Time for the MSP to evolve or die?

The point of technology is not just to anticipate the future, but also to shape it. Businesses that reinvent through innovation, while adhering to best practice, usually outperform their peer group. As a result, speed of innovation and major IT shifts, like cloud, SaaS and IoT, are driving the need for business transformation. And businesses need to capitalise on these trends by ensuring they have the right technologies and processes in place to cope with current and future needs. Considering this ever-changing landscape, is it any wonder that service providers need to evolve, too?

The service provider market (and the managed service provider (MSP) specifically) exists to help businesses through this all. MSPs found their niche in the 1990s when the focus for the majority of businesses was on cost reduction and streamlining operations. While they do have SLAs in place, they are still, in effect, outsourcers. And outsourcing helps save money – regardless of the industry you’re in. Particularly if you lack the skills in-house and don’t have the budget to hire them in.  

While cost is still an important consideration, in today’s IT environment, products and solutions need to be fit for purpose. They need to enable the business to meet its objectives, whether that’s growth, transformation or reaching new markets.

So, while the MSP model sounds like a good idea and has worked in the large part over the last three decades, there’s always a catch. Many see MSPs as glorified outsourcers, delivering products, solutions and skills based on economies of scale. Yes, there’s cost reduction. But outsourcing can also dilute value — are you your provider’s priority client? Or does a larger, blue chip client take precedence over your needs? If engineers working on your contract see an opportunity for innovation who do they tell? You or their bosses? What’s done about it? Ultimately, if your operations are outsourced to an MSP, how do you identify growth opportunities? How do know what to change to make your business more productive, agile or competitive?

Outsourcing may save money, but it limits innovation, and it limits growth. Especially if businesses become complacent and keep renewing contracts at the expense of updating technology.

It’s time for a new way of thinking; a new approach to getting the technology you need, while saving money and still having that capacity to push your business forward in terms of innovation and expansion.

Enter MAAP — Managed Applications Access Partner. Unlike the aged MSP, MAAP delivers best-in-class technologies focused on business enablement. The MAAP is all about being customer centric. And how does it accomplish this? By leveraging vendor relationships, its wider industry expertise and technical know-how to deliver fit-for-purpose solutions that are deployed and managed using those specific skills. In addition, MAAPs also ensure that the products and solutions are fully integrated into the wider technology ecosystem in the most efficient way. MAAPs recognise the fact that there needs to be more to the customer relationship than cost structure. It should be about bringing back innovation and enabling growth.

A key part of you, as a business, getting a technology environment that enables your goals is working with a provider that understands your organisation. The way you operate, your requirements and your long-term objectives must be made of paramount importance to your service partner. If this partner understands your objectives it becomes easier for them to suggest products. If they are aligned to your objectives, then you know what they suggest will be more relevant and right for your business.

The service provider market needs to be about more than outsourcing; providers need to add significant value to their customers’ operations. It’s time for them to become business enablers, not just a cheaper cost centre.

More than that, it’s about building relationships – long-term, sustainable relationships – that are based on meeting the customer’s growth objectives. MAAPs understand the technology, have the expertise to implement it, the vendor relationships to maintain it, and the in-depth knowledge of their customer’s business.

Conclusion

Moving forward, businesses will recognise the value of working with a service partner that is evolving with their own needs and in line with the industry. Regardless of the name, long-term success and sustainable growth is supported by an IT infrastructure that enables organisations to meet their objectives. The key enabler of that is having the right partner to rely on for advice, implementation and management; a partner with your organisation’s best interests front of mind, and not just its own.