Don’t forget to add any thoughts or points you find in this article to your 2020 todo list!

1. Mature Cyber Security Solution

An obvious point and one that many MSPs already have solutions in place for, but how mature is that solution? We believe a mature Cyber Security solution should include:

• A clear set of services that form a comprehensive cyber security solution for your customer or prospect, which may include User Awareness Training and Penetration Testing.

• Marketing materials in place ready to send to customers including the service clearly set out online with supporting case studies.

• Aligned vendors for each of the services with agreed commercials in place for customers including volume discounts where applicable.

• Training across the sales, operations and technical teams for the security services so there are no elements of surprise in the organisation when these services are ordered, implemented and supported.

This is an important area for MSPs to focus on. Those with comprehensive and complete security solutions will outpace their competitors throughout the year.

2. Product Management

The previous point brings us nicely onto Product Management. How well are Products and Services documented?

A chart or matrix of the products and services you deliver can significantly improve internal performance and productivity. Operational information, sales and marketing materials, vendor certifications and technical resources can all be linked to each product or service.

Designating ownership of your products and services to a product management group within the MSP, however small, will help manage what you supply and from which vendors to save time on constantly learning.

New products and services that your MSP supply should be considered and approved – particularly services. For example, managed wireless access points sourced from different vendors can rather than a preferred two or three can have a profound effect on sales and technical time, not to mention solutions which might be sold – but can’t be implemented.

To get started, think about mapping out all the products and services you provide on a matrix.

3. Invest SMART, Invest in Culture

Margins on IT support contracts are not what they used to be! When margins are tight, it is critical that for every pound or dollar you spend, you get enough value back.

So for your 2020 vision and on a tight budget, what is your biggest bang for your buck? Well, investing in your culture will be an essential component.

According to Richard Branson, happy employees is equal to happy customers. Whether you believe in his philosophy or not, what is clear is that putting the customer experience at the core of your team’s culture will result in more retention and even more business.

So how do you ensure that all your employees want to improve the overall customer experience of your MSP? Firstly, they must be motivated. An employees motivation and happiness does not just come from reward and recognition, which they will often measure through their career progression, but also from the existential challenge of their daily workload.

To increase this challenge investing in SMART people is key, but also ensuring that your existing employees progress quickly in their careers to more challenging work.

4. Get leads flowing

Marketing is important not only to reinforce your message to existing customers but to also allow for organic growth. Competition in the MSP market is strong and referral alone could be a slow growth or standstill option.

Consider the following three actions for your marketing this year:

• Marketing roles and responsibilities. Who is responsible for delivering leads into your business? It should be the internal marketing manager or external marketing agency. There should be clear accountability and tracking of success.

• Measure the numbers. How much of your sales comes from your marketing efforts?

• Website. It is the front door to your business, and should have a constant focus as oppose to a refresh every 2-5 years.

5. Bring Innovation to the Board Room

Finally, in the world of technology there are lots of new ideas and ways to update your service offering. Innovation can be a point within your regular board or business meeting to ensure it has focus.

Each meeting member should contribute ideas for the business to become more innovative, either to help beat competition or to improve productivity internally.

If you are struggling with resource, or managing all the technical tasks you have to hand, then consider our award winning outsourced NOC or Helpdesk services used by hundreds of MSP’s worldwide; learn more about our what Inbay do here.

Inbay wishes your MSP success for 2020, let’s make it a great year!