Open Letter to MSPAlliance Members

This letter was written by MSPAlliance Board and Committee Members in response to members that have expressed concern over vendor organizations playing a governing and/or accrediting role in their profession.

To all MSPAlliance MSP Members,
We received nearly a thousand letters and emails from MSPs around the world regarding your concern that any vendor, individually or part of a larger group of vendors, would attempt to govern or accredit MSPs. We, the board and committee members of the MSPAlliance, would like to assure all MSPs that the MSPAlliance recognizes no other standard other than that which was created by us (the MSPs) beginning in 2004. This is a standard that all of you can be proud of; a standard that has been recognized by countless end-user organizations as THE standard of excellence in the managed services profession the world-over; a standard created by the MSPs for the MSPs.

The MSPAlliance was a grass roots campaign that was created nearly 10 years ago in an effort to promote the managed services industry as a profession and to protect MSPs from predatory practices. We had no funding, no vendor backing and very little hope of surviving; yet survive we did and today we are over 8,000 strong.
 
When the MSPs decided to create the Managed Services Accreditation Program (MSAP) and the individual Managed Services Professional Certification (MSPC) it was done for several reasons:

1) To create a true industry association and accrediting body
2) To create a standard of excellence
3) To self govern and self regulate
4) To protect OUR industry- “By the MSPs, FOR the MSPs” is our motto
5) Establish a standard of quality for the business consumer
 
We appreciate your ongoing efforts and support. As a board, we are eager to assist you in any way that we can to help you achieve Accreditation and/or Certification. Moving forward we pledge to significantly ramp-up our marketing efforts to the business consumer and other professional associations. As we speak, we are establishing Accreditation and Certification Auditors across the Country in an effort to reach as many of you as we can.

We would like to unequivocally state that MSPAlliance believes vendors play a very important role in our industry and, in fact, have played a very active and beneficial role in the MSPAlliance. However, they have never played a governance role (outside of issuing technical certifications and standards) and we will always maintain our position as a vendor neutral and agnostic organization.

In closing, we would like to sincerely thank you for helping us to become the internationally recognized group that we are today. With a membership of well over 8,000 we have (and always will have) the power and the might to govern ourselves. As always, the MSPAlliance is YOUR professional Association, established by MSPs and governed by MSPs.

Sincerely,
MSPAlliance Board and Committee Members
“By the MSPs, for the MSPs.”