Matt Seeds (Inspired IT)
The ‘Partner Spotlight’ series explores partners operating in the local channel landscape right around the country, from Cape York to Hobart, Byron Bay to Fremantle and beyond. This edition focuses on Osborne Park-based managed services provider (MSP) Inspired IT.
Inspired IT threw open its doors in 2016, with managing director Matt Seeds at the helm. When he started the business, he said the time felt right and came right out of the gate with a five-year plan, including revenue goals.
“With Office 365 gaining strength, I made this my main focal point, with a view of having managed services as the main driver of the business, and this is still the case today,” he said to ARN.
The MSP's focus on 365 is so strong, Seeds said clients need to be using it, or at least wanting to move towards the stack, for Inspired IT to work with them.
In addition to 365 and managed services, Inspired IT also offers on demand services for smaller clients.
“Providing on demand services to our smaller clients has been a great steppingstone to securing them as managed service clients once they have grown,” Seeds said.
“Procurement has been a lot bigger than I expected, however it forms part of our offering for our managed service and on demand client base; backup disaster recovery solutions, cyber security (which is bundled in our managed services) and, most recently, Teams Calling.”
In 2020, Seeds took on the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), a set of concepts and tools for running a business, which became a bigger task than what he initially bargained for.
“I had read the book Get Traction by Gino Wickman a few times and it really resonated with me,” he said. “Microsoft had an offering for qualified businesses they would assist in payment contribution to help businesses implement this. We were selected by Dicker Data and went through the process.
“At the time we had seven fulltime team members, however I was not able to be across everything – not that I wanted to – and felt the stress of building a company.”
After implementing EOS, Seeds said the business established a team structure accountability chart, built out one-year, three-year and long-term visions and holding weekly leadership meetings.
“This helped improve all elements of the business, resolve a lot of the day-to-day issues and assist in looking forward,” he said.
While he didn’t provide any specifics, Seeds claimed that some of his clients’ companies have had “substantial growth” since they had met during the early days of Inspired IT.
“It’s great to be part of that journey and to help them get to where they are today,” he said.
“Partnering with an MSP company has to be a two-way relationship and communication has to be key.”
That focus on clients is paying off, as Seeds says the business has a very low turnover of clients and is continuing to bring on more, which he says will result in continued growth.
In retrospect, Seeds says he wishes he had implemented EOS earlier, with years three to give proving the most difficult.
“I think a lot of this stress would have been reduced with EOS in the business,” he added. It holds me and my team accountable.”
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