MSP SPOTLIGHT
How This MSP is Thriving Despite a Soft Economy, Tariff Concerns, and Hyper Competition
The soft skills that drive hard revenue: Ann Westerheim reveals how Ekaru stays ahead with a personal touch, builds a culture of constant learning, and uses uncertainty as a trigger for growth— not retreat.
BY ESTHER SHEIN
Ann Westerheim Founder and President Ekaru www. ekaru. com
Company Ekaru
Founded 2001
Headquartered Westford, Massachusetts
Geographic Market Eastern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire
YoY % of Growth 15 %– 20 %
Founder and President Ann Westerheim
MSP Success: What are the top three growth indicators you use to measure your company and why?
Ann Westerheim: We look at how many new conversations we are having per month, and how many proposals we end up generating out of those contacts. We do a lot of surveys to get the pulse of the folks that we’ re working with and then do more of a longitudinal Net Promotor Score. We also do technology business reviews [ TBRs ], our nonquarterly review meetings.
With some clients, we maybe only do one a year. [ Ideally,] we do four a year, because we want to have a connection with the client; so there, we’ re looking at how many efforts does it take to book a meeting. If we have a lot of trouble scheduling a TBR, we know that customers are not seeing the value in this or maybe they’ re not happy. We want to look for indications that maybe something needs to be improved.