News in the Channel - issue #17

MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERS

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Partnering with tech providers Indeed, partnering with specialists could be valuable. Greg says MSPs should be leaning into all vendors and tech providers they work with. “Most, if not all vendors offer a vast amount of support for MSPs to help them grow their business,” he says. “MSPs should look at their vendor relationships differently and not just pick up the phone when they need a new licence or piece of hardware, for example. The vendor relationship should become an integral part of the business. “Of course, you need to consider how you can expand your service offering by partnering with software and hardware vendors, but beyond that MSPs should be looking at how they can provide business help and support in areas such as sales and marketing, education, training, development and give advice and guidance. “MSPs should ask their vendors two questions: What help and support for my business can you offer that we are not using now? And what are some of your fastest growing partners doing to win new business or succeed in the market?” Dan adds that partnering with tech companies can help provide access to advanced technologies: “Resellers can leverage and make use of the latest technologies without significant upfront investment on their part,” he says. Likewise, they can gain access to specialised skills and knowledge from tech providers, which can help to enhance service quality and offer a broader range of services, attracting a wider customer base. Partnerships can enable resellers to scale services up or down more easily based on demand,” Dan adds. “Also,

unique partnerships can provide a competitive edge by offering distinctive solutions. Also shared resources and expertise can lead to lower operational costs, improving profitability.” In a similar vein, Gaidar foresees more partnerships between MSPs and cybersecurity providers as cyberthreats continue to grow and develop in complexity. “More MSPs will offer EDR/XDR solutions and partner with MDR vendors, as traditional security is no longer enough for their customers,” he says. “There will also be a proliferation of partnerships between MSPs. Due to a lack of cybersecurity talent and a general lack of qualified IT professionals, more and more MSPs will have to outsource some of their responsibilities to their partners. We already see that some MSPs are becoming more of a cloud aggregator, with more revenue shifting towards reselling software and services to other MSPs than the directly offered managed services.” Huge opportunities There is also a huge opportunity for MSPs to provide more leadership and consultative services, Greg says. “Leading edge technologies such as AI are never out of the news now and businesses need help and support on how to integrate these technologies into their daily business,” he says. “Remember, they don’t know what they don’t know, IT and technology is not their specialist subject area, they need advice and guidance and to be shown what is possible. “Business and technology have converged, which means SMBs need MSPs more than ever. It is not possible to have a good company without good technology behind them.”

Ross Teague

nebulaglobalservices.com

More MSPs and partner with MDR vendors, as traditional security is no longer enough for their customers. “ ” will offer EDR/ XDR solutions

Mark Watkinson

adarma.com