A recent note came to me from a Smarter MSP reader about municipal contracts, and what types of cybersecurity data should be used when trying to land municipal contracts. Assuming they are not the only one with questions on this topic, I thought I’d share my thoughts here.
Cybersecurity data can be very convincing and a powerful sales tool. Schedule an appointment with the city or town manager or the county administrator and show them how cities and even smaller municipalities have been brought to their knees by poor cybersecurity practices. Many cities, large and small, have fallen victim, some paying six-figure ransomware sums in order to regain access to their data.
Next, compile data about municipal breaches that have allowed customer credit card information and personal data to be released. All of this can influence decision-making.
But the most compelling argument of all for hiring an MSP for a city contract may have nothing to do with cybersecurity itself – it is the money they will save by securing their information.
Winning municipal contracts
In most cases, an MSP can provide cybersecurity at a fraction of the cost it would take to run an in-house IT team, and delivers better results. By outsourcing cybersecurity to an MSP, a government can also tap into the security expertise they might not have in-house.
Most MSPs are great at networking as well as staying on top of trends in a way that a more insulated internal IT department might not be able to. For MSPs, municipal contracts can be a steady, often recession-proof source of income.
Take the case of Potter County, Texas where local MSP Andrews & Associates was recently awarded a monthly service contract of $89,259.42, every month for the next three years. Potter County is home to Amarillo, population 200,000, so it is not a sparsely populated county.
“The new contract saves us about $60,000 a year,” Potter County Attorney Scott Brumley told a local Amarillo news outlet.
The local MSP knows the market landscape and is in charge of securing the entire county’s infrastructure. And they can do it for less than an in-house IT department. That is the most persuasive argument an MSP can make for securing a government contract. Who doesn’t want to save money and have better protection?
Plenty of examples abound. The city of Lakewood, California, was able to save close to $200,000 in 2020’s budget by hiring an MSP. In addition to less employee compensation, the city was able to pare costs because of having to reduce IT equipment purchases.
Photo: Darryl Brooks / Shutterstock
