The MSP Model fails more often than not.
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@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.
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@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.
A large portion of my work at my last job was actually helping the business units making requests to IT figure out what they actually needed. A good internal IT team, or MSP will be able to look past the language barrier (Geek Speak vs Bad/Non-Geek Speak).
If they're not doing that, are they really doing their job?
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@Dashrender said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
@scottalanmiller said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
That's why I'm saying it is a "cake and eat it too" scenario. The MSP adds options while taking none away. But requires nothing. So any perceived negative aspect of an MSP can simply be avoided, any perceived benefit can be chosen.
It can't require nothing, unless the overhead of the MSP is zero, but it's not zero, so.... it has to be more expensive than in house, unless you are firing someone who managed the in house, then I could say you are getting a wash.
See my other posts about how MSPs are actually naturally cheaper due to better efficiency in management, hiring, attracting talent, retaining talent, etc. If we ignore all those pieces, yes there would be a nominal necessary increase in overhead (unless other things like HR, payroll and whatever are more efficient which really can happen easily).
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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.:
@Breffni-Potter said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
- When an external is brought in, Often it is a deliberate decision to save costs by removing the internal team afterwards. Regardless of competence, performance or anything else, the decision just boils down to money saved, not what delivers the best return on investment.
This may be true, but not something I see in the real world. I'm not sure I've actually ever seen this first hand as an MSP, but I've seen it from internal IT people that think it is happening. I'm not totally sure that I know any internal people that were replaced with an MSP, but I'm certain it happens. But commonly? I'm not sure about that. It's repeated as a fear a lot, but of the MSPs and internal people here (which is everyone), how many of you had an MSP brought in and then had them replace you OR were brought in as an MSP and you replaced the people that were already there?
As an MSP, we've done attrition fill ins often (replacing people who leave) but not replacing people who still work there. Sometimes it's to let someone working in IT to move into management or something else, but that's IT attrition even if not corporate attrition.
To be honest, I've more often seen MSPs replaced by in-house IT because, on paper, it costs less to just pay one guy to deal with everything and be forced into a jack-of-all-trades situation than to pay the MSP price for the added value.
It's very true. That's what we see all the time. Companies thinking that they can replace huge teams of part time people with one guy that they hope to work into the ground. Pretty much always get burned in the long run.
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@dafyre 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.:
@Breffni-Potter said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
- When an external is brought in, Often it is a deliberate decision to save costs by removing the internal team afterwards. Regardless of competence, performance or anything else, the decision just boils down to money saved, not what delivers the best return on investment.
This may be true, but not something I see in the real world. I'm not sure I've actually ever seen this first hand as an MSP, but I've seen it from internal IT people that think it is happening. I'm not totally sure that I know any internal people that were replaced with an MSP, but I'm certain it happens. But commonly? I'm not sure about that. It's repeated as a fear a lot, but of the MSPs and internal people here (which is everyone), how many of you had an MSP brought in and then had them replace you OR were brought in as an MSP and you replaced the people that were already there?
As an MSP, we've done attrition fill ins often (replacing people who leave) but not replacing people who still work there. Sometimes it's to let someone working in IT to move into management or something else, but that's IT attrition even if not corporate attrition.
To be honest, I've more often seen MSPs replaced by in-house IT because, on paper, it costs less to just pay one guy to deal with everything and be forced into a jack-of-all-trades situation than to pay the MSP price for the added value.
Which brings us back to the point that most SMBs are cheap.
Most are cheap, but only like 60%. A huge percentage bleed money like crazy because of, as fas as I can tell, hubris. They like to brag about staff size or flaunt wasting money so buy the biggest, most expensive crap that they have no need for and doesn't make any business sense for them. See any SMB running a SAN, more or less, for example. Makes sense in the enterprise and tons of SMBs hate to admit that they don't have the same scalability needs as, say, Exxon Mobil, so they buy gear that would make more sense there and ignore their own needs. "If it is good enough for oil companies, it's good enough for me two man show repair shop in the mall!"
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@Dashrender 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.:
@Breffni-Potter said in The MSP Model fails more often than not.:
- When an external is brought in, Often it is a deliberate decision to save costs by removing the internal team afterwards. Regardless of competence, performance or anything else, the decision just boils down to money saved, not what delivers the best return on investment.
This may be true, but not something I see in the real world. I'm not sure I've actually ever seen this first hand as an MSP, but I've seen it from internal IT people that think it is happening. I'm not totally sure that I know any internal people that were replaced with an MSP, but I'm certain it happens. But commonly? I'm not sure about that. It's repeated as a fear a lot, but of the MSPs and internal people here (which is everyone), how many of you had an MSP brought in and then had them replace you OR were brought in as an MSP and you replaced the people that were already there?
As an MSP, we've done attrition fill ins often (replacing people who leave) but not replacing people who still work there. Sometimes it's to let someone working in IT to move into management or something else, but that's IT attrition even if not corporate attrition.
To be honest, I've more often seen MSPs replaced by in-house IT because, on paper, it costs less to just pay one guy to deal with everything and be forced into a jack-of-all-trades situation than to pay the MSP price for the added value.
Exactly.. that is what my customer did - there was a mismatch of understandings and therefore the client felt that they were wasting money (aka getting no value) and instead hired a person on a time and materials basis. They are definitely getting much less value than they were before, but perhaps they didn't need the value they were getting.
The Doctor Dilemma. No matter how bad they are at business, they often earn enough to hide it. So like a satellite in orbit, often they can maintain a failing business... forever. It's failing (read: losing money every day) but never totally fails because someone (owner, doctor) is "donating" money to keep it going.
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@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.
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@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.
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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.:
@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.
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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.:
@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.
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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.
