Global MSP Day 2020 has officially come and gone, and was certainly an event to remember. The 2020 edition of MSP Day was the first one to be conducted on a global scale, highlighting the MSP landscape from many different regions, including North America, Central Europe, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. The international reach of this year’s MSP Day allowed the “Evolving Landscape of the MSP Business Report” to be even more comprehensive in its annual findings on the managed services industry.
The most recent edition of the annual report touched on many changes that have occurred recently in the managed services industry. Topics for MSPs to take note of included services and technologies that are pushing managed services forward as a profitable business option for IT providers and opportunities and resources for MSPs can utilize to take their business to the next level. Here is a further breakdown of key findings within the report, as well as other MSP Day resources for your MSP to take advantage of.
Profits of offering managed services
Managed services are only increasing in popularity, and with good reason. Of the IT providers surveyed in the report, 91 percent are planning to expand their services offering in 2020. Many providers are interested in growing their services portfolio as they believe in managed service’s potential to be a top revenue generator. Indeed, 69 percent named managed services as the biggest individual opportunity to increase their sales over the next year.
The importance of security
The “Evolving Landscape of the MSP Business Report” also revealed the growing importance of cybersecurity to service providers and their customers. Endpoint security, email security and network security were all named in the 2020 report’s “top five services” table, which contrasts to the same table from the 2019 report, where email security was the only security service that achieved “top five services” status. This sudden rise begs the question ‘Why the sudden growing need for security?’
Many service providers noted the rise in number, severity, and sophistication of cyberattacks, along with the lack of internal cybersecurity expertise that their customers possess as primary reasons for a greater need to offer security service offerings. In the report, 79 percent of respondents believed that the near-instant rise in remote workers as a result of COVID-19, coupled with their customers’ inability to protect themselves from cyberthreats, presented a promising revenue opportunity for providers that included security services in their offering. In fact, 88 percent stated that demand for security services was either ‘moderately’ or ‘significantly’ increasing.
Global MSP Day resources
The 2020 edition of the annual “Evolving Landscape of the MSP Business Report” was far from the only resource made available to providers on Global MSP Day. Barracuda MSP hosted a series of podcasts, with topics that covered many different sides of the MSP business, including sales, security, and best practices for the post-COVID-19 “return to normal.” The team also created an assessment for service providers to measure their progress toward embracing managed services.
CompTIA, who served as a strategic partner to host Global MSP Day 2020, authored their own managed services report to help illustrate the value of managed services to the business of technology. CompTIA also offers a membership program for managed service providers to access even more exclusive resources and insights to benefit MSP businesses. To view and access all of these resources, you can visit the Global MSP Day 2020 page at www.barracudamsp.com/globalmspday2020 and help achieve further progress for your MSP business in its managed services journey.
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