MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERS
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by offering simple services that are easy to understand and deliver.” Mark Appleton, chief customer officer at ALSO, also believes demand for MSPs will continue to grow in the coming years, for several reasons. “There is cybersecurity, AI and there’s still a lot of cloud adoption, migration and optimisation that’s continuing to happen in the market,” he says. “That’s what’s coming up in the next two to three years.” But Mark adds that customers need to find the right partner and it depends on what market and vertical they’re in. “More MSPs are specialising in niche verticals and not being so widespread, so customers have to find the right MSP to partner and move forward with,” he says. Steve Grey, head of sales at ALSO, adds MSPs must be experts for the customer. “Their IT teams can’t know everything about everything, so they want a trusted managed service provider that perhaps can go deep in one particular vertical,” he says. AI influence One of the bigger considerations for MSPs currently is the development of AI. As the benefits of AI become clearer for businesses – and more start to utilise it – it is something that MSPs need to be on top of. “MSPs need to be able to go to their customers confidently about AI before another one turns up and knocks on their customers’ door,” says Steve. “With AI, the challenge is making sure everything’s secure, especially data, and that the customer getting the best out of it and using it effectively to save time and provide that return on investment. “ALSO’s AI Academy is upskilling our MSPs on the sales part of selling Copilot, but then also on the technical part, making sure everything’s secure and that the customer is going to be happy with what they are going to have access to and who’s going to have access to what moving forward. “But also, there are upsell opportunities within that, for instance, around compliance and security that they can add on as an additional service along with the licence for Copilot.” Steve adds that AI presents a huge opportunity, but we are at the beginning of its impact on business. “The key factor for most of our resellers is not being left behind, so they need to act now,” he warns. “Because within a few short months, they could be way behind the competition.
Greg Jones
kaseya.com
“AI is not really replacing anything, it’s brand- new technology and a huge opportunity for MSPs to grab market share and revenue. “If customers come knocking on the door saying, what can you tell us about AI? And they don’t know, then they’re going to look elsewhere, which is where our AI Academy helps those MSPs with not just the technical and sales training, but marketing support et cetera, to help develop that AI practise.” Automation and efficiency Greg adds that AI, GenAI and automation are currently the top requests from business owners across the globe. “They are looking at how they can embed these technologies into their day-to-day business processes,” he says. “This is creating great value add opportunities for MSPs. “AI, GenAI, machine learning and automation should be key focus areas for all businesses as these technologies can help them gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. With low interest rates and high inflation, spending money on AI and automation is a great way to outperform the markets if implemented correctly: Businesses can save a vast amount of money on tasks that could be automated, alleviating the need for human intervention in many day-to-day activities.” Dan Smale, senior service owner of Fasthosts ProActive, adds that there is more automation and AI adoption to enhance service efficiency and provide predictive maintenance. “There are also growing concerns over regulatory compliance, which is driving the demand for MSPs to navigate these often-complex
MSPs need to be able to go to their customers confidently about AI before another one turns up and knocks on their customers’ door. “
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Nick Bannister
arrow.com
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