In the build-up to Managed Service & Hosting Summit 2018, an interesting article was published by ITEuropa. Entitled “Moving Managed Services on from price wars”, the article makes the claim that Managed Services can no longer be sold on price. It argues that the market has moved on from ‘need creation’ where MSPs would explain the concept of outsourcing into ‘demand fulfilment’ where MSPs are in a competitive race.
Whereas this is a natural progression of any market, it will undoubtedly prompt a strategic inflection point for many MSPs, with the question shifting from ‘should we outsource?’ to ‘who do we outsource with?’. For MSPs it will no longer be just about service efficiency and SLA’s, but questions will be asked of them about the value and competitive advantage they can deliver for their clients business.
Can MSP’s Innovate?
Business advantage can come in many forms, it is driving greater efficiencies, increasing productivity or differentiating from the competition. Each of these requires innovation and the ability to offer organisations more than maintaining a status-quo.
The cloud is bound to feature high on the agenda. With most organisations already started or about to embark on a journey to the cloud, MSPs need to ensure that this is a key part of their value proposition. By doing so the MSP is able to deliver all of the advantages delivered by the cloud including reducing TCO while also increasing flexibility, scalability and business agility.
However, it is not what the cloud offers that makes the difference, it is what the cloud enables, and this is where the MSPs need to know how to innovate.
What’s Needed In The Kitbag?
To add value, the MSP needs to increase their kitbag. It is no longer a pure service play, but a service and solution play. They need to have a cloud proposition, and this needs to be more than just acting as a broker to a multitude of public cloud offerings.
They need to seek strategic partnerships with cloud providers and create a differentiated proposition centred around reducing risk and increasing return from a journey to the cloud. It is about surrounding this with value-add services (predominantly cloud based) that can fulfil key requirements such as data replication and back-up, cybersecurity, mobility and business continuity.
Connectivity will also play a significant role. With more companies operating across multiple locations and with remote workers, the ability to have in place a secure corporate network, and for this to be professionally managed, is key.
So What Will Tomorrow’s MSP Look Like?
It is difficult to predict, but it is likely to be less support centric and more service and solution centric. Smart MSPs will play a strategic role with their clients and will orchestrate all of the services that these clients require to gain a business advantage.
Tomorrow’s successful MSP will innovate and have a much broader portfolio of recurring revenue services that are enabled through strong and strategic partnerships.
To find out more or to arrange your Advantage workshop, please contact the amatis team or give us a call on 0118 321 9944.