As a Managed Service Provider (MSP) you play an important role in the fast-paced technological landscape that businesses find themselves in today. From being responsible for managing client IT infrastructure to ensuring that their systems are secure and optimised, no company can easily transform digitally without your help.
But a solution does not a strategy make. By moving to a strategy-first approach, you can help ensure your clients have the best systems, processes, and policies in place for now and the future. It helps that they will rave about you too!
Here’s how you can go about doing just that!
Build strong relationships and prioritise the ‘personal touch’.
It’s easy for businesses to become increasingly less personal as they grow. Make sure to maintain an even playing field with your clients so that they continue to be just as important to you, as you are to them.
Creating a culture of transparency and trust will help you to develop long-term relationships with your clients, leading to better client retention rates and increased business growth.
Your clients will trust that they can come to you for help. And they will share that with their network too.
Anticipate their needs before they do.
A doctor who talks about health as a whole and can see potential challenges is more trusted than the one who just writes a prescription based on the presenting problem.
Do some investigative deep diving at the beginning of your partnerships to help you fully flesh out your client’s challenges and the context of their problems. That way you’re not just masking a symptom but creating a future proofed roadmap to help solve the root cause – making for a much more robust, secure, and healthy business.
Think of it like this: instead of offering various antidotes to counter or ease the side-effects of their problems, you’d be offering considered roadmaps to help your clients formulate a cure to the problem itself. Couple this with solid preventative measures, the way a doctor might recommend you to a physio, and you’ll have an offering that they can’t live (or rather, run a business) without.
Add more than just IT infrastructure. Add value.
With the rise of cloud technologies and automation, MSPs need to provide more value-added services to their clients to stay competitive.
Avoid falling into the trap of becoming a one-trick pony. Your clients know that any old Managed Service Provider (MSP) can sell them tech solutions. But not everyone can guide them through it and keep them on track. Don’t just assist in the running of an application. Offer solutions and advice on ways to improve customer acquisition, engagement and overall performance with strategy development and consulting services.
A provider who they can rely on, one who doesn’t just tech and forget, is one that they’ll come back to time again and time again.
Connect the dots to avoid silos.
MSPs that focus solely on solutions run the risk of only treating symptoms and creating silos in their client’s organisations. This is where a digital transformation mindset comes in.
By focusing on a roadmap, you can see where your client is at and where they want to be so that you can more successfully help them bridge that gap. You can then create a blueprint which integrates people, processes, and systems – removing any avoidable duplication and confusion.
To sum up, in a market full of Managed Service Providers, it will be the ones who offer personalised customer relations, value beyond IT infrastructure and a unique knowledge to connect the dots that will stay ahead of the game and remain competitive in the face of inevitable change.
Why MSPs need Target State – achieve a better outcome than going it alone.
Connecting all the moving parts – people, processes and systems – and a focus on accountability, road mapping and strong client relationships should be key focus areas for today’s MSPs. By embracing these key aspects of digital transformation, MSPs can deliver better services to their clients, drive business growth, and stay competitive in today’s fast-paced technological landscape.
And don’t worry, we know you’re busy doing what you do best. Fortunately, that’s where we can help you embrace strategy and consultancy for your clients.
The good news is you can outsource some or all your digital transformation offering to Target State. We have the models, tools, and expertise to provide your clients with everything they need for a successful digital transformation journey.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/what-is-managed-service-provider/ - Sept 2022
https://stl.tech/blog/enabling-digital-transformation-with-the-right-managed-service-provider/ - Jan 2023
https://www.appnovation.com/blog/2020-02-new-managed-service-approach-evolving-our-clients-digital-performance - Sept 2022
https://stl.tech/blog/managed-services-catalyzing-the-digital-transformation/ - Nov 2022
