For those who are new to managed services, the term “master managed service provider” may sound like some industry jargon or a new certification. But in reality, working with so-called Master MSPs — companies like Do IT Smarter or Ingram Micro’s Seismic organization — is one of the fastest ways to become a managed service provider. Here’s why.
Generally speaking, Master MSPs provide integrated hosted services to VARs for a monthly fee. VARs, in turn, can offer the Master MSP services to their customers. The Master MSP approach allows the VAR to pay a flat monthly fee to the Master MSP, and eliminates the need for the VAR to build a network operation center (NOC), nor does the VAR need to outlay a big lump sum to acquire managed services software.
Sample Master MSPs include Do IT Smarter and Ingram Micro’s Seismic offering. In recent months, Do IT Smarter VP Todd McKendrick has been on the road, evangelizing how the Master MSP model can allow VARs to quickly pick-and-choose selected managed services (for instance, managed print services, managed security services, etc.) for their customers.
Similarly, Ingram Seismic has a range of managed service options that VARs can select and offer to their customers.
Now, it seems, the Master MSP term has reached critical mass in the managed services market. During a phone chat March 14, Autotask CEO Bob Godgart described growing interest in a range of approaches that can tie together disparate managed service platforms.
Autotask, for instance, writes to application programming interfaces (APIs) to ensure its business automation software works with third-party MSP platforms (such as Kaseya’s, among others).
But Godgart also mentioned the Master MSP model as a way for VARs to ensure all of their managed service programs work together.
“I believe Master MSPs will be the channel for companies that sell services to MSPs,” says Godgart. “Similar to how Ingram became a distributor of multiple hardware products, you’re seeing Master MSPs supply multiple managed services capabilities to VARs and MSPs. Master MSPs will provide all of the back-office services to the VAR.”
Looking ahead, plenty of people wonder if Dell will evolve into a master MSP. The company has already acquired Silverback Technologies and Everdream, two MSP platform providers, and Everdream, which specializes in email security. The PC giant also is partnering on managed VoIP solutions.
If Dell continues on that acquisition path, it’s conceivable that Dell will offer a Lego-like managed services platform, where VARs choose from a range of Dell-hosted programs that, in theory, can snap into a single Dell management dashboard.
In the meantime, companies like Do IT Smarter and Ingram Micro’s Seismic team, among others, continue to position the Master MSP model as a way for VARs to quickly adopt managed services with minimal up-front costs.
Tags: Autotask | Bob Godgart | Do IT Smarter | Ingram Micro | Seismic | Todd McKendrock
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Joe - Once again you are right on. We’ve been urging solution providers to focus on the strategy and the partnerships vs. the tools. The tools need to be solid and work well, but the real analysis should come in selecting the partners you work with. The providers who win in the MSP space will be the ones that focused their efforts on the right partnerships. I couldn’t have writtne this any better myself!
I wholeheartedly agree with your post, Joe, as well as Justin’s comment. The Master MSP model is taking the concept of Vendor Management I write about in my first book to a whole new level. Now, instead of the MSP having to keep up with a slew of different vendors servicing their customer base, and attempting to transition them one at a time to their own “preferred vendors”, an MSP can partner with a Master MSP who already has these vendors in place, making it much easier to sell and manage a complete annuity-based packaged service to their customers which meets their business needs, with a single point of contact, turn-up and support. Brilliant.
Justin: Good to hear from you. Just want to say we’re not endorsing any particular platform or approach, but we do see momentum building for this “Master MSP” approach.
I am glad to see the term “Master MSP” starting to gain some traction. Back when we shifted our focus to selling Managed Services to resellers we were struggling with what to call ourselves, I’m not sure how it happened but we started using the term Master MSP and it seemed to fit well. I do want to point out though that I think there is a big difference between a managed service provide that sells their services through a reseller channel (what I would call a Master MSP) and a distributor that sells someone else’s managed services through a reseller channel. The key difference being whose services you are selling. While we do sell other vendors solutions such as anti-spam and remote backup the core of what we reseller to our channel are our services, namely the Help Desk and NOC services as well as our training solutions. All of these solutions developed from years of selling managed services to a direct customer base (although completely indirect now) and taking this experience and applying it to a reseller channel. It’s not as simple as selling a reseller a bunch of different services and tools and poof they become a reseller, these components need to be tied together to create a total solution for the customer. This is where the real value of a Master MSP comes in to play, knowing how to integrate all of these solutions into something the reseller can sell and support right out of the gate.
We have seen demand from our customer base to work with them on building a Master MSP business model. As a result, we have developed a new professional service offering titled ‘Master MSP Business Optimization Assessment’. As a result of this assessment, we provide guidance to Autotask customers and prospects on building a Master MSP business model, and using Autotask to support operations. We provide feedback on the their current model, share how others are doing it and provide detailed workflows on utilizing Autotask to optimize the model.
It is fantastic that the industry has figured out how to do this effectively in a web services architecture. One piece I see that is still at odds with the business model is the authentication part of the security model. Most of the ASPs like Salesforce.com have tried to address both real and customer perception issues, with cobbled post event email systems, or authentication delegation interfaces so an SMB can either plug in a pre-existing token based solution or expect the VAR who may be reselling the service to integrate something, and also assume some of the liability for data security breaches. A solution completely integrated into the web services model of the application, certainly would increase simplicity, and continue to reduce the requirements of the end user to maintain headcount and systems administrator function to cover that piece. It would also certainly facilitate support for things like OpenID that would reduce the cost of identity for SMBs even more.
It looks like all of this could just as easily turn into customer facing offerings (like Dell is doing) and potential MSP clients could instead hit the Dell cafeteria and fill their plate. Dell probably wouldn’t pass on the opportunity to market direct to decision makers rather than just deliver via msp’s.
@Toddsw: Sure, Dell could take business (including online services) fully direct. But why?
Without the channel and MSPs, Dell cannot deliver the profits and growth Wall Street is DEMANDING. The moment Dell shows even a hint that it’s taking the MSP business direct, they’d be toast. So I don’t think they’ll do it.