5 Things MSPs Should Know and Do To Stand Out

Managed service providers (MSPs) are at the forefront of helping businesses navigate digital transformation. With the growing demand for Microsoft 365 management and automation, MSPs have a unique opportunity to not only enhance their value proposition but also unlock new revenue streams. To sustain and expand their practices, MSPs must focus on five critical considerations:

• Streamlined Customer Onboarding
• Unified Management and Monitoring Solutions
• Automated Reporting and Analytics
• Achieving and Maintaining Profitable Growth
• Reliable and Transparent Partnerships

Streamlined Customer Onboarding

Onboarding is a critical phase in the customer journey, setting the tone for a successful relationship or potentially breaking a long-term partnership. Poor onboarding is one of the key factors contributing to customer churn. Many MSPs recognize the onboarding process as a significant priority in fostering strong partner relationships.

To ensure effective client onboarding, MSPs should implement a structured process that begins with a comprehensive understanding of their customers’ needs and business goals. This involves a thorough assessment of their existing infrastructure, including data sizes, file types, users, and permissions. Such an evaluation helps MSPs determine the volumes of data to migrate and identify the necessary services.

After evaluating the digital workspaces, MSPs must enable the required services. This is not a simple one-click process; it involves setting up configurations based on the agreed-upon solutions or digital transformations needed by each business. These configurations must be customized to fit the unique needs of each client.

While this process may seem straightforward, it is often complex and time-consuming. MSPs must navigate these steps for every customer, accounting for specific needs, which can make onboarding a demanding task.

Enhance your MSP capabilities with Orchestry, engineered to simplify and streamline the complexities of onboarding. Through comprehensive tools designed for Microsoft 365 management and automation, Orchestry offers real-time monitoring, self-service provisioning, comprehensive tenant insights and reporting, templating capabilities, and lifecycle management.

Orchestry Templates enhance onboarding and provisioning by offering standardized, pre-configured templates that streamline the setup process. This ensures new hires and teams have immediate access to the necessary tools and resources, reducing time spent on manual configuration. Automated provisioning policies and governance controls ensure consistency, compliance, and secure workspace management, making the process more efficient and user-friendly.

Unified Management and Monitoring Solutions

According to CRN, Managed services are in high demand among businesses and play a crucial role in lowering capital spending, reducing cybersecurity threats, providing quicker access to advanced IT, addressing the shortage of skilled workers, and facilitating smoother cloud migration and digital transformation efforts. However, meeting the needs of a growing client base is challenging, especially when each client has unique requirements and expectations.

One effective approach is to adopt a unified management platform that offers a comprehensive view of all clients and their services. This streamlines operations by eliminating the need to switch between various tools, thereby enhancing efficiency and minimizing the risk of errors associated with manually managing multiple products for multiple clients.

Beacon Multi-Tenant Controls streamline Microsoft 365 management for MSPs and Microsoft Partners, allowing efficient oversight of multiple client tenants from a unified interface. This tool simplifies the complex task of managing various customer environments through unified oversight and quick access to crucial information, such as license types, renewal dates, and usage insights.

Security is ensured at every layer, with configurable access controls allowing tenant administrators to manage environments securely and efficiently. Beacon offers a comprehensive solution for MSPs seeking to elevate their service offerings and streamline management processes.

Automated Reporting and Analytics

Incorporating comprehensive reporting into your business operations is essential for enhancing transparency and visibility for your customers.

Reporting is important for MSPs because it helps with:

• Enhancing Transparency and Trust Proving
• ROI and Cost Optimization
• Addressing Customer Concerns
• Identifying and Resolving Performance Issues
• Driving Revenue
• Supporting Data-Driven Decisions

While MSPs recognize the importance of reporting, consistently generating reports manually can be labor-intensive and detract from other critical operational tasks. How, then, can you effectively demonstrate the value of your services and cultivate trust and transparency?

Automate your reporting.

Beacon Health Checks are a transformative feature for MSPs, designed to deliver comprehensive Microsoft 365 reporting and analytics. Get detailed analytics that highlight storage, security, user adoption, and compliance metrics. Automate reporting and send co-branded reports directly to your customers.

By leveraging these capabilities, Health Checks enable MSPs to create new recurring revenue streams, enhance client environments, and establish themselves as trusted advisors while minimizing the need for extensive internal resources. These insights provide MSPs with a comprehensive view of their service performance, enabling them to gauge and enhance customer satisfaction effectively.

Achieving and Maintaining Profitable Growth

According to Grandview Research, the global MSP market is anticipated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.6% from 2023 to 2030.

To succeed in this expanding industry, MSPs must implement strategies that not only enhance profitability but also ensure exceptional service delivery, with a particular emphasis on generating recurring revenue.

Implementing recurring revenue models can offer numerous benefits for MSPs, but several challenges need careful consideration. These hurdles include:

• High customer acquisition costs: Initial investments in marketing and sales to build a client base can be substantial.
• Service delivery costs: Can be significant, especially for 24/7 support.
• Client churn: High-quality service and support are crucial to retaining clients and reducing churn rates.

MSPs can capitalize on recurring revenue opportunities by thoroughly understanding their clients' business needs and providing services and solutions that seamlessly align with their operational objectives.

With Health Checks, boost your monthly recurring revenue stream by offering ongoing guidance to your customers, and leverage these insights to uncover additional revenue and service opportunities throughout the sales process.

Reliable and Transparent Partnerships

Partnerships are vital for MSPs as they provide access to advanced training and expertise, enhance service offerings, and expand market reach through co-marketing efforts. Collaborations with ISVs also ensure MSPs have access to cutting-edge technology, improved support, and resources, leading to higher client satisfaction. Additionally, strategic alliances can reduce costs and enhance credibility, helping MSPs stay competitive and grow their business.

According to the Barracuda MSP Business Report 2023, Managed Service Providers are encountering a growing array of challenges. Among the top concerns are heightened competition in the MSP market, difficulties in keeping pace with technological advancements, and struggling to expand their service portfolios.

Orchestry can help MSPs grow their business by providing a wealth of innovation, expertise, marketing support and dedication through our team of Microsoft MVPs and specialists in MS Teams and SharePoint, alongside our extensive global partner network. Beacon by Orchestry is a Microsoft 365 management software for MSPs and Microsoft Partners, offering centralized multi-tenant management, intelligent revenue identification, comprehensive health checks, and proactive issue resolution. Benefits include streamlined operations, enhanced service offerings, improved client relationships, and scalable growth to empower MSPs to deliver exceptional managed services, drive recurring revenue, and gain a competitive edge.

Partner with Orchestry

As the highest-rated Microsoft 365 management platform, Orchestry is trusted by industry-leading partners and experts. Our team and partners are renowned for their expertise, providing unmatched support to optimize your Microsoft 365 governance, adoption, and security. This powerful alliance ensures that your organization can efficiently address and overcome any business challenge.

Orchestry’s Partner Program aims to revolutionize service offerings and drive profitability. Explore the benefits available to MSPs and become a partner.