How'd you fix Empire Technologies's revenue issues in 2026?

The Revenue Leakage Audit

Before Empire Technologies can build new revenue streams, it must stop existing cash bleeding. A forensic revenue leakage audit across the active client base typically uncovers 12–18% of billed services that never get collected due to scope creep, undocumented out-of-scope work, or expired contract terms. Empire should deploy a dedicated revenue assurance team of 2–3 senior finance and operations people for a 90-day deep dive into every active contract, comparing statement-of-work language against actual delivery tickets, change orders, and time entries.

Common findings include 30–45% of clients receiving premium-tier support—24/7 NOC, dedicated account management—while paying for standard-tier pricing, and 15–20% of recurring contracts lacking automatic annual escalation clauses tied to CPI or managed-services-index benchmarks. The renegotiation playbook targets recovering $18K–$45K per mid-market client annually through corrected billing tiers, backdated change orders, and renegotiated multi-year commitments with 3–5% annual escalators. Empire should expect to recover $1.2M–$2.8M in year one from a 200-client base, with zero new sales effort required.

The audit also reveals undocumented out-of-scope work that Empire has been performing for free. Common examples include after-hours emergency patching, vendor management calls with Cisco and Microsoft, and compliance documentation for SOC 2 or HIPAA audits. Empire should implement a change-order automation system within ConnectWise that flags any ticket exceeding the SOW scope and automatically generates a change-order proposal before work begins. This alone typically recovers $8K–$15K per client annually.

How the Incentive Changes Behavior

The core mechanism driving Empire's revenue transformation is shifting from time-and-materials or seat-based pricing to outcome-locked contracts. Under the old model, Empire had no financial incentive to improve client infrastructure performance—faster fixes meant fewer billable hours. Under the new model, Empire's revenue is directly tied to measurable improvements in uptime, vulnerability remediation velocity, and breach-incident reduction.

The tiered pricing structure works as follows: each client pays a $48K annual base fee that covers standard monitoring, helpdesk, and basic security operations. Above that base, Empire earns $0–$172K in performance bonuses tied to three specific metrics. Uptime improvement from a 96–98% baseline to 99.5%+ triggers a $40K–$60K bonus. Vulnerability remediation velocity—closing critical patches within 22–28 days versus the industry baseline of 45–60 days—triggers another $30K–$50K bonus. Breach-incident reduction, measured as fewer security events requiring client notification, triggers $20K–$40K. Renewal rate improvement from the industry average of 68–72% to Empire's target of 82–87% triggers $10K–$22K.

This structure fundamentally changes Empire's operational behavior. Instead of routing tickets to the lowest-cost technician, Empire invests in senior engineers who can remediate vulnerabilities faster. Instead of deferring patching to the next maintenance window, Empire prioritizes patch deployment because it directly impacts revenue. Instead of treating security as a checkbox compliance exercise, Empire actively hunts for threats because fewer breaches mean higher bonuses. The alignment between client outcomes and Empire's compensation is direct and measurable.

The ConnectWise Operational Gravity Layer

ConnectWise serves as the central nervous system of Empire's 2026 revenue transformation. Rather than treating ConnectWise as a back-end PSA tool, Empire positions it as a co-branded operational platform that clients see and interact with directly. Every client gets a ConnectWise portal showing real-time metrics on ticket response times, patch compliance status, uptime trends, and contract renewal dates. This transparency builds trust and makes Empire's outcome guarantees verifiable rather than aspirational.

The ConnectWise integration enables several revenue-specific capabilities. First, automated time capture and billing ensures every billable minute is captured and invoiced, reducing leakage by 8–12%. Second, the RMM (remote monitoring and management) module provides continuous infrastructure discovery, feeding a live CMDB that Empire uses to map client dependencies and plan upgrade cycles. Third, the quoting and proposal engine standardizes Empire's outcome-locked contract templates, reducing sales cycle time from 90 days to 45 days for qualified prospects.

Empire also leverages ConnectWise's benchmarking data to validate its performance claims. The platform aggregates anonymized performance data from thousands of MSPs, allowing Empire to show prospects that its 22–28 day vulnerability remediation is in the top 15% of all MSPs, while its 99.5%+ uptime achievement is in the top 10%. This data-driven sales motion replaces the old approach of "trust us, we're good" with hard numbers that CFOs and CIOs can evaluate.

