All posts by Clive Longbottom

Clive Longbottom is a UK-based independent commentator on the impact of technology on organizations and was a co-founder and service director at Quocirca. He has also been an ITC industry analyst for more than 20 years.

How MSPs can prosper with pricing, incentives, and deals

How MSPs can prosper with pricing, incentives, and deals

Customers like known costs when it comes to MSP contracts. They tend to dislike the use of variables such as resource or time charges, preferring either per user or per organization charging instead. While this can work for the MSP...

/ May 16, 2023
The double-edged sword of AI-chatbots

The double-edged sword of AI-chatbots

Why should an organization use an MSP? According to Google Bard, an experimental Google chatbot that is powered by the LaMDA large language model, there are many reasons why an organization should utilize an MSP. Here are a few of...

/ April 12, 2023
Are you leveraging your data effectively to demonstrate value?

Are you leveraging your data effectively to demonstrate value?

As a customer of an MSP, it is great when everything goes well; no problems mean no need to constantly update things; no downtime to impact the business, and there is no reason to pay attention to what you are...

/ March 29, 2023
Will ‘cloud repatriation’ hurt you?

Will ‘cloud repatriation’ hurt you?

Reports are starting to emerge that some organisations are bringing workloads from the cloud back to owned datacentres as the benefits of cloud computing they had hoped for have not been achieved. Many MSPs operate on a cloud basis –...

/ February 15, 2023
MSPs should align messaging to the evolving workplace

MSPs should align messaging to the evolving workplace

The Great Resignation. The Great Redundancy. Quiet Quitting. Fake Remote Working. All the above show how the workplace is evolving – people quitting jobs that they no longer enjoy; being let go by employers attempting to rein in costs; avoiding...

/ January 27, 2023
2023 outlook – The future looks bright for MSPs

2023 outlook – The future looks bright for MSPs

As 2022 comes to an end, we are seeing that the “Great Resignation” due to the pandemic has turned into the “Great Layoff” as the global economy adjusts to current world events. Organizations are now preparing to ride out the...

/ December 2, 2022 / 8 Comments
How to keep your customers happy and profitable

How to keep your customers happy and profitable

To paraphrase Jane Austin, it is a truth universally acknowledged, that an MSP in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of happy customers. The fact is, happy customers tend to be more profitable than those who are...

/ October 11, 2022
Special offers can turn prospects into customers

Special offers can turn prospects into customers

As an MSP, customer loyalty can be a challenge – but first, there is the need to turn a prospect into a customer. These two areas can be inextricably linked: if an MSP operates as a completely open entity where...

/ August 31, 2022
Cutting through the complexity of MSP profitability

Cutting through the complexity of MSP profitability

Do you know if any of your customers are losing you money? It is often reported that any organisation’s profits follow the Pareto principle: 80 percent the profits come from the top 20 percent of the customers.  Although this is...

/ August 10, 2022 / 6 Comments
Are you using the right routes to market?

Are you using the right routes to market?

Being an MSP comes with its own challenges. In the early days, the main way to market was to set up a website with enough search engine optimisation terms in it that anyone looking for what you offer would find...

/ July 2, 2022