Service Leadership
Total Profit Solutions for IT Companies™
Service Leadership Index™
- Q/Q Revenue Change - BIC Profitability SPs: Q4-08 2.0% Q1-09 16.1% Q2-09 168.3% Q3-09 -75.7%
- Q/Q Revenue Change - Median Profitability SPs: Q4-08-9.7% Q1-09 -38.4% Q2-09 15.4% Q3-09 32.3%
- Q/Q Revenue Change - Bottom 1/4 Profitability SPs: Q4-08 -12.2% Q1-09 1.9% Q2-09 16.5% Q3-09 -42.5%
- Product GM% - BIC Profitability SPs: Q4-08 21.2% Q1-09 23.4% Q2-09 24.3% Q3-09 25.1%
- Product GM% - Median Profitability SPs: Q4-08 18.7% Q1-09 17.2% Q2-09 23.8% Q3-09 18.6%
- Product GM% - Bottom 1/4 Profitability SPs: Q4-08 3.4% Q1-09 25.1% Q2-09 55.5% Q3-09 15.5%
- Services GM% - BIC Profitability SPs: Q4-08 52.6% Q1-09 53.6% Q2-09 50.5% Q3-09 54.9%
- Services GM% - Median Profitability SPs: Q4-08 37.8% Q1-09 47.5% Q2-09 31.9% Q3-09 46.3%
- Services GM% - Bottom 1/4 Profitability SPs: Q4-08 38.6% Q1-09 41.6% Q2-09 38.7.3% Q3-09 44.1%
- SG&A% - BIC Profitability SPs: Q4-08 30.2% Q1-09 29.1% Q2-09 38.1% Q3-09 26.4%
- SG&A% - Median Profitability SPs: Q4-08 27.1% Q1-09 35.3% Q2-09 35% Q3-09 29.9%
- SG&A% - Bottom 1/4 Profitability SPs: Q4-08 42.0% Q1-09 42.8% Q2-09 35.7% Q3-09 39%
- EBITDA% - BIC Profitability SPs: Q4-08 14.5% Q1-09 17.7% Q2-09 13.6% Q3-09 21.9%
- EBITDA% - Median Profitability SPs: Q4-08 3.9% Q1-09 4.0% Q2-09 -1.8% Q3-09 6.9%
- EBITDA% - Bottom 1/4 Profitability SPs: Q4-08 -7.1% Q1-09 -9.7% Q2-09 -14% Q3-09 -2.6%
- Q/Q Headcount Change - BIC Profitability SPs: Q4-08 -1.1% Q1-09 15% Q2-09 164.2% Q3-09 -71.4%
- Q/Q Headcount Change - Median Profitability SPs: Q4-08 2.1% Q1-09 -32.5% Q2-09 57% Q3-09 -41.9%
- Q/Q Headcount Change - Bottom 1/4 Profitability SPs: Q4-08 2.1% Q1-09 12.2% Q2-09 62.3% Q3-09 -48.6%
Quarterly Solution Provider Performance
Service Leadership Index™ Groups
Service Leadership's Index™ Groups are designed to help Solution Providers achieve best-in-class performance, measured against peer companies and the Solution Provider industry as a whole. Most Solution Provider executives are busy with day-to-day operations, making it hard to clearly visualize the next level of growth and the best ways to execute. Rather than trial and error, Service Leadership brings objective insight and best-in-class practices that enable you to steer your company around pitfalls and towards the best growth strategy.
Solution Provider companies who participate in Service Leadership Index™ Groups are reaping invaluable benefits. They:
- Work each quarter with a close-knit group of peer Solution Provider executives from non-competing geographies.
- Confidentially compare their financial and operational results on a group and industry-wide basis, gaining early insight into best practices and trends.
- Learn from experienced Service Leadership senior advisors in structured quarterly meetings.
- Build lasting business relationships with their peers and the industry experts at Service Leadership. The positive results and tangible outcomes that members of the Service Leadership Index™ Groups are experiencing can best be summed up in their own words:
“Our participation in the group has given us the ability to recognize low performing lines of business and more quickly make effective adjustments to improve results and reduce risk.”
