Why Seamless Product Integration Matters to MSPs

The managed services market is anticipated to become a $100 billion industry by 2026, according to 451 Research. A report from Canalys also found that in 2023, managed service providers (MSPs) saw the most significant growth opportunities in software solutions related to cybersecurity, the cloud, and subscription-based software solutions, such as software-as-a-service (SaaS), infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), and desktop-as-a-service (DaaS).

To meet the demand, MSPs are expanding their offerings and partnerships. Some 40% of MSPs plan to work with more than 20 independent service providers (ISVs), and 46% will purchase products from different marketplaces.

However, relying on a myriad of products to handle multiple clients is extraordinarily time-consuming and leaves ample room for human error. That’s why MSPS must succeed with product integration.

Benefits of Product Integration for MSPs

To effectively manage this growing number of solutions, MSPs must integrate their solutions into a single pane of glass to help them streamline monitoring, automation, and support — regardless of the number of solutions they’ve deployed across multiple customers.

The outcomes stretch even further: with a centralized platform to manage the infrastructure of all customers, MSPs can improve retention, boost brand reputation, and maximize lifetime customer value.

Here’s a deep dive into the four key benefits of product integrations for MSPs:

1. Enhanced Operational Efficiency

According to 451 Research, 39% of organizations juggle 11 to 30 monitoring tools to manage multiple applications, infrastructure, and cloud environments. Without integrations in place, MSPs would need to deal with an incredible amount of manual work simply transferring data between systems. This type of product management hampers productivity, diverts from strategic initiatives, and causes significant inefficiencies.

On the other hand, a unified interface simplifies the process enormously compared to constantly switching between tools. By integrating solutions into a unified platform, MSPs can enhance both their processes and client services.

And with MSPs already facing staffing pressures to meet the rising demands for IT services, a streamlined approach to managing client environments makes day-to-day operations far more efficient, especially for lean staff.

For example, AvePoint Elements, our multi-tenant management platform for MSPs, serves as a product integration tool to automate billing and invoice generation. This integration helps MSPs reduce administrative workload and minimize errors that can occur with manual handling. For their clients, it ensures timely, accurate billing, which leads to enhanced transparency and trust in the service provider.

2. Improved Customer Experience

According to Adobe’s State of Digital Customer Experience, 85% of business executives say improving the customer experience is a significant business priority. For MSPs, providing a positive customer experience not only means delivering the right solutions to businesses, but also providing proactive support to help enhance customer relationships.

However, relying on multiple, fragmented vendor solutions can hinder MSPs from seeing the full picture of their customers’ infrastructure.

Through an integration platform, such as AvePoint Elements, MSPs get a comprehensive view of client environments across multiple tenants to help manage and understand what customers need to improve their infrastructure. This opens the opportunity for MSPs to become trusted, proactive, and long-term IT partners while also gaining additional revenue from offering additional products and services.

3. Reduced Cyber Risks for Clients

According to Microsoft, 40% of SMBs consider reliability and security two of the most important factors when selecting new technology. This correlates with findings from CompTIA’s IT Industry Outlook 2024, which shows that 58% of MSPs are now trying to grow their cybersecurity offerings, and 34% are new to the cybersecurity market and building expertise.

However, simply offering cybersecurity solutions isn’t enough; MSPs must implement proper internal security and governance measures to ensure the data and systems of their customers remain safe.

For MSPs managing multiple solutions, having disparate systems heightens risk exposures due to the need to maintain identities, permissions, and configurations across different platforms.

MSPs can use a platform like Elements to centralize monitoring and view risks across their customers’ infrastructure, regardless of the number of tenants or solutions implemented.

To further enhance proactive threat detection, MSPs can use risk management tools such as AvePoint’s Risk Management Package to monitor customer environments through summarized compliance status and streamlined reports.

4. Non-Disruptive Service Implementation

The integration of software services not only enhances the value proposition for clients but also facilitates rapid scalability and revenue growth for MSPs. A State of Product Integrations report found that product integration helped in closing new deals (59%), retaining more clients (53%), and expanding into new markets (52%).

Despite multiple solutions and clients, MSPs can still streamline processes, such as onboarding new clients and adding more solutions to their current tech stack through a reliable product integration platform. An easy-to-use tool removes the need for extensive integrations and testing, allowing MSPs to focus on rolling out additional services to customers faster.

Additionally, integrated software suites make adopting new services seamless by avoiding business workflow disruption. Since authentication, data models, and administrator portals are shared, adding a new integrated service takes minutes rather than days.

Tapping Into the Value of Product Integration

Offering varied solutions for different verticals offers MSPs the potential to gain more revenue from existing and new customers. However, managing stand-alone products separately can lead to security gaps, poor visibility, reactive delivery, and lost growth potential.

Prioritizing integration is no longer an option but a strategic imperative. This unified approach can help MSPs overcome fragmentation challenges and gain the interoperability needed to improve operational efficiency. In effect, MSPs can remain competitive, maximize efficiency, and expand client relationships.

Want to learn how you can expand your MSP practice? Watch our on-demand webinar on Selling Collaboration Security.