We have been spending a lot of time talking to MSPs and other vendors over the last few months.  Something has been bugging us, we can't quite put our fingers on it but something has changed in the marketplace.

Welcome to the first blog post of 2023! Humanize IT is taking a look into the crystal ball to see what the New Year will bring.

In order to adapt to any new year, MSPs must look at the economy and the events that are coming up, and align the company accordingly. Based on this, we predict that in 2023 services are going to be the most important thing MSPs can offer.

As an MSP, you’re going to have moments when you mess up. There will be times when you forget a project or miss a deadline. Have you built up enough goodwill with your clients that in these instances, they’re going to tell you that it’s okay?

Let’s paint the picture using chips. Your client has a bag that, anytime you do something nice for them or perform a favor, a chip gets placed in the bag. Eventually, you’re going to withdraw chips from that bag when you need a favor of your own - but what happens when there are no chips in that bag? Well, the bag is likely to be thrown at you.

There are some people that are constantly doing nice things for other people, though they never spend the chips they earn by asking for favors of their own. They’ve built their business and are unaware of how to ask for help due to being too independent. It’s important to not only collect chips, but to spend them, as well. You must have a flow of exchange in order to develop a mature and productive relationship with your client.

This is where the little things come into play.

Last week, we discussed pentesting and why it’s important. This week, we are going to dive into how MSPs can utilize automated pentesting to generate higher profit margins.

Pentests have never been so accessible in terms of a price point and turnaround times, making it a valuable tool to add to your security tech stack as an MSP. However, you’re already as busy as it is - despite the revenue that an automated pentest can generate, you just don’t have the time to implement it into your offerings.

This is where a third-party consulting firm comes into the picture. They will advance your security stack to include pentesting, which ultimately attracts businesses who are interested in improving their uptime.

The industry is changing, you need to evolve or be left behind by your clients. The next step to MSPs is vCIO, but how do we get there?

I have spent the last few years coaching MSPs on how to create successful vCIO programs. There is a consistent message across every single MSP:

“We want a vCIO program but have not been able to get it going”

MSP 1.0 is not widespread yet as a business model, and there is already the new 2.0 model.

What are the key differentiators between the two models? The following will refer to an average MSP 1.0 and MSP 2.0 practice.

We are assuming that the MSP 2.0 model is heavily supported by an MSP 2.0 framework, which is crucial. The differentiations may seem simplistic, but our aim is to show the possible limitations and challenges of the MSP 1.0 model, and the opportunities of the MSP 2.0.

Keep in mind that MSP 2.0 is not a substitution of the MSP 1.0 model. It is an expansion. You can move your existing 1.0 services forward, but with 2.0 as a companion the new options are going to be very promising.