Engaging MSPs: What Should Customers Look For?

Why Engage an MSP? (Part 1)

Managed IT services is external support for a company’s core IT functions. Specifically, it entails end-user support, cloud, security, and device management. Typically billed at a flat rate calculated on supported users or devices, managed IT services offers professional, expert support at a cost that remains the same regardless of how frequently the support is needed.

There are several reasons why a company should engage a managed services provider (MSP) for their IT needs:

Growing Complexity in Cybersecurity Compliance

First, a limited internal IT team may be challenged by the increasing number of clients asking companies to comply with their cybersecurity standards. These compliance projects are time-consuming to manage and often stretch the expertise of in-house IT, triggering the need for outside tools and expertise. These cybersecurity audits almost always expose areas that require remediation to bring the company into compliance. MSPs can provide much-needed expertise and capacity to help with the additional projects created by an audit.

Limited Internal Capacity

Operations small to large reach a point of maximum capacity with their in-house IT resources. Maybe it’s only one individual who was needed to meet the business’ IT needs when the company was founded. With success, a business grows – and this is to be celebrated.

This growth and success, however, comes with additional IT needs. At this point, businesses can experience substantial benefits from hiring an MSP to supplement their IT needs. An MSP can easily alleviate the burden of in-house IT management and take charge over the company’s IT core operations so in-house staff can focus on strategic IT initiatives, or even projects outside of IT.

Migration to the Cloud

When transitioning to cloud and software as a service (SaaS) applications, the IT professional’s job description changes. Ultimately, cloud and SaaS applications lighten the IT burden for maintaining application servers and all the associated support functions. The nature of IT work changes as the business looks to IT to focus less on keeping the systems running and more on data analytics, information workflows, employee productivity and security issues. A great MSP can help with the complexity of shifting data and processes to the cloud, while helping the company define and manage new workflows that maximize the benefit from all the cloud services that are being used.

Yellow Lights and Red Lights

There are acute emergencies (red light events) like cyber attacks that cause businesses to look elsewhere for help. There are also mid-level pain points (yellow lights), or areas where businesses know they need to improve but are slow to take action. Most MSPs are equipped to handle all the possible events that can occur, but great MSPs will be able to identify minor issues before they become major issues with software tools and expertise that ensure no interruption to your day-to-day business operations.

Tedious Tasks

Employee onboarding, offboarding, device management, SaaS management – think of the bottom half of the list of IT tasks your company needs to handle for things to run smoothly. These are responsibilities that no one internal is particularly excited to tackle but they need to be managed regardless. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone else could just handle all of it for you instead? Yes, that’s also what MSPs do – everything that you don’t want to. A great MSP will not only handle these tasks but will also bring software and expertise for ways to automate and improve the operation of these important but uninteresting tasks.

Why Engage an MSP?

Why Engage an MSP? (Part 1)

Managed IT services is external support for a company’s core IT functions. Specifically, it entails end-user support, cloud, security, and device management. Typically billed at a flat rate calculated on supported users or devices, managed IT services offers professional, expert support at a cost that remains the same regardless of how frequently the support is needed.

There are several reasons why a company should engage a managed services provider (MSP) for their IT needs:

Growing Complexity in Cybersecurity Compliance

First, a limited internal IT team may be challenged by the increasing number of clients asking companies to comply with their cybersecurity standards. These compliance projects are time-consuming to manage and often stretch the expertise of in-house IT, triggering the need for outside tools and expertise. These cybersecurity audits almost always expose areas that require remediation to bring the company into compliance. MSPs can provide much-needed expertise and capacity to help with the additional projects created by an audit.

Limited Internal Capacity

Operations small to large reach a point of maximum capacity with their in-house IT resources. Maybe it’s only one individual who was needed to meet the business’ IT needs when the company was founded. With success, a business grows – and this is to be celebrated.

This growth and success, however, comes with additional IT needs. At this point, businesses can experience substantial benefits from hiring an MSP to supplement their IT needs. An MSP can easily alleviate the burden of in-house IT management and take charge over the company’s IT core operations so in-house staff can focus on strategic IT initiatives, or even projects outside of IT.

