MSPs still in the dark when it comes to Cloud

MSPs are getting left behind by poor products, bad business practices and unreliable vendors.

Jason Angleos, MD of Sales Strategy & Transformation at Accenture Strategy, has recently claimed that partner programmes are not keeping up with Cloud innovation.

"That's mostly true. The majority of partner programmes aren't adapting to the needs of partners and their customers" replis Chris Piggott, Technical Director & Co-Founder of Synextra.

Synextra's channel partner programme is innovating in the space however. Seeing tremendous success since launching in late 2016, the partner programme contributed a notable portion of the companies impressive 54% growth in its 2nd financial year.

So, why are most MSPs still in the dark when it comes to the Cloud, when our partners are proving it can be a very successful vertical?

Not Fit For Purpose

MSPs are making more work for themselves and lowering their profit levels by reselling 'rebadged' products and labelling them as Cloud. This causes confusion and issues for end users, putting real businesses and real people in jeopardy" warns Chris.

Frankenstein's Monster

These solutions aren't fit for purpose because the MSPs are pulling products together from multiple vendors, in the pursuit of the highest commission. However, MSPs are being left in the dark because they're tied in with vendors who don't offer managed services.

"Vendors are taking the money and running, shunning responsibility and leaving MSPs with large issues and limited access to remedy them. And the end users are the ones who suffer." – Chris Piggott

Problems with pricing

MSPs are saddling customers with billing cycles that don’t fit their needs. They're forcing customers into paying in advance per annum, rather than giving them a pay-per-user, SaaS model.

"Now we've all heard this before. Vendors (and consequently MSPs) don't tell you how much services actually cost per seat. If their pricing isn't transparent, then neither is the company. This will only lead to issues down the road, where vendors shirk responsibilities" – Chris Piggott

Pick your partners (and battles) wisely.

MSPs should then be looking to vendors who can provide the majority (if not all) of these solutions they need and who will actually support them: through offering managed services and through actual support. Whether that's marketing resources or as we do, even offering additional sales resources, to help you learn by closing deals with you.

"Partners need to start looking at what they're actually selling. Rather than selling Office365 and making >10% margin, MSPs should be focused on ancillary services they can wrap around that, such as Cloud capacity, Dropbox alternatives, Hosted Desktop, VoIP telephony, sip trunking and more..." suggests Chris.


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