News in the Channel - issue #40

PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE

For managed service providers (MSPs), service is everything and ensuring customers have as little downtime as possible is imperative. This means that service times need to be as short as possible – and is where predictive maintenance comes in. Berend Booms, head of enterprise asset management insights at Ultimo, says predictive maintenance is gaining real traction in the channel. “MSPs are under pressure to deliver higher service levels without increasing operational cost,” he explains. “We’re seeing strong adoption across IT and operational environments. On the IT side, it’s network infrastructure, servers and power systems. But increasingly, MSPs are extending into operational assets: production equipment, HVAC, energy systems, the type of assets where condition-based data such as vibration, temperature or load can indicate early- stage failure. When you can spot anomalies weeks before they become outages, you transform the customer experience.” Greg Jones, SVP of MSP success – EMEA & North America at Kaseya, says that for years, he has been saying that MSPs should allocate time for true root cause analysis. “Done properly, it frees up a huge amount of time longer-term,” he says. “Too often, technical teams will happily work the same ticket week after week and feel like they are doing a good job. The reality is that we need to identify patterns and stop issues from ever reaching the service desk. That is where predictive maintenance comes in. The most common use cases are around endpoint health, server performance and network stability. By using monitoring tools and data, MSPs can identify trends early and resolve issues before users are impacted.” Benefits The reasons for this growth are clear as there are many benefits of predictive maintenance for MSPs and customers.

Rick Dove, pre-sales technical specialist at Epson UK, agrees that predictive maintenance allows MSPs to anticipate failures before they can disrupt the end user. “Common scenarios include consumables management, which is particularly important in areas such as print,” he says. “Printer fleet managers can use specific tools such as Epson Device Admin (EDA) and Epson Remote Services (ERS), which allows you to monitor printer ink levels and maintenance box capacity in real- time. Instead of waiting for a ‘low ink’ call, the MSP receives an automated alert when a threshold is hit, allowing for ‘just- in-time’ proactive shipping. “It also includes component lifespan tracking, monitoring mechanical parts like rollers or print heads. EDA and ERS can track page counts and hardware cycles, flagging unit parts that are approaching their duty cycle limits and allowing swift replacement to reduce or entirely mitigate down time. Device health is another key area. By having visibility into print volumes and identifying unusually high usage on certain machines as a predictor of potential points of failure, MSPs can proactively monitor, predict and mitigate future issues.” David Strain, technical director at Technidrive, agrees, saying the main benefit is the shift from reactive to proactive service delivery. “For MSPs, this means fewer emergency callouts, more efficient use of engineering resource and the ability to deliver higher-value, insight- led services,” he says. “For customers, it reduces unplanned downtime, extends asset life and improves overall operational reliability. “This is becoming increasingly important as the financial impact of downtime continues to rise, particularly in industries where supply chain disruption can quickly cascade into production delays, contractual penalties and reputational damage. As a result,

ultimo.com

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When you can spot anomalies

weeks before they become outages,

you transform the customer experience.

”

epson.co.uk

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...predictive maintenance allows MSPs to anticipate failures before they can disrupt the end user.

”

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