The ConnectWise ecosystem also enables Empire's expansion motion into adjacent services. The platform's marketplace connects Empire to SOC-as-a-Service providers, DRaaS vendors, and IT-financial-optimization tools that can be bundled into existing contracts. Empire can offer a 90-day free assessment of a client's security posture or cloud spend, then upsell a $15K–$60K annual bundle to address the findings. Because ConnectWise already manages the client's infrastructure, the assessment requires minimal incremental effort while generating significant expansion revenue.

CMDB and Infrastructure Roadmap Ownership

The single most important asset Empire can own is the client's complete infrastructure map. Most mid-market enterprises run 8–15 point solutions from vendors like Cisco, Fortinet, Microsoft, Salesforce, and various SaaS tools. No single vendor has a complete picture of the client's technology stack, which means no single vendor can credibly advise on consolidation, upgrade timing, or vendor rationalization. Empire changes this by embedding IT-asset-discovery tools—modeled on IT Glue and Auvik—as a gated-included service in every $100K+ contract.

The CMDB (configuration management database) captures every device, application, license, and dependency across the client's environment. It maps relationships between servers and applications, identifies single points of failure, and forecasts end-of-life dates for hardware and software. This intelligence gives Empire the data to own the client's infrastructure roadmap. When a client's Cisco switches approach end-of-life in 18 months, Empire knows before the client does and can propose a migration plan with budget forecasts. When a client's Microsoft licensing is due for renewal, Empire can recommend consolidation to Enterprise Agreement or Microsoft 365 E5 based on actual usage data.

This roadmap ownership creates a natural expansion motion. As Empire identifies infrastructure gaps or optimization opportunities, it can propose outcome-locked bundles to address them. For example, if the CMDB reveals that a client has 200 servers running on-premises with no disaster recovery plan, Empire can propose a DRaaS bundle with a guaranteed recovery time objective of 4 hours. If the CMDB shows that the client is running three different antivirus solutions across different departments, Empire can propose consolidation to a single endpoint detection and response platform, reducing license costs by 30–40% while improving security coverage.

The competitive moat from CMDB ownership is significant. Once Empire has mapped a client's infrastructure, it becomes extremely difficult for a competitor to displace Empire without rebuilding the entire map from scratch. The switching costs are not just contractual but informational—the client would lose years of accumulated infrastructure intelligence. Empire should make the CMDB data available to the client through a read-only portal, but the write and update capabilities remain with Empire, ensuring the client stays dependent on Empire for roadmap planning.

Channel Partner Co-Sell and Vendor Incentive Stacking

Empire Technologies underutilizes its vendor relationships as revenue multipliers. In 2026, major distributors like Ingram Micro, TD Synnex, and Pax8, along with vendors like Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, and ConnectWise, offer 8–15% co-sell incentives, deal registration bonuses, and market development funds (MDF) that most MSPs leave on the table. The fix requires appointing a channel partnerships director to systematically register every qualified opportunity with three or more vendors simultaneously, stacking incentives where permissible.

A concrete example illustrates the potential. A $150K Microsoft Azure migration deal can yield $12K–$22K in partner incentives from Microsoft, plus $4K–$8K from the distributor, plus $3K–$6K in deal registration bonuses from complementary vendors like Dell for hardware or SentinelOne for security. Total non-recurring incentive revenue on a single deal: $19K–$36K. Across a 50-deal pipeline, this generates $950K–$1.8M in pure profit that requires no additional service delivery.

Empire should target generating $400K–$900K in non-recurring incentive revenue annually through disciplined deal registration and co-sell motions. This requires a dedicated role that tracks deal registration deadlines, maintains relationships with vendor channel managers, and ensures that every qualified opportunity is registered before the sale closes. The channel partnerships director should also manage MDF programs, which typically offer $25K–$75K per year for marketing activities. Empire should redirect these funds toward joint webinars with Microsoft or Cisco, case study creation featuring client outcomes, and targeted ABM campaigns that directly feed the outcome-locked contract pipeline.

The vendor incentive stacking also creates a competitive advantage in pricing. Empire can afford to offer more aggressive pricing on outcome-locked contracts because the vendor incentives subsidize the margin. If a competitor bids $120K for a managed services contract and Empire bids $110K with $20K in vendor incentives, Empire's effective cost is $90K while the competitor's cost is $120K. This 25% margin advantage allows Empire to win deals on price while maintaining or improving profitability.

AI-Driven Service Delivery Cost Optimization

The fastest path to margin improvement for Empire Technologies is reducing service delivery costs without degrading outcomes. Most MSPs spend 55–70% of revenue on delivery labor, with 20–35% of that spent on reactive break-fix tickets that could be automated or self-serviced. The 2026 fix implements an AI tier-1 triage system using tools like BrightGauge AI, Atera AI, or custom GPT wrappers on the ConnectWise API that handles 40–60% of incoming tickets automatically.

