Switching gears from my usual posts about business ownership, I want to touch on a few things related to Advisory’s work as a managed services provider. What an MSP is can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Let me help clarify and explain what an MSP should be and what it shouldn’t be:
Your MSP should be a team of dedicated experts constantly monitoring, managing, and optimizing your IT infrastructure while you focus on growing your business. They should be the sum of the following components:
• Strategic partner genuinely invested and well versed in your business needs
• Management consultant to help you prioritize future initiatives as they align with your organizational goals
• Transparent in successes and failures
• Service desk for your employees
• A source of scalable and lasting solutions to IT problems
• An engineering department helping you build security, process, and automation.
• Security + InfoSec adviser
But this doesn’t always happen. We meet many companies stuck in bad relationships with their MSPs and often excuse bad behavior because they don’t know any better. Here are some warning signs:
• Lack of transparency or willingness to share ticket data.
• Slow to respond to inquiries, fails to keep you informed about critical updates or incidents, or needs clear channels for escalation.
• Spends more time upselling tools irrelevant to your business rather than addressing your ongoing concerns.
• Productized services that take a “one size fits all” approach
• Lack of proactive strategic guidance
A managed service provider is not just an external vendor; they’re a strategic partner invested in your success. By leveraging their expertise, tools, and resources, you can optimize your IT environment, mitigate risks, and focus on driving innovation and growth within your organization. They are a phone call you don’t dread, and hopefully one you look forward to. So, if you want to scale your business and get a better ROI on IT spending, partnering with an MSP is the intelligent and economical choice.
