The UK Channel has experienced a surge in demand for IT co-managed services in recent years, according to David Weeks, vice president, partner experience at N-Able. He was speaking at the Gherkin in London last month on his company’s security and data protection services at its global roadshow event.
Weeks said that, despite IT co-managed services adoption having been slower in Britain than other markets such as North America and the Netherlands, it was now starting to get traction.
“Because there’s such a vast amount of opportunity in places like London, often partners don’t know where to begin,” said Weeks. “So it’s about giving them a bit of a launch pad and helping them to realise those opportunities.”
Weeks started out in newspaper and radio sales before deciding on a career change and moving into technology. So he applied to N-Able, but he didn’t get the job.
By chance, the candidate who was given the role declined it after breaking her leg, so N-Able called Weeks back and offered it to him. Starting as a partner development specialist, he worked his way through the ranks, before being appointed to his current role four years ago.
“At the start, I taught IT service companies how to be an MSP, taking them through a six-week blueprint for success programme, and helping them to grow and secure contracts,” said Weeks. “From there, I moved into running sales, and for the last 10 years I have been on the road constantly, effectively as the account manager for our 25,000 customers.
“Today, my job involves looking closely at the market, seeing where it is moving strategically and determining what resources we need to build to support our customers and partners and enable them to successfully grow. I also provide them with thought leadership and insights into the key market trends and what they mean for them.”
Weeks said that the need for co-managed IT services has been driven by a talent shortage, which has been exacerbated by a range of macro and micro economic conditions that have resulted in companies deciding against making new hires. Consequently, he said that IT teams have had to outsource specialty roles.
“That’s where MSPs do so well,” said Weeks. “They can come in and provide that specific expertise, whether that’s, for example, as a cloud or security specialist, and that enables them to land larger and, typically, higher value and more profitable strategic contracts.”
The right lead-in
Despite the undoubted success of co-managed IT service providers, they continue to face several key challenges, the most notable of which, according to Weeks, is trying to do too much. Rather, he said that they need to ask the question of what their pain points are and, therefore, what service they can provide to address the issue.
“It’s this concept of offering to do everything for everyone,” said Weeks. “The challenge they have is deciding on the right lead-in, which they can only determine by gaining a clear understanding of the business driver for the internal IT team that they specifically need.
“They may want to, for example, offload their patch management so that they can focus on more high value internal projects. If MSPs can tap into that, they are on to a winner.”
In terms of the most in-demand and valuable services among customers, Weeks said that the top three are: end point detection and response, management detection and response, and cloud management.
When deciding on the right person to approach within an organisation, he said that MSPs need to target heads of internal IT operations and roles such as directors of service delivery or infrastructure management.
Long-term planning
To capitalise on new opportunities, Weeks said that MSPs need to understand what their customers’ growth is driven by and their strategic initiatives. Then, he said that they can put a long-term plan in place to provide the specialisms required over that period.
When establishing co-managed IT models, Weeks said that MSPs must determine how they will manage those teams, services and processes. Everything else flows from there, he said.
“Say you are providing security for an SMB, it will have a different set of protocols to a mid-enterprise or enterprise business,” said Weeks.
“The other side is that as you move upmarket into co-managed IT services, typically, there is more regulation and compliance involved, so you have to understand what those are and how they impact your customer, and, therefore, how you can support them in meeting those requirements.
“They also need to stay abreast of the cyber insurance and how it’s changing the requirements for managing internal environments.”
Evidencing the success MSPs can achieve with co-managed IT services, Weeks cited the example of one of N-Able’s partners whose lead-in to a hospital group client was patch management.
After securing a contract to provide more than 13,000 users with the service, it quickly identified that the group was still using some legacy anti-virus protection and moved it to an endpoint detection and response solution through the establishment of a security operations centre.
To help its partners further, Weeks said that N-Able profiles customers that they are a good fit with. It also supports them in their strategic initiatives, including acquiring a new business or being acquired themselves.
“We can help them work with a private equity firm to get the cash infusion that they may need to complete a deal,” said Weeks. “That and matching profiles are the two big areas that we are getting the most requests for in the UK market.”
This interview appeared in our April 2024 print issue. You can read the magazine in full here.