The saying “change is the only constant in life” is attributed to Heraclitus, an ancient Greek philosopher. He was believed to live between 535 and 475 BC. While there are many versions of this statement. It continues to be a truth that anyone in the IT industry understands.
The fast pace of the evolution of IT technology has lead to increasing opportunities to include remote monitoring and management. This is an opportunity is for growing small businesses to big industries.
The fast pace also provides opportunities for MSPs (Managed Service Providers). But, they also have to be aware of the frequent need to change in response to the evolution of different options that may compete in the industry and offers similar services.
There are several different issues that are driving changes in the realm of managed IT services.
The biggest one issue for many MSPs is the use of cloud-based services.
It provides the business with the scalable resources and tools needed to address many of the security, backup and automation benefits. These benefits have traditionally been available only through network monitoring and management services.
To understand the most common issues facing MSPs in the future, let’s take a closer look at three common problems.
Table of Contents
Problems Faced by Managed Service Providers:
How is it possible for remote network management and monitoring to stay ahead of the curve and provide the services clients needs?
1. Staying Flexible
Some tech companies, particularly the large tech companies, tend to have a one-size-fits-most approach to obtaining customers. They offer break-fix contracts and solutions that are geared to a particular size of business.
The structure leads to some businesses, particularly smaller firms, not having the budget to hire these companies. The same is true with some managed IT service providers offer a lot of RMM tools that a company may not use nor want.
By being flexible and conducting an analysis of the particular customer’s system, it is easier for the top MSPs to create a tailored approach that is right for the needs of the company. The option presented is more of a SaaS type of model where the business can pay for the services used. They don’t need to pay for a lot of unnecessary and unused tools.
Of course, the MSP will also have to work to upsell and market to existing and new customers to generate increased revenue. However, with free remote monitoring and management tools offered by some platforms, it is easier to drop costs and offer more rather than offer only the basics and charge more.
Related Read: Significance of Data Center Management
2. Offering Genuine Solutions
While a business may assume that a remote monitoring and management service will be able to provide backup and disaster recovery, deploy software across the system or even to provide full network security management, the full scope of what MSPs can offer is typically not known to customers.
To address this, the assessment of the system is critical. It allows the sales team to discuss the specific needs of the client beyond the basics. For example, many RMM platforms and providers offer full integration with PSA (Professional Services Automation) software package.
These packages can provide the business with the option to not only use the RMM tools but to also automate many of the CRM (Customer Relations Management), project management. And even they provide mobile device management for those businesses with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies.
A proactive approach to providing what customers want rather than waiting to react after there is a need is a growing trend in the MSPs sector. This includes having a top relationship with clients and anticipating where their need for increase performance and remote management will originate.
When a managed IT service provider has this edge; it is easy to capitalize and provide a solution to the problem before the business starts looking elsewhere.
3. Moving To the Cloud
A trend throughout business is to use the cloud rather than physical servers and resources. The best MSPs are already offering cloud-based monitoring to reduce manual IT processes. They provide services that are very easy to scale.
When the MSPs uses the cloud for their remote monitoring and management operating platform, it is possible to easily offer their services on a SaaS plan. A Software as a Service option may be ideal for some small business, allowing the company to easily budget for their remote monitoring service while also selecting just the software solutions they wish to include.
While not offered on all platforms, some of the leading providers offering cloud-based platforms provide. They also provide free network monitoring services and systems. These free offerings include patch management, service desks and full alerts and reports to allow you to fully monitor and track real-time information from your customer’s systems.
Related Read: How to Manage Virtual Servers?
Additionally, some of these companies even provide the use of the portal through mobile devices.
They are ensuring you will never miss an alert or when service desk ticket is generated by a customer. This also is going to be a trend in the future. Turning back to providing exceptional customer service, it is a way to differentiate the best MSPs from the average providers.