S-L Index™ Group Member
Each Index Group is comprised of a small group of similar Solution Providers from non-competing geographies. Quarterly interaction enables members to grow their service offerings more rapidly than their competition and more quickly address the challenges and opportunities that arise in the process of growing the business. The interaction also provides opportunities to develop valuable relationships with the other owners and executives who are experiencing similar challenges and successes. In the process, Service Leadership helps each Index Group member company:
Service Leadership offers three Index Group formats for your participation. The highest value and most popular is the comprehensive Optimizer© Group. For those companies who prefer a lesser cost and time commitment, there are two alternative, valuable ways to participate: as part of the on-line Accelerator© Group or as a subscribing member of the streamlined Educator© benchmark offering.
Select the Group that Best Fits Your Company’s Needs
The first step in getting started is to select the Service Leadership Index™ Group format that best supports your company’s specific needs. (Click here to compare.)
S-L Index™ Optimizer Groups©
The Optimizer© Group is Service Leadership's most comprehensive approach to Solution Provider performance improvement. Peer group members meet together quarterly to compare their results, profitably grow their offerings, solve the challenges of growth and productive change, and share their successes. Group members also receive access through Service Leadership to the most current industry best practices and best-in-class metrics, and learn how to use them to set attainable successful goals, grow faster, increase profits and accelerate professional and organizational growth.
S-L Index™ Accelerator Membership©
The Accelerator Membership is designed for those members who want direct, one-on-one feedback from a senior Service Leadership advisor each quarter for the most intensive interaction. Combined with S-L Index™ quarterly benchmarking, the pre-planned quarterly phone meetings provide busy Solution Provider owners and executives a cost- and time-effective way to gain maximum insight into the actions they can take to improve results right away, without having to travel or take time contributing to group meetings. One-on-one interaction enables the member to ask specific, confidential questions and receive detailed advice and counsel on the breadth of challenges and opportunities faced by executives taking their companies to the next level.
S-L Index™ Educator Benchmark Subscription©
The Service Leadership Educator© Benchmark Membership is designed to provide individual Solution Providers with the most economical and timely way to measure their performance against current industry best practices and with leading-edge insights for improvement, by participating quarterly in the Service Leadership Index™ benchmarking process.
So what now? Once I see how I compare, how do I find out how to improve?
Improving performance is a three-step process:
- Diagnosis (benchmarking),
- Prescription (best practices, access to know-how),
- Treatment (execution, putting the best practices into action).
Subscribing to the Service Leadership Index™ or becoming an S-L Index™ Group member delivers the benchmark analysis you need to diagnose financial and operating problems (Step 1, above), enabling you to objectively identify areas of improvement by comparing to Best-in-Class Solution Providers of the same business model.
To accomplish these steps, there are three levels of S-L Index™ membership:
| Membership Level | Step 1 – Benchmarking | Step 2 – Best Practices | Step 3 - Execution |
|---|---|---|---|
| S-L Index™ Educator© Subscriber | Quarterly | Self-Driven | Self-Driven |
| S-L Index™ Accelerator© Subscriber | Quarterly | 1.5 hours of one-on-one consulting time with an S-L senior advisor per quarter. | |
| S-L Index™ Optimizer Group© Member | Quarterly | Three 1.5 day best practices sharing meetings per year in an S–L facilitated peer group of up to twelve similar but non-competing Solution Providers; one webinar during the non face-to-face meeting quarter. | |
(See subscription and membership options.)
In addition, Service Leadership also provides two on-demand (i.e. no subscription necessary) benchmarks focusing on annual rather than quarterly results, for those companies who wish to benchmark but do not want to subscribe to a recurring service. The Profitability Comprehensive Diagnostic Report© provide nine pages of in-depth analysis of all aspects of a Solution Provider business, comparing the participant to all Solution Providers in the Service Leadership Index™, to just those Solution Providers with similar business models, and to those Solution Providers pursuing the same size customers. This report covers all major lines of business including Managed Services, but for those companies wishing an even deeper dive into their Managed Services operation, we specifically offer the Managed Services Comprehensive Diagnostic Report©.
| On-Demand Benchmark | Step 1 – Benchmarking | Step 2 – Best Practices | Step 3 - Execution |
|---|---|---|---|
| S-L Index™ Profitability Comprehensive Diagnostic Report© | On-Demand (Typically once per year.) |
Self-Driven (Optional Hourly Coaching) |
Self-Driven (Optional Hourly Coaching) |
| S-L Index™ Managed Services Comprehensive Diagnostic Report© | On-Demand (Typically once per year.) |
Self-Driven (Optional Hourly Coaching) |
Self-Driven (Optional Hourly Coaching) |
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