Customers Say MSPs Help Make Them More Competitive

Organizations are becoming more knowledgeable about managed services and are relying increasingly on providers to deliver a variety of IT services, according to CompTIA research, which includes a survey of 350 executives in the end-user community. More than two-thirds of the companies polled have used the services of an outside IT firm in the past 12 months. Growing customer awareness has helped drive adoption—52 percent of respondents said they are very familiar with the concept of managed services, while another 40 percent said they are somewhat familiar. This signals that the market is moving into a more positive direction, said Carolyn April, senior director, industry analysis, CompTIA. "It could be an indicator that MSPs are doing a better job of evangelizing the business model and promoting the benefits of managed services." Combined with the publicity around cloud, it has piqued end-user interest in any service provider type of model, she added. The study shows that managed services customers no longer see cost savings as the biggest driver for adoption and are looking at other factors, such as becoming more competitive. Here are key takeaways from the study that MSPs can use to refocus their sales strategies.