• MSPs Need to Know Everything

Matt Ryrie of Betach Solutions, Inc., says that customers expect MSPs to know everything and to know all of the answers. Most importantly, the product should work and work well. If there’s a question about how an MSP offering works, customer support must be there to save the day, much like Superman.

For example, Acme Brick wants to automate their shipping processes. Once a load of bricks reaches a certain point in the assembly line, machines should trigger an order to Smith Trucking Company to pick up the finished product in three days. This MSP product connects the factory machines to the ordering and shipping module. No one has to place a call to Smith Trucking Company. In essence, the factory machines do the work for the manufacturer.

No one has to call Superman to save the day. He just shows up. An MSP is like Superman’s administrative assistant, always working behind the scenes to make lives better.

• Partners Need Scale

Can your MSP replicate the same process 100, 1 million or 1 billion times without a mistake? Automation tools made by MSPs give you that type of automation tool. When someone goes to a website to place an order, can that happen with the next customer, the one after that and further down the line?

As the same automated process happens over and over, there may be mistakes in the programs as they work with customers, staffers and automated machinery. However, the best MSPs and the software learn from their errors. Once MSPs determine the cause of the error, they fix it and improve upon it. Having an MSP is like having an artificial intelligence on your side. These automated tools cut down on your repair time and down time, and they also scale to save staff time.

Think of an MSP as Lt. Cmdr. Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation who always fixes things when the USS Enterprise computer did something unexpected. Data’s vast knowledge and adaptability saved the crew many times.

“Automation has allowed us to take our business to a whole new level.”

-Aaron Leonard, Simple I.D.

• Automation Should Make It to Users

Automation should make it to the users as much as possible. That’s one way they save money on a continuous basis from automation, and it’s the one way MSPs can improve on their products. Partners help each other out. If an MSP comes up with a more efficient way to do a process, it should share this knowledge with the customer. When a customer saves money through automation, they share the good news with MSP partners and continue the beneficial relationship.

This role is like the reformed Uncle Scrooge from A Christmas Carol. He freely gave away his riches after the three ghosts of Christmas taught him a lesson. MSPs must be the same way. They can’t give away their services (they have to make money, after all), but MSPs should be proactive in the way they partner with customers and help them to automate and scale.