Survey respondents embrace cloud, security and data protection capabilities to set themselves apart from the pack
NEW YORK and MIAMI — Feb. 14 2019 –– Kaseya®, the leading provider of complete IT infrastructure management solutions for managed service providers (MSPs) and internal IT organizations, today released the results of its 2019 MSP Benchmark Survey. The eighth annual survey revealed that the highest performing MSPs are proactively beefing up their services as the mainstream adoption of cloud computing and security concerns increase opportunities for higher-margin ways to deliver infrastructure.
Key industry trends – the need to manage hybrid and multi-cloud environments, heightened attention to security, and the requirement for data backup and protection in a data-driven world – present a combination of crucial challenges for MSPs. The survey showed that top MSPs — those that reported an average annual monthly recurring revenue (MRR) growth over 20 percent – have stepped up their game in these areas to stay ahead of competitors.
In cloud, they’re scaling up services for customer segments that match their expertise and experience, and as a result, enjoy a margin range almost double that of MSPs overall, according to the survey. As infrastructures become more intricate and difficult to secure, these MSPs have expanded beyond predictable, standard offerings and deliver emerging services in real-time intrusion detection, two- or multi-factor authentication, third-party application updating and other areas. To assure robust disaster recovery and backup capabilities, 85 percent of the most successful MSPs use more than one backup provider to support customers’ needs, compared with 78 percent of all respondents.
Infrastructure monitoring and management continues to be the fastest growing and most widely offered services among all MSPs, and are a minimum for entry in today’s MSP marketplace. The survey found that while top MSPs continue to invest in these areas, they also recognize the opportunity to grow their service lines and maximize profit margins by furnishing customers with new solutions that fit any budget.
According to the survey, most MSPs struggle with the chicken-and-egg question of prioritizing between RMM and PSA. Top MSPs, however, know that blindly installing either of these tools is no guarantee of success. Each may be a precursor to the other, but their ability to integrate together is easily the single most important feature of any PSA or RMM solution. Eighty percent of high-performing MSPs considered integration to be exceptionally important, compared with 69 percent of all respondents.
The annual Kaseya MSP Benchmark Survey is known as the industry’s most powerful tool for analyzing the MSP market, pinpointing the technologies and processes that differentiate the most successful MSPs. The survey collects information on pricing and service delivery trends, new service offerings, and operational resources and requirements. Data was gathered from both Kaseya and non-Kaseya customers in the fourth quarter of 2018 with responses from more than 800 MSPs of all sizes in over 40 countries.
“Kaseya’s annual survey of MSPs worldwide reveals the strategies that these firms rely on to provide the most value to customers and stay ahead of the competition in a crowded marketplace,” said Jim Lippie, SVP of channel development at Kaseya. “This year’s survey shows that business demands are now more intense and less predictable. This sets up an evolving MSP landscape in which the winners boost revenue through a broad menu of profitable new services and more efficiently run their own operations through increased automation and modern pricing structures.”
Other key findings from Kaseya’s 2019 MSP Benchmark survey include:
Cloud continues to change everything. As more of their customers migrate their IT infrastructure to the cloud, high-performing MSPs embrace cloud integration, migration, implementation and management. Seventy-one percent of top MSPs host some part of their clients’ infrastructure in a private cloud environment, compared with 59 percent of all respondents.
Backup is seeing changes. Ransomware and malware are far too common. Meanwhile, big data, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence are driving businesses to be increasingly data-driven. Vigorous backup and disaster recovery (BDR) capabilities are a must, and high-growth MSPs are beefing up their BDR tools to make sure customers are protected.
Cost-based pricing is fading. Top MSPs recognize that focusing solely on cost always leaves the door open for a less-expensive vendor. Instead, they are concentrating on the value their services bring to clients. Twenty-two percent of these MSPs earned more than half their revenue from a value-priced model, compared with 16 percent that earned it from a cost-based model.
Bigger doesn’t mean better. More than a third of high-performing MSPs have fewer than 10 employees. Rather than increasing headcount, these MSPs leverage the full power of automation to put time-consuming, rote tasks on autopilot. This allows them to manage thousands of endpoints per technician versus a few hundred without automation, as well as deliver high-value added services to their customers.
For more details and a comprehensive analysis of the findings, download the 2019 Kaseya MSP Benchmark Survey Report here: https://www.kaseya.com/resource/building-a-bionic-msp-practice-best-practices-from-the-highest-growth-msps-in-the-world/
