Six Challenges Awaiting MSPs
The VAR Guy attended CompTIA’s Managed Services Summit this week near San Diego. During the event, VARs like TeamLogicIT President Chuck Lennon provided a reality check for solutions providers making the move to managed services. Here’s a recap.
First, the upside: Most MSPs attending the summit spoke very highly of their current business performance, and they strongly advised VARs to begin the move to managed services as quickly as possible. Now, some of the hard realities…
6. Forget Utilization Rates: This radical but thought-provoking suggestion came from Jim Alves, executive VP of product marketing and strategy at Kaseya. Instead of measuring utilization rates, MSPs should focus on revenue per employee.
5. You Still Need to Diversify: Over the long haul, you can’t survive on one managed service. Yes, start with one. But then build out a portfolio of services to differentiate yourself. J. Michael Drake, CEO of MasterIT, notes that his firm is using three MSP platforms—N-able, Autotask and EVault—to deliver comprehensive solutions to customers.
4. Big Rivals Await You: You will eventually compete with telephone and cable companies, which will ultimately become MSPs, several speakers predicted. But personal relationships with regional customers can keep VARs one step ahead of big, bureaucratic service providers.
3. Open Your Wallet: In some cases, VARs are paying more than their current annual revenue for an MSP platform. But Lennon and other MSPs insist it’s smarter to buy than to build. TeamLogic IT’s Lennon concedes that his biggest mistake was attempting to first build an MSP platform. One of his internal technical experts strongly advised him to change course and buy a platform. He eventually embraced that advice.
2. Fire Some Customers: On the one hand, you’ll need to evangelize managed services to your existing customers. But you’ll also need to walk away from some customers because they may declined upgrade their desktops and software to your minimum recommended standards for monthly support.
1. Fire Some Staff: You may have to fire some of your current tech support and sales staff members. This was echoed several times at the conference. Several MSPs mentioned that they found it difficult—but necessary—to let go of “break/fix heroes� who simply couldn’t embrace the managed services concept.
[…] I haven#8217;t attended an MSP Alliance event before. But I did manage to moderate a few sessions at CompTIA#8217;s MSP Summit last spring in San Diego. The 100-plus attendees raised some great questions. And I blogged quite a bit about the event for my magazine, TechIQ. Attendees even helped me to develop a list of six challenges that await MSPs. […]
[…] I haven#8217;t attended an MSP Alliance event before. But I did manage to moderate a few sessions at CompTIA#8217;s MSP Summit last spring in San Diego. The 100-plus attendees raised some great questions. And I blogged quite a bit about the event for my magazine, TechIQ. Attendees even helped me to develop a list of six challenges that await MSPs. […]
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