Helping to ‘roll the trucks’ at SUCCESS Computer Consulting

With over 200 customers and nearly 100 staff, Twin Cities MSP SUCCESS Computer Consulting is a thriving business with a unique approach to serving both its customers and its staff.

Founder Eric Thorsell made the headlines during the Covid pandemic in 2020. While other MSPs tightened their belts, on Thanksgiving Thorsell announced an unexpected bonus for all staff, giving them each a share of the company’s profits for the year  – and also giving away the same amount to charities.

In a media interview, Brent Morris, a SUCCESS vice president since 2008, summed it up: “Erik believes if you do right by all the stakeholders, employees, customers and community, everyone will thrive.”

This enlightened approach to business is reflected in SUCCESS’s strategic focus on ‘capacity’ as its strategic driver – as SUCCESS Chief Technology Officer Brandon Nohr explains: “We’re competing in an industry against 40,000 MSPs where ‘efficiency’ is the mantra. Just having enough. But that means you can’t take advantage of opportunity. Our focus on capacity means that when our customers have a problem we can roll the trucks. That’s a huge point of difference. We care about capacity and Cognition360 is helping us understand and manage that capacity much more effectively.”

Understanding and managing capacity

As an example, Nohr highlights the issues SUCCESS was having scheduling field visits. “Most clients have more than one field visit a month – this level of service is important to our secret sauce,” he says. “But with 200 clients, scheduling field visits while preserving capacity to bring on new clients or get new demand was a real challenge. Cognition360 has made it possible to meet that challenge. Now we have reliable reports on current capacity as well as forecasted capacity out into the future.

“And that’s just one example,” Nohr says. “Cognition360, with its easy-to-use Power BI reports is rolling out right across the business. All departments are discovering stuff and working away on their own to create knowledge that enables them to answer queries promptly. It’s not just up to a small group to answer questions, everyone is doing it.

“Data is an iterative process. Having a partner to walk hand in hand with you is just so important. I can’t praise Cognition360 enough – both the product and the people. We’re no longer lost in a sea of data. Now we can cut to the chase with data we can trust and reports that work the way we work. It’s a great experience,” Nohr said.