According to a study by MARKETSANDMARKETS, the market size of the managed services market is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.9% by 2026 and reach USD 354.8 billion from USD 242.9 billion in 2021.
The managed services industry today is more competitive than ever before. Companies are realizing the benefits of outsourcing their IT needs and increasingly turning to managed service providers (MSPs) for a cost-effective, reliable solution to their IT infrastructure issues. As an MSP, it’s essential that you stay ahead of your competition in order to succeed and keep operational costs low.
In this blog post, we offer five tips on scaling your MSP business in a highly competitive marketplace so that you can stay one step ahead of everyone else in terms of customer satisfaction and market share. Keep reading to find out how you can gain an edge over other providers with these strategies!
Challenges faced by MSPs in scaling their business
- Difficulty to acquire new customers and retain existing ones
Acquiring customers is a complex and demanding process that requires the collaborative effort of both Marketing and Sales personnel, as well as dedicated time and resources. Smaller MSPs whose primary expertise lies in IT services may find it difficult to meet these needs without additional support.
As an MSP, it is essential to maintain your existing customer base by prioritizing their needs. Without the proper focus and attention on keeping current clients happy, a company runs the risk of losing them, wiping out any growth efforts made previously. - Managing resources and costs
MSPs must carefully manage their resources, including personnel, equipment, and finances, in order to ensure that they have the capacity to handle an increasing number of clients without overextending themselves. This can be a complex task, especially as the business grows and changes. - Maintaining the quality of service
As MSPs take on more clients, it can be challenging to maintain the same level of service and support that they provided when they were a smaller company. This is especially true if the MSP is not able to add staff or resources quickly enough to meet the increased demand. - Dealing with unexpected issues
MSPs must be prepared to handle unexpected issues that can arise, such as natural disasters, power outages, or security breaches. These types of events can disrupt operations and require the MSP to have contingency plans in place. - Staying up to date with technology
The IT industry is constantly evolving, and MSPs must stay up to date with the latest technologies and best practices in order to provide the highest level of service to their clients. This can be a challenge, as it requires ongoing training and education for MSP staff.
5 ways to scale your MSP business
- Define your growth and develop a plan
To set your business on the right path, it’s essential that you commit to a well-structured strategy. This plan should provide important details such as what drives the organization – its mission and values – along with pricing structures and budgets associated with services or products offered by other teams within an organization.
Properly mapping out roles for each team member, including their respective skill sets and experience level, will also ensure every decision made is aligned towards meeting clear goals without disruptions in environmental or organizational changes that are expected over time. - Restructure fees for new services and customers
MSPs may worry that clients will be put off by the prospect of higher rates. However, a potential stream of incremental income can still be had without existing customers feeling any effects. MSPs can raise prices for new contracts and services added onto existing ones. This is an effective way to improve the bottom line whilst avoiding taking on additional expenses in uncertain economic times ahead.
Careful market research should be conducted before making adjustments to any pricing structure, to determine suitability and acceptability within current conditions. - Implement professional services automation (PSA) software
Organizations can leverage technology to help them optimize their processes, reach growth objectives and reduce costs. Professional Services Automation (PSA) solutions provide a comprehensive platform for businesses to manage client information, inventory tracking as well as keeping track of billable hours while also streamlining the core business functions such as project management or managing time off requests.
CRM tools might be included in these systems too along with ticket system/helpdesk features – all this tailored towards maximizing resources depending on each organization’s goals which have been established before automating any workflows. - Use remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools
MSPs can benefit from having 24/7 support for their clients, courtesy of remote monitoring and management systems. This round-the-clock availability helps strengthen incident response rates which in turn leads to improved customer satisfaction and retention levels.
When selecting an RMM solution, flexibility should be a key factor as well as integrating it with PSA tools; this will enable MSPs to deliver optimum reliability and security services that keep customers satisfied. - Implement billing applications that support MSPs
Staying informed about the monetary landscape of your MSP business is paramount for its success. Without carefully monitoring income and expenses, even profitable providers can quickly experience financial troubles.
Employing payment & accounting applications puts MSPs in control over tracking funds throughout the enterprise, managing invoices, and collections as well as gaining sharper outlooks on long-term budgeting decisions.
How does RackNap help you scale your MSP business?
RackNap is a cloud subscription billing platform that can empower MSPs to provision, bill, and deliver cloud solutions to end consumers. RackNap help managed service providers by:
Define plans
Sell any application on multiple plans with automated billing software – Free, One-time, Recurring, Pay-per-use, and Contract plans supported with auto-renewal and usage-based pricing in place.
Give Scale Discounts
Modify pricing according to billing cycle and number of units purchased. Create bundled offerings and motivate customers to purchase more.
Upgrade and Downgrade
Empower customers with the ability to upgrade and downgrade cloud services from their customer panel.
Build a strong partner ecosystem
Easy partner registration: be it invite-only programs or open self-registration. Simple approval and onboarding mechanisms.
Partners of your choice
RackNap supports both: Commission-based referral partners or Discount-based reseller partners.
Complete White-labelling
With RackNap, provide a ready-made, white-labeled marketplace to your partners. Your partners get a copy of RackNap admin panel too to manage their own customers, and their customers get white-labeled customer panel.
Sell what you want
RackNap’s multiple application integrations ensure you can sell any cloud or subscription service you want backed with automated billing. Our Open APIs support full customization.
Spoilt by choice
With automated billing and multiple payment gateways support along with marketing software, Livechat platforms, tax levels, and currencies – RackNap ensures your business growth is never hampered.
Reduce Customer Churn
RackNap is built to provide your customers the nicest experience. With inbuilt support capabilities, your customers enjoy great power.
Book a demo to know how managed service providers can benefit from RackNap’s automated subscription billing platform.
Also read: Overcome these 5 subscription business challenges that stop your business from scaling