Case Studies
Information Technology, Services
Locknet Managed IT
14 days → 2 hrs
Client proposal turn around time
4+ handoffs -> 0
One AI agent replaces the back-and-forth between sales, engineering and account teams.
About
Locknet Managed IT is a managed IT services provider and Kaseya partner serving community banks and mid-market organizations. With approximately 300+ clients, Locknet delivers IT management, cybersecurity, cloud migration, and professional services across a multi-state region.
Industry
Information Technology, Services
Company size
200+ FTE
Founded
2004
Share
We haven’t had a product that affects all areas of the MSP like this. Darcy affects a lot of the areas of our business. We’re seeing the potential for it to transform how we operate from start to finish—not just the sales piece, but future support, service delivery, and account management.
Kris Kilgard
President, Locknet Managed IT
Business Objectives & Challenge
Scaling service delivery and revenue growth
As Locknet’s client base grew, manual service delivery processes constrained operational efficiency and revenue growth. Proposal generation required a 14-day cycle with repeated handoffs between sales engineers, technical engineers, and account executives. Technical scoping depended on individual engineer availability and produced inconsistent estimates, while account managers lacked real-time intelligence on client health and missed cross-sell and upsell opportunities.
Core business objectives
Scale service delivery without adding headcount by replacing manual proposal, scoping, and account-management workflows with AI-powered automation.
Reduce proposal turnaround from 14 days to under 2 hours, eliminating delays, errors, and scope creep caused by multiple handoffs.
Drive new-logo sales with AI-powered prospecting, meeting preparation, live coaching, and automated follow-up.
Give technical account managers real-time dashboards, automated QBR preparation, and systematic opportunity discovery across existing accounts.
The existing process required sales engineers to summarize client findings, technical engineers to estimate labor and hardware, peer review, and final assembly by sales. Four or more handoffs introduced delays and miscommunication. Engineers estimating the same project returned 31, 23, and 25 hours, undermining pricing consistency. Meanwhile, account executives relied on manual research and basic CRM data, and quarterly account reviews remained reactive rather than proactive.
The Partner Solution
AI-powered MSP operations with DarcyIQ
DarcyIQ was deployed across Locknet’s service-delivery lifecycle and integrated with AutoTask, Ingram Micro, HubSpot, and Locknet’s Azure-hosted data warehouse. The platform automates proposal generation, accelerates technical scoping, enhances account intelligence, and equips sales teams with AI-driven prospecting and meeting coaching.
Proposal generation and intelligent scoping
A custom Locknet Solution Architect agent lets sales engineers describe client needs in natural language and automatically produces an executive-ready statement of work with scoped tasks, labor hours, hardware specifications, and pricing. A template-based LOE Builder adds dynamic questions, reusable solution requirements, centralized project tracking, and direct PDF export. DarcyIQ’s estimation tool is calibrated with Locknet’s project history and rate cards; in testing, it estimated 28 hours for a project that three engineers estimated at 31, 23, and 25 hours.
Sales enablement and account intelligence
Account executives can generate and enrich lists of more than 100 prospective banks and credit unions with industry context, technology intelligence, executive contacts, and personalized outreach. HubSpot cross-referencing prevents duplication, while meeting recording, transcription, and live coaching support Sandler, BANT, and MEDDIC methodologies. For account management, overnight agents identify stale opportunities, client concerns, and cross-sell possibilities; automated QBR workflows turn ticket data, service utilization, strategic initiatives, and cost analysis into presentation-ready deliverables.
This is much more than a sales tool. It’s an operational MSP tool that allows you to operate at such a high level, you’re running laps around everybody else. I want to get from client conversation to statement of work in the client’s hands in less than 2 hours—and I didn’t have to send anybody an email.
Peter Durnil
Director of Operations, Locknet Managed IT
Architecture & Key Results
Integrated architecture and operating workflows
DarcyIQ connects to Locknet’s core systems through Model Context Protocol connections. AutoTask provides client data, ticket histories, and asset inventories. Ingram Micro supplies actual cost pricing, purchase-order history, and product availability. HubSpot enables bidirectional pipeline and contact synchronization. The Azure data warehouse unlocks AutoTask datasets beyond standard API limits for leadership reporting and deeper business intelligence.
Key results
Proposal delivery compressed from a 14-day, multi-handoff process to a target of under 2 hours, with an estimated 50–80% reduction in delivery time.
Technical scoping matched the range of human estimates and continuously improves through project feedback and calibration controls.
Sales teams gained rapid prospect research, enriched lead lists, methodology-based live coaching, and automated meeting follow-up.
Real-time dashboards replaced after-the-fact analysis with proactive visibility into client health, service trends, and revenue opportunities.
Adoption expanded across technical account management, sales engineering, account executives, and procurement, with unlimited licenses approved to remove barriers.
Locknet is also evaluating DarcyIQ as a replacement for Apollo, creating a potential subscription-cost reduction, and identified an opportunity to resell the platform across a broader base of 8,000 imaging customers served by 30–35 sales representatives.
The Business Impact
A blueprint for scalable MSP growth
Locknet’s transformation demonstrates how an AI-powered operations platform can improve service-delivery efficiency while simultaneously driving revenue growth. Integrated with existing PSA, distribution, CRM, and data-warehouse systems, DarcyIQ enables faster proposals, consistent technical scoping, intelligent prospecting, live sales coaching, and proactive account management without requiring proportional increases in headcount.
The impact extends beyond efficiency to fundamental business transformation. Scalable infrastructure delays future hiring needs and reduces operational expenditure growth. AI-powered sales enablement addresses the new-logo headwind identified by Locknet’s board, while automated opportunity discovery surfaces revenue that was previously invisible across existing accounts.
For managed services providers facing slow proposal cycles, inconsistent scoping, limited sales intelligence, or missed account opportunities, Locknet provides a practical blueprint: embed AI across the full operating lifecycle and connect it to the systems teams already use.
I don’t know who would not want this after seeing what it’s capable of. We’re just scratching the surface. Each week it gets better—we discover new applications we didn’t plan for that save even more time. It is definitely transforming how we operate.
Ben Potaracke
Executive Sponsor, Locknet Managed IT
