We Hate Our MSP, What Should We Do? – Part 2: Now Fix the Problem

In Part 1 of this series, we discussed the importance of understanding what the problems are that your MSP is having. We also covered how it is equally important to look within your own organization to see if you are setting your MSP up for success and if your own internal issues may be prohibiting your MSP from performing their best. We wrapped up with how to approach your MSP and have “the possibly uncomfortable, but oh so needed talk” on the problems you’re experiencing. You’ve given them the details of your grievances and the ball is their court.

In Part 2, the goal will be to begin working with your MSP to have them take corrective action and make changes to better meet your needs and fix the problems. It seems like a straightforward process, but there are caveats and things to be mindful of to ensure both parties are happy with the approach, and you can promote success for them and yourself.

What Does Your Contract Say?

It should always come back to the contract. Well, we say it should, but we often forget that this document exists and that it can be leveraged. Your SOW should be the anchor of your relationship with your MSP. Here are some things to explore within your SOW to see if you have anything already documented on how to handle the situation of an underperforming MSP.

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• What does it say about the performance of your MSP? Does it include language that covers this topic?
• Have you included SLAs? KPIs?
• What about escalations and managing problems that arise?
• Are there penalties for missed SLAs or performance?
• What is the path to resolution?

A final question – does your SOW make reference to any of this? If not, that’s OK. You can still work through this with your MSP and make a plan. For those exploring an MSP – these are some ideas of things to bake into your contract with them. Even if you don’t have every detail and variable lined out, that is alright. But having some level of structure can help you proactively set expectations for performance, but also allow for a strategy to be in place for when things go pear-shaped. ??

What’s the Plan, Stan?

When we left off in Part 1, you had already had an initial discussion with your MSP to check their awareness and initial reaction to the problems. Even if your SOW gives you some type of framework, you still need to formalize plans with your MSP to correct the problems that you’ve cited. A likely next step coming out of that initial discussion would be for them to take that information back internally. From there, they will then probably involve their own leadership in a subsequent discussion to validate and return with feedback.

After that, you need to know the plan. What are they going to do? How are these issues going to be resolved? Your MSP should come forward with a detailed action plan that speaks to each of the problems. This plan should include specific steps your MSP will take to resolve the problems, the resources needed, and a timeline for implementation. Ensure that the resolutions are speaking to the root cause of problems, as much as possible, to hopefully prevent them from reoccurring.

On top of the specific steps and timeline, consider how will the improvement be measured? Checking a box and taking steps doesn’t necessarily lead to results. So, when working with your MSP on the improvements, it’s best to have some level of measurement to be able to detect improvements. Keep in mind, things will never be perfect. Some managers will never be satisfied with your MSP. Some issues will always bubble up. It’s not about perfection, it’s about getting defects and detractors to a reasonable level that is acceptable to your business.

Comparison and Reflection

They say comparison is the thief of joy, but it can also be a sense reality and what is possible. While working through the action plan with your MSP, it’s important to ask them if they see these types of problems elsewhere. Have other clients gone through similar experiences? If so, how did they address it? What were the results?

It’s helpful to know this type of information because there are likely things within your own organization that can be improved to enable your MSP to perform better. Things like change management and adoption are often items that are more a reflection on your organization that can be better fostered with a collaborative approach with the MSP. Understand what they’ve seen and listen to their recommendations.

Give Them a Chance

With measurable goals, actions, and a timeline established, now is the time to see if your MSP can address the issues and take the necessary steps to correct past mistakes. Within the timeline they presented, they should have given expectations of when things should be better. But you can’t sit back and wait for the change to happen. Coming out of planning, you should set recurring meetings to check on the progress of the changes. Depending on the severity of the problems and the change that is happening, these can start as multiple times a week to just once a week.

The MSP should provide updates on status of the change, the actions they’ve taken, the results, and what is next. Continue to push, ask questions, and direct things in the way that you want to be able to get what you need. While the MSP will drive, they need you to provide feedback to make sure they are getting things right for you. Additionally, ask them what they need from you. How can you best support this change? This is a partnership and ensuring their success means being able to listen and give them what they need too.

As you progress and see the changes that you want, you may be able to shorten your check-ins and reduce the frequency of these sessions. But don’t let your foot off the gas. Always keep a pulse on the progress. Also, make sure that since one area of improvement is getting focus that other areas don’t begin to slack. It’s important that parts of the program that are going well continue in the same fashion.

Hopefully with the action plan and improvements, things get to a point where everyone feels comfortable. Performance has improved, acceptance of the program has grown, and issues are mostly resolved.

But what if they’re not? What if things aren’t getting better?

It’s Just Not Working / It’s Not Me, It’s You

For sake of this series, let’s assume the unhappy path: you’ve given it time, but things aren’t better, what do you do now? Well, that’s a loaded question with a long-winded answer, so we’ll leave you on a cliffhanger and encourage you to read the next article of this series in Part 3: It’s Still Bad, What Are My Options?

And a gentle reminder, you don’t have to figure this all out by yourself. Myself and many other brilliant CW consultants are here to help you work through these types of issues. Having an outside, neutral perspective can help you navigate tricky spots like this!