Systems integrators turned MSPs

Enterprise Management recently conducted a survey of Management Service Providers Association members in an attempt to clarify the types of companies that compete in the nascent MSP market, the products they are offering their customers, and the relationships that they are building with other service providers.

We found out some interesting information about MSPs. Specifically, we learned that while several vendors came to the MSP market with the specific goal of offering remotely managed network services, the majority of companies had been, and in many cases still are, systems integrators.

At first glance this may not seem all that surprising. Systems integrators have traditionally provided services to their customers that involve complex integration and management of software and hardware. In most cases, integration was performed on systems and software that were not originally created with the idea of connectivity in a heterogeneous environment. That does not mean, however, that systems integrators are better prepared than others for the role of managed service provider.

Leaping into the MSP market will require two disciplines that may not be part of an systems integrator's company culture or expertise.

First, systems integrators need to develop an account management mindset so that they can provide monitoring services to their customers for the duration of extended contracts, which sometimes last as long as 3 to 5 years. Second, systems integrators need their engineering groups to adopt a development mindset that goes beyond timeliness and basic product functionality.

What do these two characteristics mean for a systems integrator?

Regarding account management, systems integrators will need to invest in personnel that do more than technical development and project management. Account executives or sales representatives need to be the front-end relationship managers for customers. In most cases, a help desk department will have to be created from scratch, or built-up dramatically from its current position. This is of critical importance, and often overlooked as a company grows. Account executives, though important to the overall relationship, aren't the first person that an angry customer calls. Help desks, bearing the brunt of customer unhappiness, need quality training and education.

In addition, most systems integrators will need to create vertical product teams that have a product manager, project manager, quality assurance representative, account executive, technical lead, and help desk personnel who are trained to manage specific accounts. As a systems integrator, resource allocation is typically by "round-robin" method whereby the most available and most qualified representative in any of the necessary fields is assigned to an account. After the work is done, that person disappears from the customer's radar screen. In order to provide quality long-term relationship management, such a short-term resource allocation methodology will have to change. Customers will want to get to know the people managing their systems just as if those people were their own employees.

Packaging services and applications as products will be important for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, the process of clarifying products is critical to sales representatives, who need to position and pitch the product set to potential customers. Systems integrators, by the very nature of their work, rarely define their product offerings or company purposes because they want to sell their ability to do anything that the customer needs. Evidence of this attitude carries over into the systems integrators/MSP vendor market today. If you take a look at many systems integrators-turned-MSP Web sites, you'll have virtually no idea what it is that a company does, since many claim the ability to do anything.

MSP customers want to clearly understand what features, benefits and services they are getting from vendors. After all, these are business-critical applications that are being remotely managed, and customers will not be satisfied with vagaries about product functionality, services and support. MSPs will need to clean up their marketing presence and find the message that explains the company and product position, even if it limits their horizontal "sell-ability."

Senior Analyst Tim Wilson is with Enterprise Management Associates in Boulder, Colo., an analyst and market research firm focusing exclusively on all aspects of enterprise management. Wilson has over 10 years of experience in covering e-business and enterprise management issues, most recently with InternetWeek, where he was chief of reporters. He can be reached by clicking here.

ASP archive
Past newsletters.

Management service providers unite
Network World, 08/14/00

Apps briefs
Network World, 07/10/00

Introducing a new kind of service provider: the MSP
Network World, 02/14/00

Getting a taste of management service
Network World, 10/09/00