As much discussion as there is surrounding managed services I find it useful to periodically sit back and have a bit of a reality check. Now, perhaps more than ever before, there are a great diversity of opinions about managed services. Personally, I think a lot of these ideas are not entirely based in reality or in sound logic. On the other hand, you may think that my ideas are illogical and crazy. Anyway, here it goes.
Economics and Managed Services
Recession; economic slowdown; fiscal caution; all these terms are being thrown around to describe what I believe to be a ripple effect from the real estate shakeout. And yet, all the MSPs I talk to are generally struggling with the same problems: how to deal with their growth. The simple fact is as jobs are lost and IT departments become more strained, MSPs are in a unique position to play an expanded role in the global IT management industry.
While the vendor community continues to play a vital role in the success of MSPs, there are some key areas where vendors are wasting resources when they could be focusing on more important things. Most significantly, managed services education is an area where many MSPs today view vendors as falling short. Now, before you think about investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in MSP education, consider this. An alarming percentage of MSPs do not view any vendor as having a good MSP program. This is a stunning statistic.
Many vendors consider having MSP educational resources to be the central focus of their "MSP Program". While there is merit to having a good support program for your MSPs, having the wrong combination of resources can be disastrous. Vendors are no less subject to the basic law of business focus: do what it is you are best at and core to your business
