Service Leadership
Total Profit Solutions for IT Companies®
Service Leadership Index®
- Product GM% - BIC Profitability SPs: Q1-11 25.5% Q2-11 25.3% Q3-11 26.6% Q4-11 27.2%
- Product GM% - Median Profitability SPs: Q1-11 20.5% Q2-11 20.5% Q3-11 19.2% Q4-11 19.7%
- Product GM% - Bottom 1/4 Profitability SPs: Q1-11 19.9% Q2-11 20.5% Q3-11 18.5% Q4-11 14.8%
- Services GM% - BIC Profitability SPs: Q1-11 53.4% Q2-11 54.9% Q3-11 52.2% Q4-11 52.8%
- Services GM% - Median Profitability SPs: Q1-11 51.0% Q2-11 50.1% Q3-11 48.1% Q4-11 46.4%
- Services GM% - Bottom 1/4 Profitability SPs: Q1-11 36.1% Q2-11 41.0% Q3-11 42.9% Q4-11 38.8%
- SG&A% - BIC Profitability SPs: Q1-11 26.0% Q2-11 26.2% Q3-11 26.1% Q4-11 27.6%
- SG&A% - Median Profitability SPs: Q1-11 32.2% Q2-11 31.9% Q3-11 30.3% Q4-11 29.8%
- SG&A% - Bottom 1/4 Profitability SPs: Q1-11 35.7% Q2-11 34.6% Q3-11 36.9% Q4-11 35.4%
- EBITDA% - BIC Profitability SPs: Q1-11 19.2% Q2-11 19.2% Q3-11 17.8% Q4-11 17.7%
- EBITDA% - Median Profitability SPs: Q1-11 7.3% Q2-11 7.3% Q3-11 6.8% Q4-11 5.9%
- EBITDA% - Bottom 1/4 Profitability SPs: Q1-11 −2.4% Q2-11 −1.1% Q3-11 −2.7% Q4-11 −5.6%
Quarterly Solution Provider Performance
About the Service Leadership Index™ 2009 Annual Compensation Report

Table of Contents
Employee costs are by far the single largest cost in a Solution Provider operation. Knowing what is a win/win compensation range for a given position is critical to employee retention and sustainable profitability.
Half of this equation is determined by the structure of your compensation plans. For information about Service Leadership’s resources for assessing and designing Solution Provider compensation plans, please go here.
The other half of this equation is knowing what is market pay. That’s the purpose of our Compensation Benchmark. Compensation statistics for more than 40 Solution Provider positions in 26 functional areas are provided:
| Position Function | Positions Listed |
|---|---|
| Applications AppDev Practice Leader/Manager | 1 |
| Applications Application Developer | 4 |
| Applications Business Analyst | 3 |
| Applications Database Developer | 3 |
| Applications Graphic Design/User Interface | 2 |
| Applications Project Manager | 1 |
| Infrastructure Cable Plant Designer | 1 |
| Infrastructure Data Center Designer | 1 |
| Infrastructure General Network Infrastructure | 3 |
| Infrastructure Infrastructure Practice Leader/Manager | 1 |
| Infrastructure Project Manager | 1 |
| Infrastructure Router Specialist | 1 |
| Infrastructure Security Specialist | 1 |
| Infrastructure Storage Specialist | 1 |
| Managed Services Database Administrator | 1 |
| Managed Services Deskside Support Specialist | 1 |
| Managed Services E-Mail Administrator | 1 |
| Managed Services Field Dispatch Coordinator | 1 |
| Managed Services Hardware Maintenance Specialist | 1 |
| Managed Services Help Desk Specialist | 1 |
| Managed Services Hosting Operations Engineer | 1 |
| Managed Services Managed Services Practice Leader/Manager | 1 |
| Managed Services NOC Specialist | 1 |
| Owner Company Owner/ Principal | 1 |
| Sales Sales Manager | 1 |
| Sales Sales Representative | 5 |
For each of these positions, the following analysis is provided:
- Average TAE (Targeted Annual Earnings, i.e. total expected planned compensation),
- % Variable (the proportion of TAE which is expected to be paid in variable, incentive or at-risk pay),
- Degree of Difficulty (the degree of difficulty the participating company is having finding people for this position,
- Degree of Need (the degree of need or demand for this position within the participating company),
- Hourly Bill Rate (the typical market billable rate for this position, that the participant would charge its end customers)
These results are broken down geographically into the five census regions and nine census divisions. In addition, for those metros where sufficient participants are engaged, we provide metro level statistics. This is usually between 8 and 12 metros, although we cannot be sure which ones until the survey has closed.
The screen shots below show how to read the majority of the charts in the report you will receive.

