Countless times in the MSP world I’ve had to ask myself, “why can’t the end users handle this?” Typically, the answer boils down to the fact that they are paying the MSP to take that stress and labor off their hands. However, there are occasions when end users, providing they’re properly trained, can legitimately take some of the workload off the MSP’s hands.
At our N-able Empower event held in Las Vegas last month, our CEO John Pagliuca spoke to more than 400 of our MSP partners about the fact that he while doesn’t believe anything is recession proof, he does believe that the MSP industry is recession resilient.
With customers’ Microsoft environments becoming more sophisticated, the days of MSPs being hired to ‘just’ service an organization’s Microsoft 365 needs are long gone. Pre-pandemic, tasks typically revolved around new client setups, migrations, and updating existing Microsoft setups. It’s a different story now. MSPs are focusing their time on digital transformation, which means that more processes are needed to manage tenants. So, how can processes be more efficient?
With the complex and chaotic nature of IT services, MSPs often stay ‘afloat’ by concentrating on day-to-day operations. In doing so, it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger growth opportunities. Scaling is a challenge many MSPs face. Some struggle to develop a clear strategy, while others don’t know the focus areas to help them succeed. If you’re not built to scale, you could miss out on opportunities to win market share.
There’s more to running a cloud service provider (CSP) business than simply offering an excellent service. Chances are, in time, you will want to grow and scale. However, for many, this is intimidating. Where do you start? How can you create sustainable profit? Even the most progressive CSPs face challenges; they haven’t just built a high-quality customer base out of thin air.
As MSPs begin to grow and mature their businesses, resource efficiency is a common area of focus. It makes sense: if you want to deliver the same high service level (or better) to more customers without making huge investments in staff and equipment, efficiency and standardization are clearly the way forward. Backup is an area that is especially ripe for improved efficiency for most MSPs.
“I’m not a big enough business… I’m too small… no one will want to hack me.” “I don’t have anything of any importance that anyone would want… I’m not terribly concerned.” “It hasn’t happened to us yet, so it isn’t something I’m worried about.” “What you’re proposing seems like overkill to me. And besides, we don’t have the extra funds in our budget anyway.
