What’s it really like to be A MSP in 2019?

The pain points, the highs and lows, the must-haves and the inside knowledge. With stats from the Comp TIA Industry Outlook Report 2019, as well as the Datto State of the MSP Report for 2019, we take a look at the key takeaways that sum up today’s MSP industry.

Business, or technical? how about both!

Traditionally, most MSPs started out providing technical support, whether that was providing hardware, fixing broken down machines, or helping to implement to new software solutions. As the business landscape became ever more competitive, some companies have turned to MSPs to ask for business strategy support, asking questions like ‘should I be moving to the cloud?’ ‘how can I keep my end-users happy?’ and more.

CompTIA talks about how everyday technical professionals will soon be taking the lead in business decisions, anticipating environmental impact, cross-departmental collaboration and even overall business strategy.

It’s not surprising that more than half of MSPs are seeing value in providing both sides of the coin, becoming a technical extension of the team that has the business acumen to support the company’s strategy moving forward. That’s why Atera offers an all-in-one SaaS solution for MSPS, allowing you to wear both a business and a technical hat, from remote monitoring and support all the way through to customer satisfaction analytics.

Looking back and looking forward

With almost 100% of MSPs saying that it’s as good a time as it ever has been to be an MSP, it’s not surprising that the vast majority are in a growth period, hiring more people and expanding the services they offer. But when so many have been in the industry for more than a decade, it can be hard to know how to broaden out your platform.

Bells and whistles can draw the attention of new customers, but in such a fast-changing business landscape, where digital transformation is keeping companies competitive, it’s ease of use that’s going to be your bread and butter. Bringing together the front end and back end of operations can be one unique selling point that keeps your business relevant and focusing on what matters. This is an area with a lot of overlap with “stack-able technologies”, the mindset which CompTIA believe is how digitization will be ‘supercharged’ in the next few years. An all-in-one PSA and RMM solution improve operational efficiency and customer experience, in the same console as providing remote support, patch management, security, backup and more.

Keeping in the loop

If you want to be a thriving MSP in 2019, you have to stay informed about the industry, including the latest integrations to offer your customers, the trends that MSPs are focusing on for their clients, and the metrics that your competitors are using for financial, business and technical decision-making.
Look for business service solutions that provide insights as well as software, with a strong community of other MSPs to learn from, and tools such as The Benchmark, where you can use industry analytics to your own advantage. Here at Atera, we regularly publish new blogs and webinars to our support portal and our website, giving you more than just the technology you need to succeed. Check out our blog right here.

What’s next for your MSP business?

The word cloud above helps you see the most popular services that MSPs go into according to the report. While Helpdesk and Networking will always be big players, you can see that new entries such as Cloud, Productivity and Security are starting to become must-haves. In fact, Cloud, Edge and 5G have been called “the modern economic infrastructure” by CompTIA.

The best way to check all the boxes for your customers is to utilize a full-service MSP business software that keeps its finger on the pulse of the industry, and includes a wide range of integrations from backup and warranty, to password management and asset tracking. In this way, you can quietly support your customers as the steady IT backbone of the company, ready with the latest fixes and technologies that are going to help them soar.

We urge all MSPs to get in touch with us and try our 30-day free and full trail. we guarantee that our full-package MSP solution will transform your business.