Five Ways MSPs Can Increase Profit and Grow

Today’s managed service provider (MSP) market is broad and diverse, and businesses are looking at the larger picture when it comes to selling services. As more companies outsource their IT management work in an effort to save money, MSPs have to similarly look for various avenues to reach their customers.

In light of this, a recent Infonetics Research study shows manufacturer-provided services for the enterprise will become a $25 billion market by 2016. To help MSPs flourish in this rigorous environment, Suvish Viswanathan, a senior analyst at ManageEngine, recently offered five ways MSPs can maximize profit, which are excerpted below:

1. Embrace Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

According to recent research, IaaS is the fastest growing market in the public cloud-services segment, which is set to grow at a rate of 45.4 percent in the coming year. MSPs can leverage this growth in moving their IT management services to the cloud by utilizing infrastructure from various IaaS vendors that have arrived in the market today.

2. Unify IT Management

The cost and reliability of services are seen as the most critical aspects to run this business.

MSPs have to look for the tool that can ultimately provide the single pane of glass to monitor and manage customers’ IT infrastructure.

3. Expand Your Service Portfolio

Today, business runs on IT, and MSPs have the opportunity to run that. Most medium-sized MSPs limit their service portfolio with desktop management/anti-virus management or patch management. There are several other services yet to be explored completely, and enterprises are looking out in the market to outsource them. A few of them include:

• Remote monitoring of the entire IT infrastructure
• Network Operations Center (NOC) services
• Mobile device management
• Managed storage, back ups and disaster/recovery services
• Help desk and patch management
• Cloud services (hosted e-mails, storage, VDIs, website, etc.)

4. Evaluate Vendor Selection

No MSP is complete without possessing a right tool, and the tool is only as good as the vendor’s knowledge of the specific market. Choosing the right vendor determines the success of the MSP.

5. Pursue Automation

One of the major concerns for MSPs is the cost and that can be brought down if the MSPs automate the repetitive tasks in a standardized way. This increases the number of devices managed by each technician.

In summary, successful MSPs know that diversity and scalability are paramount, and broadening their portfolios is the only way to stay competitive and retain business while looking for new business.