Remember my MSP 101 blog walking through why and how the MSP model came about? A large reason why was the fact that the end customer (the 25 person law firm as an example) needed more smart tech staff/brains to help with the ever increasingly complex technology they were utilizing to run their business. It made no financial sense for the law firm to have all these smart and expensive staff on their payroll so they outsourced to an MSP that had economies of scale. Remember?
Well here we go again - the MSP lovefest. The MSP today is having the same type of problem and the culprit is cloud. Cloud this-cloud that, mobile this-mobile that, security this-security that....and I could go on and on forever. Every day there is some type of new-new technology hitting the streets. The 15 person MSP can't possibly keep up this fire hose of technology so what is the MSP to do? Hire new staff and invest in training are a furious pace? Not feasible. So like the end customer started doing years ago when they outsourced to the MSP, the MSP itself is starting to outsource (or should I say partner) more and more with other MSPs. I'm starting to see a surge of mini-MSP consortiums appear between seemingly symbiotic MSPs. Not to mention this was a major theme at Cisco's recent partner conference in San Diego. I say seemingly because between the MSPs themselves they look like peanut buter and jelly or ham and cheese, but what do they look like to the end customer? This is where the problems arise. Remember, the end customer has the need for many different types and flavors of technologies today and the needs are coming from multiple constituents ie IT, CFO, CMO, HR etc. but they still want "one throat to choke". Along with that remember that the end customer is looking at you 7x24 and will research the heck out of you behind you back via your website of course. These consortiums must look symbiotic on-line and have symbiotic content - think eBooks, value prop decks, data sheets etc. AND their staff must also be "singing from the same hymnal". The end customer has never been this much in control before and remember these words "you never get a second chance at a first impression".
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