CV_SepOct_22

ers warned, and the cloud’s dominance as a model “has mandated a slew of adjustments to [MSP] business strategy.” Indeed, nearly half (46 percent) of MSPs said shifts in customer procurement habits are driving change in their own business, while nearly the same number (44 percent) said the demand for business consulting is also pushing them in new directions. “The two dynamics are intertwined,” said CompTIA analysts. All told, just 4 percent of MSPs surveyed by CompTIA said they are sticking exclusively to their traditional business model in the foreseeable future. Among new focus areas, lots of attention is being paid to customer experience as a means to offset a declining role in initial technology transactions. “If MSPs are learning one thing in the cloud era, it’s that customers today, especially those non-IT line of business workers, are buying technology directly, often SaaS solutions online,” said the Trends in Managed Services 2022 report. “To be taken out of the actual transaction has many MSPs rightly looking to where they can add value. One way is by providing a superior experience, which is especially critical for MSPs that operate with customers on longterm contracts.” Along with providing omni-channel choices, responsive communication and support, and emphasizing the lifecycle of a client relationship over the initial sale, MSPs are upping their CX quotient by providing consulting services. “Choice-overwhelmed customers need help determining the best solution for their business needs out of hundreds of look-the-same, soundthe-same online marketplace applications offerings,” CompTIA researchers suggested. “The MSP’s consulting influence here cements a trust and stickiness with customers that can be both lucrative and valuable.” Cybersecurity, not surprisingly, also has been a change agent for many MSPs looking to their future, CompTIA researchers pointed out, moving from what might have been a minor part of their portfolios to rapidly being seen as mission critical. Yet another way in which MSPs are capitalizing on their customer’s use of cloud services is by ceding the procurement piece of the equation and doubling down on the management angle, said CompTIA. For 22 percent of respondents, this has meant transitioning their identity to a cloud services provider, or CSP, versus a traditional MSP. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they function as both an MSP and CSP, which implies that they offer the typical infrastructure services that reside both on-premises and in the cloud, coupled with pure cloud services. “As a CSP, these companies manage and monitor their customers’ workloads in the cloud and serve as the liaison between clients and the third-party cloud providers,” said the IT channel association. “They also manage SaaS subscriptions, capacity issues, and help vet cloud services in line with client business needs.” A function of a CSP also could include aligning with third-party cloud services firms that offer additional assistance in managing customer workloads that are spread across multiple cloud environments, said CompTIA researchers a common, yet sometimes-overwhelming scenario to track and oversee, especially among small-sized MSPs that comprise most of the ecosystem. As CompTIA readily admits, CSP versus MSP can be a nebulous distinction, “but the CSP label does seem to resonate as a new type of business model for today’s MSPs,” said the researchers. And there is no getting around the reality of how cloud-delivered and cloud-managed solutions remove some of the need for the technical expertise and IT specialization that made MSPs sough-after partners in the first place. All the while, an emphasis on elements of the business such as CX, retention and loyalty, mining and solution recommendations seem to shift emphasis to the type of things that traditional sales agencies have plenty of experience being good at. IT-dependent MSPs certainly could hire salespeople, “but it is just as expensive to hire salespeople as technicians, and managing salespeople is foreign to them,” said Peter Radizeski of consulting agency RAD Info. This is not to suggests that MSPs have somehow become de-valued as channel partners. Rather, the point is that as managed services increasingly are delivered and managed by cloud solution providers, the types of partners that can provide and support certain managed services greatly expands. o ts? e and Source: CompTIA Steps MSPs Have Taken to Embrace Cloud Computing 59% 49% 50% 38% 34% % 53% 68% Invested in ongoing customer experience Elevated cloud management capabilites Created a cloud cybersecurity practice Shifted to business consulting Shifted vendor line card Changed our pricing structure Partnering with ISVs to resell SaaS 43% 42% 39% 36% 34% 32% 25% 6% 12% 39% 43% Accounts Emails & Passwords Financial Documents Categories Sold on the Dark Web 34 CHANNELV ISION | SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2022

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