The fifth annual Managed Services and Hosting Summit was held on September 17 with a great deal of success. Among the various speakers and sessions, the overall takeaway was that the managed service provider industry is now a ‘mature’ sector that will continue to grow as it evolves and attracts new clients, according to a press release from RealWire.com. Still, there are improvements to be made.
“Changes in the industry are required though, especially in sales approach and the way it addresses and engages with customers if it is to achieve its full potential,” Angel Business Communications, one of the entities helping put on the summit, said in a statement.
One of the biggest issues the industry faces is customers not understanding their technology needs and becoming afraid of the rapid change of pace associated with the digital age.
Another big fear for many of those at the summit is the commoditization of managed service providers, especially considering about 90% of firms utilize some kind of contracted or freelance talent.
David Bellini is the president of ConnectWise and has been selling managed services for over 25 years. He put these fears to rest quickly.
“The commoditization scare comes round every few years, and we’ve seen them off each time,” he said. But it did depend on better internal management of the managed service provider. “Everything has a ticket, including people,” he explained.
The customer experience was another issue many people harped on. As the industry has grown and evolved customers have begun to expect more from the providers, and companies should be happy to oblige. One vice president of an industry company talked about the importance between customer experience and bottom-line price. He even went as far as to say that his company recognizes they are “absolutely not” the cheapest services in the market, but they “obsess” over customer experience.
Finally, while the running theme seemed to be the notion of a successful sector coming into its own, they did recognize the landscape is continually evolving and will continue to do so. Aside from perfecting services, the most important part for them is to keep finding new people and businesses to bring into the fold.