In a recent conversation with a MSP executive the topic of contracts came up. This person said that MSP's who do not hold their clients to the letter of their contracts are doing the client's a disservice. I could not agree more.
particularly among smaller organizations there is a habit (no doubt born of many years of practice) where solution providers do business "on a handshake". When MSP's do business like this they are risking more than just a lawsuit. MSP's who cannot say no to a client asking them to do more than what is in the contract can open their managed services practice to a great deal of risk and potential harm.
1) Habit Forming - MSP's who do things not enumerated in their SLA get their clients thinking that they can ask for something anytime and they will get it...regardless if the contract says they should get it.
2) Liability - when a MSP performs a task outside a service agreement there may be far reaching consequences involving legal liability and/or insurance disclaimers.
3) Bad for staff - when an owner or account manager authorizes out of contract work to be done they are circumventing the internal service delivery process every MSP should have. Each service delivered should be directly tied to a SLA, if only to help bill accurately and ensure accountability on the part of the service delivery team.
4) Bad for business - during a M&A business transaction anything delivered outside of a service contract will likely become zeroed out or reduced significantly in value. All those times you thought you were doing your client a favor might actually end up costing you in the end.
Whether it is increased liability, bad for your internal service delivery procedures, or simply bad business protocol, deviating from a standardized service level agreement is something that should be avoided at all costs. By sticking to the letter of your agreement (and inserting into an agreement any new services requested by the client), you will be doing yourself and your clients a huge favor.
