MSP team structure is morphing. There’s the blinding pace of technology for starters. Then there is rapidly increasing client demand for stronger security and cloud-based services.
That scenario puts a lot of pressure on your current MSP (managed service provider) team structure. What does your team need to look like in order to create value for tomorrow and the future?
My advice: focus on creating robust yet nimble horizontal channel partner teams. Then take this strategy further, outside your own organization, into your partners’ organizations. That’s how “horizontal” your MSP team structure needs to be in the future.
MSP team structure for value targets current capability gaps in your cloud product, platform and service arsenal. MSP team structure creates this value through expansion, acquisition and partnerships.
This strategy impacts your current business model. This strategy changes how you hire for tomorrow and the future.
Realistic MSP team structure will leverage access to their company’s valued CSP (Cloud service provider) partnerships and resources. MSP team structure will showcase specialists who know how to collaborate really well.
As a result of these strategic alliances, value creation will be perceived and measured differently by your clients. They will be looking to you, and your partners, for your ability to sit at their business tables. They will value your MSP team structure for its ability to bring them innovation.
MSP team structure for value will offer guidance and oversight in creating and managing their clients’ IT strategy, including cloud migration and security. That degree of horizontal throughput for value creation impacts your current concept of what an MSP team looks like.
Do you currently have the in-house breadth and depth required to serve tomorrow and the future’s customer Cloud needs? How does tomorrow and the future impact your hiring practices?
There’s no better time than now to take your company’s pulse.
Michael Brown’s MSP Mentor article discusses how some highly experienced, veteran MSPs are positioning themselves as CSB (Cloud Service Brokers) to aggregate, integrate and customize their clients’ IT (information technology) infrastructure. Does your company DNA allow you the latitude to morph into a CSB?
Your current client base may be politely asking you today to bring capable CSB resources to their business tables as a matter of discovery and future planning. Have you identified these resources, if you currently are not able to provide these services?
Developing an MSP team structure for value makes your MSP team the go-to resource for your customers. This type of horizontal throughput is a differentiator for tomorrow. However, will this MSP team structure become table stakes in the future?
My advice: identify those CSB’s and CASB’s (cloud access security brokers) that you, yourself, value. Include these assets in tomorrow’s MSP team structure. Avoid interacting only an as-needed, as requested basis. Build out your own corporate culture based on “growing your team smarts” in this area.
The MSP team structure for value strategy is focused on where your clients need to be tomorrow and in the future. This innovation emphasizes what your clients need to know, instead of what they want to hear.
MSP teams with CSB and CASB capabilities will become an important – and expected- part of translating and transitioning your customers into cloud-based solutions. This new “breed” of MSPs can educate your client’s business units on appropriate use of sanctioned cloud applications and services. At the same time, your expanded MSP team structure for value can broker productive conversations between business units and IT/Operations units.
Sounds like a win-win strategy. Is it time for your MSP organization to make this transition?
Babette N. Ten Haken is a management strategist and team-building leadership coach. She helps teams, startups and businesses who wrestle with unpredictable revenue streams. Her Workshops and Playbooks create more productive and profitable teams in healthier organizations. Her Playbook on leadership and business strategies, including tools, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com.
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