A New Year is upon us. Will MSP business owners be popping the champagne or rationing the coffee they provide free to employees? Nobody, of course, has a crystal ball, but MSP Success asked industry thought leaders to weigh in on paths to success over the next 12 months as well as potential challenges.
“Well-positioned and security-focused MSPs have the opportunity to take market share from smaller MSPs that do not have the technology, training, and staff in place to protect their own and their clients’ infrastructure.”
— Nathan Whittacre, President & CEO, Stimulus Technologies
“Threat, opportunity, and trend are all wrapped up in compliance! This is hard work for an MSP, and if you are going to protect your clients, you need to do it right. Don’t play Russian roulette with cybersecurity.”
— Lisa Niekamp-Urwin, President & CEO, Tomorrow’s Technology Today
“The single biggest opportunity is the continued awareness about the real threats of cybersecurity. It becomes easier and easier to tell small to midsized businesses they need to invest real money, time, and effort in cybersecurity. The biggest threat to an MSP business owner is not running their business like a business. Competition is more mature. If you’re still thinking that you can spend your time playing around with tools, being an engineer, it will be harder and harder to compete.”
— Fred Voccola, CEO, Kaseya
“The AI tidal wave is going to be something that all customers are going to take part in. I think every [MSP] needs to have a position on it, because the marketing has been done. Customers get it, so it’s opportune for partners now.”
— Steve White, Program Vice President, Channels and Alliances, IDC
“The MSP business opportunity is rapidly becoming commoditized, and to remain relevant, we have to seize the already huge and growing compliance business opportunity, especially CMMC.”
— John Hill, CEO, TechSage Solutions
“The biggest opportunity for MSPs in 2024 is beating out the guys with poor service.”
— Charles Swihart, CEO, Preactive IT Solutions
“In the MSP helpdesk landscape, we’re witnessing an uptick in social engineering. Coupled with the misuse of AI, these threats stand to profoundly disrupt the SMB and midmarket industry. It’s imperative for MSPs to explore robust measures to identify both user and technician calling to and from their helpdesks.”
— Mateo Barraza, CEO and Co-Founder, CyberQP
“The biggest opportunity in the next 12–18 months is centered around AI and leading the charge for our clients to think differently about the potential for efficiencies to gain out of this.”
— Shane Naugher, President, DaZZee I.T. Services
The biggest opportunity for MSPs is going to remain security and compliance. More industries are getting government scrutiny, and owners are realizing that they need to become more cyber-focused.
— Paul Nebb, President & CEO, Titan Technologies
“The biggest opportunity is continuing to move more upstream to larger companies and providing higher-level services that these organizations do not have the skill set for. Due to the continued shortage in the labor market compounded by continued federal regulation on cybersecurity, we are looking at the biggest opportunity since I have been in IT.”
— David Groot, President & CSO, Windstar Technologies, Inc.
“The biggest threat will be flat to slightly declining economic growth with fewer new business opportunities and companies holding back on project spending. The opportunity is picking up dissatisfied clients from failing competitors who continue to have staffing issues. Many of the PE-backed companies will lose 10% to 20% of their acquired clients that prefer a more nimble and personal provider. We are entering the age of the ‘street-fight economy.’”
— Greg Crabtree, Partner, CRI Simple Numbers
“We see three main trends: the move from an IT provider to a cybersecurity provider, compliance acceleration, and consolidation. The attractive qualities of a recurring revenue model, high revenue per customer, and long customer retention of the typical MSP makes for an interesting investment opportunity for private equity groups. This has led to several PEs investing in an MSP, creating a platform, and acquiring other MSPs to bolt-on or tuck-in.”
— Jeff Farr, Expert in Residence, TMT
“The biggest threat to MSPs in 2024 is not raising prices to keep pace with payroll and vendor price inflation. If they don’t, they will join the ranks of the 28% of MSPs that are unprofitable.”
— Paul Cissel, Expert in Residence, TMT
“The biggest opportunity I see is gaps in the midmarket in terms of security services, whether it’s a co-managed environment with cybersecurity services or one where virtual/fractional CIO/CISO/CSO services are provided.”
— Tito Huynh, Vice President, Business Data Services
“With the proliferation of companies entering the MSP space and the ongoing M&A activity by super MSPs, independent MSPs will have to focus on building something unique that differentiates them from their competitors.”
— Ted Shafran, President & CEO, Connectability Inc.
“The biggest threat to MSPs is protecting their profit margins. Increased insurance, tool costs and tool creep are eating away margin. We as an industry must raise prices and stop undercharging for services.”
— Stuart Bryan, President, I-M Technology
“Cyber insurance is becoming more prevalent, harder to qualify for, and if your MSP isn’t ready to provide high-end cybersecurity services, you will be left in the dust by your competition.”
— Brian Satz, President, CW IT Support
“To increase sales and protect against client loss/churn, MSPs must adopt and implement compliance-as-a-service offerings to meet those needs.”
— Paul Tracey, Owner, Innovative Technologies
