Organizations approach MSPs (Managed Service Providers) to eliminate the added task of maintaining their IT operations. They expect continuously managed service offerings round the clock and a visionary managed services provider that prepares for their future security needs while catering to the present IT demands. As more and more organizations switch to external IT service providers, Managed Service Providers have an open and widening market in front of them. But to win and retain clients, MSPs need to have good product listings, efficient staff, and robust internal policies. Understanding client needs instead of merely marketing their products is an essential aspect no MSP must overlook.
As such is the scenario, MSP partners need to have innovative strategies backed up with the right mix of people, processes, and technology that promise to elevate their image in the market. It also helps raise their stature in front of clients, helping them establish themselves as reliable and go-to IT services providers.
Top Strategies For MSPs To Strengthen Managed Services And Engage Clients Better
Here are 6 top strategies for MSPs and MSSPs that can help them strengthen their services and increase their focus on the clients, leading to better client engagement.
Outsourcing Transactional HR Professionals To Boost Internal HR Innovations
Looking at managed services examples, the responsibilities of Administrative or Transactional HR professionals primarily revolve around recruiting new professionals, revising workplace policies, settling internal issues, and other admin work. Such duties come up regularly and take away a lot of time from the HR professionals of the MSPs. Managed Service Providers need to ensure that the HR department is proactive because the recruitment, retention, and remuneration of other employees depend entirely on their work. Hence, MSPs must consider outsourcing their transactional HR professionals (since an external team can very well manage day-to-day admin work) from third-party service providers.
Uncovering Market Opportunities
Small to medium-sized businesses have begun investing in third-party service providers and the cloud. The time is ripe for MSPs to extend their services to the cloud (providing managed cloud hosting services) and uncover other market avenues to stay ahead of the competition. MSPs should offer services that businesses need at the time.
The current market promises revenue for MSSPs from providing digital business infrastructure operations (DBIO) solutions, advanced security offerings such as endpoint detection response (EDR), managed detection and response (MDR) tools, incident response, vulnerability management, endpoint management, patching, etc. Hence these services must be vital inclusions in their managed services offerings PPT presented before the clients.
Market opportunities also include providing Business Continuity Plan and disaster recovery solutions for enterprises looking to strengthen their security and reduce business downtime. Backup services are an emerging need among businesses, and facilitating the same can mean lucrative prospects for MSPs. Yet another aspect to include in their offerings is IoT and AI-related services. IoT is the future of business, and the sooner the MSPs extend their services to include AI-powered services and IoT implementation, the better.
Increased Employee Engagement And Retention
The Human Resource Management team of an MSP might spend a lot of time, resources, and energy hiring qualified, experienced, and eligible fresh recruits for the organization. Yet, the employee may resign after a brief period of association, creating a loss of an efficient workforce. It might happen despite the salary, flexibility, and freedom being adequate.
Employee engagement and retention are growing concerns among MSPs and can be incredibly detrimental to their market position if not managed appropriately. Engaging the workforce in job roles, they are passionate about and skilled at ensuring their prolonged interest and loyalty towards the MSP. Hence, one of the key strategies for MSPs to strengthen their services and ensure undiminished focus on the clients using efficient human resources is employee engagement and retention.
Promoting Visibility Using Reliable Real-World Data
Another effective strategy for MSPs to strengthen their managed services is reaching out to client hiring managers and identifying client requirements. MSSPs can capture their work on a Virtual Memory System (VMS) based on reliable real-world data and utilize it to make informed decisions. Not only does it benefit the MSPs, but it also ensures clarity and visibility for clients to view costs, forecasting the overheads, and all other aspects related to their long-term goals.
Business Planning Acumen For Expansion
Regardless of the types of managed services offered by an MSP, they need to widen their activity to cover more expansive areas according to growing demands to sustain themselves in the market. They have to acknowledge that the evolving IT needs of the digital world demand them to be proactive in adopting newer and better technologies. The MSPs should build upon their past experiences, market intelligence, collected data, and business planning insight to establish their market position and expand their business.
They should consult external agencies to find the best computing practices and improve their infrastructure accordingly. Like organizations dependent on MSPs for their IT needs, MSPs depend upon businesses for their sustenance. Therefore, they must collaborate and exchange ideas between themselves to ensure business expansion to serve clients better.
Financial Management For Effective Planning and Forecasting
MSPs are a sought-after entity among businesses because they do everything in their capacity to deliver exemplary service at the right time using the right talent and at the right price. This service and financial equilibrium characterize MSPs and help them strike a chord with all stakeholders, including their employees, suppliers, and clients.
Among the top strategies for MSPs are effective planning and forecasting facilitated by tools like labor economics reports, market-rate, people analytics, supplier surveys, rate controls, collecting client data via business intelligence systems, etc. Further, MSPs can work with hiring managers to predict future expenses or opportunities to ensure effective financial management. Such an approach can help MSPs develop affordable and economical solutions to draw more clients to their services.
Final Words
Successful MSP partners approach clients by showcasing their reliability, specialization, and futuristic approach to management. However, the digital domain isn’t stagnant, and MSSPs need to maintain a policy of continual development in their strategies and offerings so that all stakeholders continue to accompany them in their journey of business expansion and prosperity. The strategies mentioned above ensure that MSPs manage the concepts of people, processes, and technology diligently to efficiently manage all the offered services and significantly improve client engagement.