MSPs
Customers Say MSPs Help Make Them More Competitive
More firms are adopting managed services for a variety of reasons, including to improve the efficiency of their IT operations. It isn’t just about cost anymore.
Growth in Managed Services Adoption
68% of organizations have used an outside IT firm for services to manage one or more of their IT functions or other IT project work in the last year.
Collaboration Benefits
60% of respondents said their managed services engagement is a collaborate arrangement with their internal IT department.
Understanding Managed Services
52% of respondents said they were very familiar with the concept of managed services in 2014, compared were 36% in 2013.
Adoption Drivers for Large Enterprises
For organizations with 100-plus employees, the key factors for using managed services include improving efficiency/reliability of IT operations (56%), enhancing security/compliance (38%) and freeing IT staff to work on strategic projects (38%).
Adoption Drivers for SMBs
For organizations with less than 100 employees, the key factors for using managed services include improving efficiency/reliability of IT operations (47%), enhancing security/compliance (38%) and taking a proactive approach to maintenance (31%).
Not All About Cost
30% of respondents cited cost savings as a primary driver, compared with 57% in the 2013 study.
Meeting Cost Expectations
However, 54% of respondents expected a modest cost savings at the outset of a MSP engagement, and 30% expected significant savings. Meanwhile, 69% said the cost savings met their expectations, and 24% said it exceeded their expectations.
Billing Preferences
About half of respondents prefer flat-rate pricing, including 55% of larger firms (100-plus employees), compared with 43% of smaller firms.
Making the Grade
27% of respondents were very satisfied with their managed services experience, 63% were mostly satisfied and 9% were pretty satisfied/partly dissatisfied.
Top Services
Services currently provided as part of a MSP engagement include backup/disaster recovery (72%), security (68%), storage (64%), email (63%), networks (61%) and cloud infrastructure/applications (60%).
Wish List
Services that are not part of a current MSP engagement but that are desired include audio/visual services (36%), encryption services (35%), application monitoring (34%), help desk (34%) and mobile device management (33%).
Impact on IT Staff
9% of respondents said they eliminated their IT staff when they signed on with an MSP, and another 26% reduced internal head count.
Adoption Barriers
The top barriers to adoption of managed services include skepticism over cost savings/ROI, general lack of need, reluctance to outsource to an outside company, perceived loss of control by IT or operations staff, and concern over disruptions during transition.
MSP Outreach
47% of non-MSP adopters said they were approached in the last two years by an MSP offering an assessment of their IT environment. Of those, 18% agreed to the assessment and 29% declined.
Missed Opportunities
Almost 40% of respondents believe their current IT management methods are working fine, but 61% believe there is room for improvement.