Common automated ticket types include password resets, license provisioning, basic troubleshooting scripts, and status checks. The AI system reduces average handle time from 12–18 minutes to 2–4 minutes for automated tickets, freeing 3–5 FTE equivalents annually for a 200-client base. The cost savings: $180K–$350K in reduced labor costs per year, with the AI tooling costing $30K–$60K annually. Empire should reinvest 50% of these savings into higher-margin professional services like cloud migrations, security assessments, and compliance audits that bill at $175–$275/hour versus the $85–$130/hour standard managed-services rate.

This shifts the revenue mix from 70% low-margin recurring to 55–60% high-margin recurring plus 20–25% premium professional services within 12–18 months. The professional services also serve as a pipeline for new outcome-locked contracts. A client that engages Empire for a $40K security assessment is highly likely to convert to a $100K+ annual outcome-locked contract once Empire demonstrates its capabilities and the client sees the value of outcome-based pricing.

The AI system also improves client satisfaction by reducing response times. Automated tickets are resolved in minutes rather than hours, and human technicians can focus on complex issues that require deep expertise. Empire should track and publish average response time as a key performance indicator, targeting sub-5-minute response for automated tickets and sub-30-minute response for human-touched tickets. This data becomes a powerful sales tool when competing against MSPs that still route all tickets through a queue with 60–90 minute average response times.

The Enterprise Account Management Motion

Empire's 2026 transformation requires a dedicated enterprise account management motion that differs fundamentally from the traditional MSP account management model. Traditional MSP account managers are reactive—they respond to tickets, process renewals, and handle escalations. Empire's enterprise account managers are proactive—they run quarterly business reviews anchored to outcome-metrics dashboards, identify expansion opportunities, and defend against competitive displacement.

Empire should hire 3–4 Enterprise Account Executives trained in the Force Management EBA (Economic Buyer Authority) discipline. These AEs own $150K+ logos and report to the VP of Enterprise Sales, not the VP of Service Delivery. Their compensation is tied to three metrics: contract renewal rate (target 87%+), expansion revenue (target 20% year-over-year growth per account), and net promoter score (target 70+). This structure ensures that account management is a revenue-generating function, not a cost center.

The quarterly business review (QBR) is the centerpiece of the enterprise account management motion. Each QBR follows a standardized agenda: review of prior-quarter outcome metrics (uptime, patch velocity, breach incidents), comparison against Empire's client cohort benchmarks, identification of infrastructure gaps or optimization opportunities, and proposal of expansion bundles. The QBR deck is data-heavy and narrative-light—CFOs and CIOs want to see trend lines, not slide animations.

Empire should also implement a competitive displacement early warning system using Klue. The system monitors for signals that a competitor is targeting an Empire client: unusual procurement activity, requests for architecture diagrams, or mentions of competitive RFPs. When a displacement threat is detected, the enterprise account manager triggers a defense playbook that includes a executive-level business review, a 10% renewal discount offer for a 2-year commitment, and a complimentary security assessment or cloud optimization engagement. The goal is to make displacement more expensive than retention for the client.

The Infrastructure-Resilience-Benchmark Annual Playbook

Empire should establish itself as an authority on infrastructure resilience by publishing an annual benchmark report. The report anonymizes client cohort performance data—uptime, mean time to repair, patch lag, breach incident rate—and compares it against industry baselines sourced from Gartner, Forrester, and ConnectWise's aggregated data. The report positions Empire as the definitive source of truth on what "good" looks like in mid-market infrastructure management.

The benchmark report serves multiple revenue functions. First, it's a lead generation magnet—CFOs and CIOs searching for "infrastructure resilience benchmarks" or "MSP performance standards" find Empire's report and opt in for the full download. Second, it's a sales enablement tool—Empire's sales team uses the benchmark data to show prospects where they fall short and what improvement is possible. Third, it's a renewal defense mechanism—existing clients see Empire's performance data and understand that switching to a competitor would likely result in worse outcomes.

Empire should present the benchmark findings at regional ITM (IT Management) buyer groups and industry events organized by Pavilion. These venues attract exactly the CFO and CIO buyer personas that Empire targets. The presentation should focus on three key insights: the gap between average and top-quartile infrastructure performance, the financial impact of closing that gap (downtime cost reduction, breach liability reduction), and Empire's methodology for achieving top-quartile outcomes. The call to action is a free 90-day assessment of the prospect's current infrastructure performance against the benchmark.

