How to Choose the Right MSP

Choosing the right Managed Service Provider (MSP) for your business can be a difficult task. With so much information and options to choose from, it can be easy to feel lost and confused.

Not only that, but the decision you make can have enormous consequences for your business. Get it right, and you will drastically improve your experience and profitability. Get it wrong, and you will be worse off that when you started.

So how do you ensure that you’re getting it right?

In this article we will provide advice on how to find the right MSP. The things to ask, and the mistakes to avoid.

The various types of IT Service Providers

IT service providers typically fall into one of 3 camps:

• Ad-hoc / Break Fix – Consumption based either per hour or in blocks of hours.
• Managed Services – Fixed monthly fee for unlimited support and other services.
• Hybrid / Preventative Maintenance – Combination of maintenance, monitoring & ad-hoc support.

Some providers may provide a combination of or even all 3, but will generally favour one style over the other. Each require very different operations to manage effectively so be careful in selecting someone that does a mix.

Typically, Ad-hoc will best suit companies of less than 10 people with simple requirements that just want to keep direct costs down. Hybrid agreements tend to favour larger companies with internal IT who simply need to fill some specialist gaps. Managed services is best suited for small to midsized companies that require the capabilities of an IT team but are too small to justify the expense of one.

Why you would want a Managed Service Provider (MSP)

Whilst ad-hoc may seem cheaper on paper, there comes a point where the cost of preventing issues is less than the cost of fixing them. Additionally, as businesses grow the priorities shift. The biggest constraint of growing businesses often moves from cash to time – necessitating the need for solutions that add capacity.

This is the promise of Managed IT Services.

By better managing an IT environment, issues should become less frequent and easier to solve. Spending should become more aligned to needs, and the overall cost & negative impact of IT should reduce. Ideally, there should also be upside – access to recommendations and improvements.

Unfortunately, not all MSPs are created equal. MSPs can take on many shapes and sizes, often focussed on diametrically opposed goals and priorities for their clients. This isn’t always a bad thing, but it’s important to choose the right one for your business.

Identifying the right MSP for you

It all begins with understanding your needs. Whilst this may sound simple, it can be difficult articulating a set of requirements, especially when IT is not your area of expertise. The good news is there’s nothing to worry about. Your needs do not need to be defined in technical terms, instead they should be described as business requirements and outcomes.

Once you understand your needs you can start to filter out a large number of options, allowing you to focus on a handful of companies most suited to what you are looking for. Early stages of selections should be about elimination, not the expansion of criteria.

Understanding your needs

Here are some questions that can help define your requirements:

• How long is too long for the average worker to be unproductive when an issue occurs?
• Is the nature of your work time critical?
  – Are rapid response times adequate?
  – Do you need advice on proactive workarounds for critical workflows?
  – What is the business impact of the success/failure of common IT services:
• Do you have an specific compliance requirements for cybersecurity?
• What would be the business impact of common security events?
  – Email hijack – attackers sending fraudulent emails to clients from your accounts.
  – Ransomware – attackers seizing access to your company data.
  – Stolen funds – attackers intercepting revenue or otherwise incurring significant costs.
• What kind of business case or evidence do you need to comfortably approve expenses >$10k?
• Is it important to you that suppliers understand your goals and priorities?
• Do you tend to prioritise total cost of ownership or initial cost?

The answers to these types of questions should help you identify your true requirements, in turn informing the type of MSP that is going to be right for you.’

The value of productivity should inform the value you should place in proactivity. The severity of impact in regard to common events should inform the level of demonstrated maturity you need from a provider and so on.

Types of MSP

MSP’s can not successfully be all things to all people. Anyone trying this should be avoided. As discussed in a previous article, MSPs need to choose where they wish to fit on various scales:

• Reactive vs Proactive – Do they prioritise putting out fires or the prevention of fires.
• Inclusive vs Exclusive – How much do they include in their standard service vs. chargeable extras.
• Product vs Service – Will they make their money primarily on selling product or delivering services.

There’s really no right or wrong, just good and bad fits. As an example, here are some of the pro’s and cons of the above attributes:

Matching the right attributes to your needs

Your preferences should determine the attributes you most want to look for in an MSP. It’s important to narrow this down to your top 2-3 priorities as it’s unlikely you will find a unicorn.

Any organisation that tries to do to much will inevitably end up mediocre at everything. Try to find MSPs that endeavour to excel at your highest priorities, even if it means a compromise on some of your other needs. This will provide the best overall result.

Once you’re there, there are a number of questions you can ask to determine if they are who they say they are. We recently put together a great list of questions you can ask an MSP if you’re looking for a proactive provider.

Common mistakes

We’ve talked about getting it right, but here are some of the common ways we see businesses getting it wrong.

Making direct comparisons

We’ve all heard the phrase ‘comparing apples to apples’. Unfortunately this approach often makes decision making harder, leading to costly indecision. Even worse is evaluating providers against a set list of deliverables.

Imagine taking the features list of one car and comparing other models to that list. By definition they will all score poorly in comparison despite they fact that they may in fact be a better car. No two companies are alike and direct comparisons limit you from seeing the strengths of each provider.

Focusing on deliverables

It’s easy to get caught up on the deliverables. Response times, backup management, service coverage. Whilst important, simply being able to tick a box does not mean success. Approach matters far more than most people give credit to. Businesses that avoid asking questions about a providers purpose, values and culture miss an incredible opportunity to foresee the day to day experience they are likely to recieve.

You wouldn’t hire a staff member without having an understanding of their personality would you?

Focus on immediate issues

Whilst this is understandable, you should not make a long term decision based on short term pain. More than likely you are looking for a new provider due to an ongoing problem, pending migration or office move.

The reason for the change is (hopefully) going to be short lived. Of course you want confidence that the new provider will solve it, but it shouldn’t be the primary focus of the decision. Fast forward 6 months and ask yourself who is the right partner beyond the immediate hurdle.

Summary

Choosing the right MSP changes everything. Staff become more productive, your business becomes more protected, and you eliminate wasted spend on technology unaligned to your business.

The process shouldn’t be daunting, you just need a clear idea of what high level outcomes are going to work for you – let the MSP explain how they are going to deliver it.

Think Sensible might be the right partner for you?

It all starts with an introductory meeting to explore whether or not our attributes align with your needs. Simply get in touch to request a meeting!