Migration to the Cloud

When transitioning to cloud and software as a service (SaaS) applications, the IT professional’s job description changes. Ultimately, cloud and SaaS applications lighten the IT burden for maintaining application servers and all the associated support functions. The nature of IT work changes as the business looks to IT to focus less on keeping the systems running and more on data analytics, information workflows, employee productivity and security issues. A great MSP can help with the complexity of shifting data and processes to the cloud, while helping the company define and manage new workflows that maximize the benefit from all the cloud services that are being used.

Yellow Lights and Red Lights

There are acute emergencies (red light events) like cyber attacks that cause businesses to look elsewhere for help. There are also mid-level pain points (yellow lights), or areas where businesses know they need to improve but are slow to take action. Most MSPs are equipped to handle all the possible events that can occur, but great MSPs will be able to identify minor issues before they become major issues with software tools and expertise that ensure no interruption to your day-to-day business operations.

Tedious Tasks

Employee onboarding, offboarding, device management, SaaS management – think of the bottom half of the list of IT tasks your company needs to handle for things to run smoothly. These are responsibilities that no one internal is particularly excited to tackle but they need to be managed regardless. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone else could just handle all of it for you instead? Yes, that’s also what MSPs do – everything that you don’t want to. A great MSP will not only handle these tasks but will also bring software and expertise for ways to automate and improve the operation of these important but uninteresting tasks.

Top Reasons Companies Leave Their MSP

MSPs provide an excellent option for companies looking to improve their overall IT performance without having to invest heavily in internal staff. However, not all MSPs are equal. As the market for Managed Services continues to grow, the pressure on MSPs to meet rising consumer expectations from new performance standards and technologies has surpassed what many Managed Services providers are capable of delivering.

Having been in the Managed Services market for decades, our team knows the common gaps that can lead to poor perceived MSP performance and how to overcome these challenges. In this blog, we cover our list of the top reasons companies leave their MSP for alternative methods of support.

Top 4 Reasons Companies Leave Their MSP

1. Lack of Attention to Proper Security & Compliance Requirements

Security breaches are in the news daily. Because of this, security demands on small and medium sized businesses has never been greater. In the past, most small and medium sized organizations often considered it enough to install a firewall or endpoint solution. But these simple measures aren’t always effective against modern cybersecurity threats. Today’s threats are a constant reminder to all businesses that malicious actors can find ways into a system. In other words, anyone could be a target.

Protecting core data and technology is the leading reason companies seek out MSPs in the first place. Customers expect guidance and support in developing a layered security approach that detects and stops the vast cornucopia of threats. However, many MSPs are struggling to keep up with these increased demands. According to research, nearly one in four SMBs (24 percent) has already changed MSPs in the aftermath of a cyberattack.

2. Lack of Transparency

All businesses today are reliant on technology to operate. This is why many businesses turn to MSPs to support their systems. But business leaders can no longer just “trust their IT guy.” The stakes are too high. Tangible data must be available about the status, availability, and security a business’ IT environment.

Leaders must be able to see work their MSP does on their behalf and understand the state of their systems. Additionally, business leaders need to be able to tie this data back to the cost of outsourcing their IT in the first place. Yet, poor communication has been consistently listed as one of the top reasons that companies leave their MSP.

It’s important to note that lack of data doesn’t mean lack of work. Often it means lack of the customer’s awareness into work done on their systems. Maybe an MSP provides a customer with recommendations for new solutions, options, and technologies that will improve their performance. As a result of this recommendation, uptime and availability improve. However, without data showing improvement, the customer will struggle to tie the changes to any added value to the business.

3. Recurring Issues

One of the promises made by nearly every MSP in the market is the provision of proactive support. However, incidents often will find their way through. Well-run MSPs leverage a combination of comprehensive monitoring systems, sophisticated incident databases, and good client documentation to facilitate the MSP getting to the root of an incident the first time. Recurring issues is a common sign that an MSP is not tracking issues properly.

4. Poor Response Time & Customer Service

Long wait times are consistently one of the top complaints businesses have with their MSP. Businesses hire MSPs to come in and make sure that their technology is taken care of. When something goes wrong, customers expect that their Managed Services provider will work to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. A simple network outage could cost a small business thousands of dollars. When an MSP is overstretched, response times and time-to-resolution often suffer as a consequence. Poor response times to critical issues often leaves businesses looking for alternative methods of support.

All these reasons boil down to three underlying causes: quality, value, and preparation. When choosing a MSP to support your business and technical operations, make sure that they are aware of how to avoid these common shortcomings.