The MSP Model fails more often than not.
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@thanksajdotcom said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
@scottalanmiller said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
@thanksajdotcom said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
@scottalanmiller said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
@Dashrender said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
@Minion-Queen said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
I know something that I see as rampant for both internal IT and MSP's both is a VERY mismatched understanding of what the business wants. And what the business owners want isn't necessarily anything to do with IT either. IT is a necessary evil for most SMB's they want whatever makes it easy for them to figure out what IT is doing.
A good MSP or internal person for that matter. Will take the time to actually figure it all out.
But that often requires allowing IT to be part of the business process - otherwise the management needs to do that. IT can't work/exist in a vacuum.
Yup, and as we see on SW, rarely does even internal IT get allowed to do that.
And the problem is management doesn't know what they need, and a lot of IT people often don't know what they need, which is where MSPs fill in the gaps. However VARs masquerading as MSPs also causes issues and confusion in the market, so I get some businesses trepidation about doing that, but, the real issue is that SMBs, especially, are cheap, and only look at how much they are spending on paper on equipment, licensing, etc, and don't consider that IT is, in a large way, about risk mitigation, and don't look at how much it will cost if equipment goes down, etc.
The desire to be cheap definitely drives an emotional reaction for a lot of companies to see "free" and lose all common sense.
It still hasn't sunk into the SMB mindset that IT is a critical business component, and if you want to do well, you need that to be setup correctly, and done well, and it's not always cheap, but it's not about the money spent, it's about the value added, and businesses don't seem to get that. They often get that in other fields, but IT still eludes them.
While it is sometimes true in other fields, in general I find companies struggling with this in IT struggling with it across the board. Making IT a special case itself is a core business failure, not an IT one.
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@scottalanmiller said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
@thanksajdotcom said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
@scottalanmiller said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
@thanksajdotcom said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
@scottalanmiller said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
@Dashrender said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
@Minion-Queen said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
I know something that I see as rampant for both internal IT and MSP's both is a VERY mismatched understanding of what the business wants. And what the business owners want isn't necessarily anything to do with IT either. IT is a necessary evil for most SMB's they want whatever makes it easy for them to figure out what IT is doing.
A good MSP or internal person for that matter. Will take the time to actually figure it all out.
But that often requires allowing IT to be part of the business process - otherwise the management needs to do that. IT can't work/exist in a vacuum.
Yup, and as we see on SW, rarely does even internal IT get allowed to do that.
And the problem is management doesn't know what they need, and a lot of IT people often don't know what they need, which is where MSPs fill in the gaps. However VARs masquerading as MSPs also causes issues and confusion in the market, so I get some businesses trepidation about doing that, but, the real issue is that SMBs, especially, are cheap, and only look at how much they are spending on paper on equipment, licensing, etc, and don't consider that IT is, in a large way, about risk mitigation, and don't look at how much it will cost if equipment goes down, etc.
The desire to be cheap definitely drives an emotional reaction for a lot of companies to see "free" and lose all common sense.
It still hasn't sunk into the SMB mindset that IT is a critical business component, and if you want to do well, you need that to be setup correctly, and done well, and it's not always cheap, but it's not about the money spent, it's about the value added, and businesses don't seem to get that. They often get that in other fields, but IT still eludes them.
While it is sometimes true in other fields, in general I find companies struggling with this in IT struggling with it across the board. Making IT a special case itself is a core business failure, not an IT one.
Also fair, and accurate.
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@Carnival-Boy said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
I'd argue that the more complex it is, the more having good structure and support is important.
I agree and that's where I think internal IT wins. MSPs tend to be very good at IT, but lack the business understanding, because they don't work in the business, they work in IT. Good internal IT staff have both IT and business expertise.
Depends on the MSP If it's one that specializes in a given field (Say Education) they might know how other companies in the same vertical solve a problem.
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@John-Nicholson said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
@Carnival-Boy said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
I'd argue that the more complex it is, the more having good structure and support is important.
I agree and that's where I think internal IT wins. MSPs tend to be very good at IT, but lack the business understanding, because they don't work in the business, they work in IT. Good internal IT staff have both IT and business expertise.
Depends on the MSP If it's one that specializes in a given field (Say Education) they might know how other companies in the same vertical solve a problem.
And value to tackling things from other fields, too. So often you see companies that have the "our industry is special and has special needs" like video processing. But if someone from another field looks at it without that attitude they realize that their needs are very basic, simple and standard.
