“Oh, they’ll never pay for that.” It’s a phrase Leigh Wood, the Director of Node IT Solutions, hears a lot from his fellow MSPs. It’s easy to understand why. When you’re used to hearing price push-back on every contract, selling something beyond your basic managed services agreement seems impossible.
There seems to be a smart version of everything these days. From coffee machines to aquarium thermometers, if you can think of a device that can benefit from an internet connection, it probably already exists. It’s not really a surprise. The IoT market is on the brink of explosion, as Intel projects 200 billion IoT devices will be added to our networks by 2020, up from 15 billion in 2015. And they’re not all for personal use.
All over the internet, there are ominous rumblings that “768K Day” is on its way—and it’s likely going to happen before May is over. And while some ISPs think this BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) milestone is being overhyped like Y2K and Cisco assures us the sky isn’t falling, that doesn’t mean we’ll all be left unscathed.
One of the most common complaints I hear from managed services providers is how hard it is to recruit staff. In the past month, I’ve had three MSPs ask me: With the high cost of tech talent, how can I afford to fill technical and managerial roles? When’s the right time to employ an extra tech? Why am I struggling to grow my team?
