An MSP’s guide to the next normal
The pandemic has forced companies to make many changes related to the way they operate. In-person meetings have been replaced with conversations on Microsoft Teams, and Friday get-togethers have been replaced with online team-building activities . After some time, both employers and employees got used to the new reality, and the changes in most workplaces went smoothly. However, a return to the office, at least to some extent, is inevitable. It will involve further challenges and new technical needs because what worked before the pandemic may not work after it. While clients struggle with such issues, MSPs should consider how to implement their visions smoothly. Let’s look at the Managed Service Provider’s next normal.
How has the pandemic affected MSPs?
In early 2020, MSPs did as most companies – they lowered their revenue forecasts and growth targets. However, they quickly found that reality positively surprised them. Many new clients emerged, looking for MSPs to help them transition to remote work. They had to make quick decisions to, among other things, replace legacy software with modern versions. MSPs had to adapt to this pace and keep up with the market and its demands. There are a few important things that have changed during the pandemic, two of them being:
What will the return to the Managed Service Provider’s next normal look like?
In a post-pandemic world, MSPs will need to understand the changes in demand of their services, and adapt and position themselves accordingly. To fully understand what changes are in store for MSPs, it is necessary to first recognise what will change for their customers.
Will remote working stay with us?
Due to the pandemic, companies have been forced to look for new solutions, including those related to remote work. This has required an investment of time and money, and in many cases, managers found these new solutions interesting even if they may not have appreciated them before. All this means that remote working is very likely to stay with us for longer, if not in a full version, then in a hybrid one. Remote working solutions will therefore continue to evolve along with the demand for them.
For many SMBs, IT services will become a strategic investment
Due to the growth of IT services and the changes made by the pandemic, companies are realising how important IT solutions are. The main points of investment will be:
What is more, the pandemic has caused companies to shift the cost of hiring internal IT departments towards outsourcing, as businesses needed to quickly deploy various technologies in order to recover fully. This is also due to the fact that scepticism towards remote working has decreased among employers and, consequently, they have started to look more favourably at outsourcing.
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This is where new opportunities arise for MSPs, as they increasingly offer networking, hosting, VPN, VoIP, security, printing services and much more. This means that IT can be virtually completely outsourced.
What’s an MSP’s next normal?
First and foremost, MSPs along with their clients, should carefully review remote working solutions used during the pandemic, checking what passed the test and what did not. In addition, many clients will likely choose to partially return to the office and work in a hybrid version, so solutions should be tailored to allow for seamless transitions between working from the office and working remotely.
Not only for clients but also for many MSPs, working remotely proved to be no small challenge. When clients faced the problems of allowing their employees to work from home within a very short period of time, MSPs worked 24/7 to help them accomplish this task. But after all, MSPs also had to work remotely themselves, without the ability to interact directly with the clients. Many of them were forced to make new arrangements and create new solutions. In a post-pandemic reality, they will probably also be needed and used. Therefore, MSPs need to redefine the customer relationships to ensure their continuity and proximity.
Companies also need to redefine their relationships with customers. For MSPs, this means new opportunities again - providing clients with the tools that allow their teams to build the shortest and most convenient buyer's journey possible from the acquisition of information to the completion of the transaction. Companies must be able to personalise the information delivered to customers at every stage of that journey.
Enabling remote working was only the first step in helping customers stay in business. This move also required new security solutions as many vulnerabilities that had not been thought of before were revealed. The use of private computers and smartphones by employees has forced new developments towards cybersecurity (e.g. in relation to password management). Although the pandemic will go away at some point, hybrid working from the office and from home will require these types of solutions, so MSPs should focus on developing and improving them.
We have observed the development of 5G, AI, and blockchain before, but the pandemic has accelerated adaptation processes. For MSPs, this opens the way to new customers and new vertical markets, among which they will have to demonstrate their expertise.
Conclusion
The pandemic has changed a lot in our lives and the ways in which we work. Although at its outset it seemed to many that it was only a temporary change, we soon found that many of the solutions proved so effective that they will stay with us for longer. The idea of online training, webinars, and online meetings has grown significantly during the pandemic. For MSPs, this means new opportunities to deliver value to customers looking for support in creating remote or flexible workplaces. To remain competitive after the pandemic, MSPs need to monitor changing needs and increased demand in the market to rethink their service offerings.