Last year, more than 10% of Vistacom’s revenue came from managed services – and even more growth is expected in the future.
Check back as we continue to reveal how the 2019 NSCA Excellence in Business award winners made business changes to adapt to our constantly changing industry. You’ll also read stories from: