Much of what is written and read in the IT service management (ITSM) space relates to enterprises, their ITSM capabilities (including ITSM tools), and how they need to consider these capabilities in light of several ITSM trends. Whether it’s better end-user experiences, enabling digital transformation initiatives, the opportunities for artificial intelligence (AI) and increased automation, changing skill sets and recruitment issues, enterprise service management adoption, or something else, what’s written often assumes that the reader works for an organisation that delivers its IT services in-house (bar the use of public cloud, of course).

They and you might do, but what about all the IT and ITSM professionals who work with or for a managed service provider (MSP)? All of what’s written is relevant to them too. In fact, it could be argued that much of what’s written is even more relevant to them – with MSPs often winning deals based not only on cost but also on quality and innovation factors.

But what do you know about MSPs? Especially in terms of whether they could help your organisation. This article has been written to help.

The evolution of MSPs

MSP “history” likely doesn’t interest you, but it’s worth understanding where the outsourcing of IT management and ITSM capabilities started. While the origin story of MSPs usually calls out the emergence of application service providers (ASPs) in the 1990s, the outsourcing arrangements of the early 1980s saw organisations outsourcing business processes that, while necessary for business operations, were not considered core competencies. This opportunity to outsource included IT capabilities.

Fast forward to the present day, and MSPs now offer a variety of IT management capabilities that include aspects of ITSM. These service-based capabilities apply to organisations of all sizes – from small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), through mid-market organisations, to the largest enterprises. And while different MSPs likely offer differing service portfolios, they’ll usually offer services related to:

  • Network and communications management
  • Infrastructure management, including hardware health
  • Asset management, including software subscription and mobility management
  • Cybersecurity, including firewall administration
  • Data storage management
  • Backup and recovery.

These services are delivered through a mix of skilled personnel, industry best practice processes, and fit-for-purpose technologies that include automation and, increasingly, newer artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled capabilities.

Two common elements of an MSP’s toolset are remote monitoring and management (RMM) applications and professional services automation (PSA) tools:

  • The RMM applications allow MSPs to maintain networks, end-user systems, servers, and mobile devices. These tools can also apply patches, run scripts, and install system updates.
  • The PSA solutions enable MSPs to supervise customer projects, handle accounts, and take charge of assets and inventories.

The increasing demand for MSP services

As with any market sizing figures, there are different opinions on what the MSP market currently looks like and where it is heading. These estimates, like any future predictions, will depend on what’s included scope-wise and the bullishness of any assumptions.

Based on a study by Grand View Research, Inc., one recent sizing example is that the global managed services market is expected to reach USD 731.08 billion by 2030. This growth is a projected CAGR of 13.4% from 2022 to 2030.

It’s a significant number – in both sizing and growth terms – but, more importantly, it’s driven by some considerable customer opportunities and issues where MSP use will help.

The why of MSPs – how they help

Don’t worry; we’re not trying to sell you anything (unless you work for an MSP)!

While many might look at the outsourcing model as a way to save costs or, as already mentioned, perhaps to get access to best-practice operations and innovations more quickly, the opportunity or “why” of MSP use is broader. Especially as technology advances more rapidly and end-user expectations of IT service delivery and support increase in line with employees’ consumer-world experiences.

Here are some common MSP benefits (to add to the oft-quoted cost reductions):

  • Access to new ITSM capabilities. Whether this is missing ITSM practices such as problem management, new techniques such as swarming, or new technologies such as AI that drive quicker operations, lower costs, or better end-user and business outcomes.
  • Immediate access to new expertise. Whether this relates to technologies, IT service delivery and support capabilities, regulatory or legislative requirements, or something else. The right MSP will acquire and provide this expertise so your organisation doesn’t have to.
  • Provision of hard-to-source expertise and capabilities. One of the highest-profile examples of this right now is security and compliance. While you can’t outsource the responsibility, MSPs can provide the required expertise and capabilities and the assurance these bring.
  • Easier access to scarce IT skills. Some IT skills are hard to come by, and perhaps budget busting. Let an MSP recruit, develop, and retain the resources your organisation and others need.
  • The scalability of service and support operations. An MSP can more effectively manage demand peaks and troughs than any single organisation can.
  • Greater access to improvement. For example, when an improvement made for one client is shared with all clients.
  • Offer your organisation 24×7 support. MSPs can provide this thanks to their multi-client model, while your organisation might not be able to alone.

Ultimately, MSP use allows your organisation to focus on its core business and key strategies, whether this is keeping customers happy or growing market share and revenues. The same applies to your IT organisation, with IT or ITSM professionals able to invest their time in higher value-add activities rather than being bogged down in the high-volume, low-value IT tasks that currently prevent them from improving business productivity and outcomes, especially when the employed MSP is leveraging AI-enhanced automation to enhance the speed of operations, insights, and decision-making, and the delivered end-user experiences.

If you’d like to learn more about how an MSP could help your organisation or new technologies are propelling MSP capabilities forward, you can do so here.

By Praveen Ramesh, SuperOps.Ai