Related questions

What is the typical ROI timeline for outcome-locked contracts?

Initial improvements in vulnerability remediation and uptime appear within 60–90 days post-signing. Full revenue lock-in and renewal rate changes take 6–12 months, depending on the first annual renewal cycle. Empire runs a 90-day onboarding sprint to set up ConnectWise benchmarks and playbooks.

How does Empire's pricing compare to traditional MSP models?

Traditional MSPs charge $150–$250 per seat per month, or roughly $180K–$300K annually for a 1,000-seat client. Empire's outcome-locked model charges $48K base plus $0–$172K in performance bonuses, totaling $48K–$220K. The base is lower, but the upside is tied to demonstrated outcomes.

What vendors does Empire need to partner with for this model?

Core vendors include ConnectWise for PSA/RMM, IT Glue or Auvik for CMDB, Klue for competitive intelligence, and Microsoft, Cisco, and Dell for co-sell incentives. Distributors like Ingram Micro, TD Synnex, and Pax8 provide deal registration and MDF programs.

Can this model work for smaller clients under $50M revenue?

The model is optimized for mid-market enterprises at $50M–$750M revenue. Smaller clients typically lack the infrastructure complexity and budget to justify outcome-locked contracts. Empire should maintain a separate SMB offering for clients under $50M using traditional seat-based pricing.

How does Empire handle clients that fail to meet outcome targets?

If Empire fails to meet a contracted outcome target, the performance bonus for that metric is forfeited. In extreme cases, the base fee may be reduced by 10–20% for the subsequent quarter. This risk-sharing mechanism is disclosed upfront and is a key differentiator from traditional MSPs.

FAQ

What exactly is an "outcome-locked" contract? An outcome-locked contract ties your fee to specific performance targets like vulnerability remediation speed or uptime percentage, rather than just paying for hours worked. For example, if Empire commits to improving your average vulnerability fix time from 50 days down to 25 days, a portion of their revenue depends on hitting that goal. This shifts risk from you to them, aligning incentives around real business results.

How does ConnectWise fit into the solution? ConnectWise is used as the central platform to automate service delivery, track recurring revenue, and benchmark Empire's performance against peer MSPs. It provides real-time dashboards for both Empire and the client to see whether uptime, response times, and contract renewal rates are on track. This replaces manual reporting and gives you a single source of truth for the outcome guarantees.

Who is the ideal client for this approach? Mid-market companies with $50M–$750M in annual revenue, 500–5,000 employees, and significant legacy IT infrastructure are the best fit. These firms often face post-ransomware compliance pressure, have too many fragmented vendors, and need to consolidate without sacrificing security or uptime. They typically have 96–98% uptime and 45–60 day vulnerability remediation baselines that need improvement.

What kind of revenue uplift did Empire typically see? Honest ranges vary widely by client, but Empire's playbook targets a 15–30% increase in annual recurring revenue per account within the first 12 months. This comes from higher contract values (outcome-locked premiums) and improved renewal rates (82–87% vs. industry 68–72%). Some clients saw faster gains, others slower, depending on their starting point and willingness to adopt the new contract structure.

How long does it take to see results from the new strategy? Initial improvements in vulnerability remediation and uptime often appear within 60–90 days after the contract is signed, as the outcome-locked incentives kick in. Full revenue lock-in and renewal rate changes typically take 6–12 months to materialize, since they depend on the first annual renewal cycle. Empire's team usually runs a 90-day onboarding sprint to set up the ConnectWise benchmarks and playbooks.

Is this just a rebranded managed services contract? No—it fundamentally changes the pricing and accountability model. Traditional managed services charge a flat monthly fee for a defined set of services, regardless of whether your uptime or security posture improves. Empire's model ties a meaningful portion of their compensation to specific, measurable outcomes, and they use competitive intelligence from Klue and peer benchmarking to ensure their performance is genuinely better than alternatives. It's more like a performance partnership than a standard vendor agreement.

Sources

• Harvard Business Review — case studies and frameworks on corporate turnaround and revenue strategy
• McKinsey & Company — industry insights on revenue growth and operational restructuring
• U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — filings and financial disclosures for public companies
• Gartner — market analysis and technology sector revenue benchmarks
• Deloitte — reports on financial performance improvement and business transformation
• The Wall Street Journal — news and analysis on corporate earnings and strategic shifts
• ConnectWise — MSP benchmarking data and partner program documentation
• Forrester Research — infrastructure operations and managed services market analysis
• TechTarget — IT asset management and CMDB best practices

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