Why get Empowered?
This is your About section. Every website has a story and users want to hear yours. This is a great opportunity to give a full background on who you are and what your site has to offer. Double click on the text box to edit the content and add all the information you want to share. You may like to talk about how you got started and share your professional journey. Explain your core values, your commitment to customers and how you stand out from the crowd. You can also add a photo, gallery or video for even more engagement.
Managed Service Providers (MSP) are nothing new.
The concept of outsourcing your IT needs to a trained and capable IT support company is more commonplace than it ever has been. However, MSP’s are certainly, not created equal. Most have no idea that they are in the customer service business. Rather, they operate in the money-making business and have largely been acquired by large national MSP Firms seeking to maximize profits.
In fact, most MSP’s operate at a 55-60% profit margin. Ridiculous. You (the customer) are sold a fixed monthly support contract and the MSP often does nothing more than cash your checks and monitor your backups.
Here's how it works.
Within the scope of the monthly support service offering the typical MSP will bundle in the costs of:
-
Desktop and Server Management Tools
-
Backup Solutions
-
Antivirus Management Software
-
Security Monitoring Tools
-
Remote Assist Software
-
Helpdesk Software and Reporting
-
Office 365 Products and Services
These costs are in essence, being leased back to you the customer. You own nothing. Seemingly the customer may benefit from this streamlined accounting approach. Afterall, the MSP has now become a fixed monthly expense only. Well, this is true. However, what is also true is that these tools mentioned above cost only a fraction of what they did ten years ago. Literally, pennies on the dollar. Thus, the HUGE resulting profit margins for the MSP. They realize all these savings. The customer does not.
It's more than just dollars and cents though. It gets worse...your provider may just be dug in like a tick.
The customer / vendor relationship is a two-way street. As it should be with any valuable partnership. There will be obstacles along the way, inevitably. The number one reason any company begins revaluating their current IT service provider will be predicated upon quality-of-service issues. It could be one isolated negative incident or a pattern of diminishing quality of service. Once again, most MSP’s given ample time, will forget they are in the customer service business and fail.
When looking for an alternative IT provider or perhaps just simply price checking the competition, customers will often find themselves enlightened to the fact that their current MSP may just “own” them. The MSP has all the necessary support software purchased and licensed in their name, not yours. To some, this now becomes an overwhelming proposition. The administrative effort just to change these systems can be daunting. At best, only extremely challenging from a technical perspective. At worst, the service provider will use this burden as leverage to retain your business. Just long enough to misdirect you and get your eye off the prize. Cost savings and better service….. somewhere else.