Olympic Standards: Achieving Excellence as a Managed Service Provider

The Olympics represents the pinnacle of human performance, where athletes worldwide strive for excellence and push the boundaries of what is possible. In many ways, managed service providers (MSPs) can mirror Olympic athletes’ relentless pursuit of greatness.

Like elite athletes, achieving top-tier performance in the MSP industry requires dedication, continuous improvement, and strategic planning.

In this blog, we’ll explore the best practices to help you achieve excellence.

The Spirit of Competition: Staying Ahead in the MSP Industry

Athletes prepare for the Olympics by familiarizing themselves with their competition’s strengths and weaknesses and undergoing intensive practice to gain an upper hand.

Similarly, MSPs work in a highly competitive market. Businesses serve as the judge of MSPs' suite of services — closing a deal can be considered a win for MSPs. But like athletes, MSPs must first understand their market to become competitive. According to Grand View Research, the global MSP market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.6% from 2023 to 2030.

While this anticipated growth signifies more demand for technological services, MSPs must do more. MSPs must conduct a rigorous evaluation of existing services and pinpoint opportunities for innovation to swiftly respond to business needs and offer innovative solutions that differentiate them from their rivals.

When assessing service offerings, MSPs must look at which services have high demand, which are emerging needs, and how they are faring with competitors regarding offering and pricing. By understanding these factors, MSPs can understand which offerings to keep and which to improve.

Training and Preparation: Building a High-Performing MSP Team

Making it to the Olympics is not easy for athletes; it involves years of rigorous training and preparation. Similarly, MSPs need consistent training and an understanding of the market to deliver exceptional service.

To ensure your team is prepared for the challenges ahead, MSPs must prioritize  ongoing education and certification. Like athletes who continually train and refine their skills to compete at the highest level, MSPs must stay current with industry standards and technological advancements.

It is vital to take certifications that focus on compliance with industry regulations and enhance credibility and trustworthiness with clients. For example, 45% of MSPs are increasing overall spending on cybersecurity-related areas, and 43% are offering upskilling training to existing employees, according to the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) IT Industry Outlook 2024.

By prioritizing ongoing education and certification, MSPs can stay ahead of industry demands and ensure they are equipped to meet their clients’ evolving needs. This approach is akin to Olympians, who continually train to stay at the top of their game.

Setting Standards: Establishing and Maintaining High-Quality Services

Just as athletes rely on expert coaches to hone their skills and achieve peak performance, MSPs can also rely on experts to ensure best-in-class service to clients. Independent Software Vendors (ISV) – the solutions experts – can help MSPs excel in their field. In the dynamic world of managed services, where technological advancements and client expectations constantly evolve, partnering with the right experts is beneficial and essential.

Recent events, such as the CrowdStrike outage, have highlighted the importance of reliable partners in the digital landscape. As MSPs navigate challenges clients face, such as cybersecurity, having partners who can assist them with the knowledge and solutions to effectively address and mitigate these risks is paramount.

For example, the right ISV can offer solutions allowing MSPs to swiftly adapt and respond to cybersecurity threats, which is essential for maintaining trust and delivering exceptional service to clients.

Like how athletes benefit from close collaboration with their coaches, partnering with experts who provide cutting-edge solutions and support ensures that MSPs can meet and exceed the ever-increasing demands of the digital world.

Case in point: when MSPs become AvePoint partners, they can access solutions like AvePoint Elements, which offer a comprehensive solution for monitoring clients' digital environments. A multi-tenant platform designed for MSPs, Elements provides a unified view of all client tenants through a single interface, enabling swift identification and resolution of potential issues, ensuring the smooth operation of your services.

Embracing Innovation: Leveraging AI Readiness as a Service

Access to the most innovative sports equipment and facilities is a key factor in athletes becoming their best selves and reaching the Olympics. Similarly, MSPs must leverage advanced tools and technologies to become top-notch service providers. 

One such technology is artificial intelligence (AI). About 47% of small and medium businesses (SMBs) utilize AI to save time at work, according to a Microsoft report. This has resulted in an average of 40% increase in their productivity.

But despite increasing AI adoption, results from the AI and Information Management Report reveal that 52% of organizations faced challenges concerning data quality and categorization during AI implementation.

This is an opportunity for MSPs to generate revenues from AI-readiness services, ensuring businesses’ data are ready for AI implementation. The sheer amount of data your clients have can be overwhelming: 64% of organizations manage at least 1 petabyte (PB) of data, and 41% handle at least 500 PB.

As an MSP, you can help clean up their repositories and automate data lifecycle management, which assists in AI data readiness.

MSPs can use innovative solutions like AvePoint Opus, an AI-powered information management solution that takes data lifecycle management to the next level. Opus automates best practices like auto-classifying content and applying retention and disposal rules to help curb data sprawl, which aids in the accurate and secure use of AI.

Partner for Excellence with AvePoint

Achieving greatness – as an Olympian or an MSP – requires collective effort.

Just as athletes work closely with coaches, fellow athletes, and support teams to improve their performance and achieve their goals, MSPs can thrive through strategic partnerships.

At AvePoint, we understand the power of partnerships in driving mutual success. That’s why we’ve designed our Partner Program to provide MSPs like you with the tools, resources, and support they need to excel. Whether it’s managing, automating, scaling, or cost-optimizing your customers’ digital workspace, AvePoint’s Partner Program gives you what you need to provide innovative solutions that meet the evolving demands of the market.

By partnering with AvePoint, you gain exclusive access to solutions, such as our Storage Optimization GTM Kit and Copilot for Microsoft 365 GTM Kit, dedicated support, training materials, co-marketing opportunities, and more.

Are you ready to achieve the gold standard in excellence? Join our partner program and turn your business goals into business success stories!