Adapting to the ‘New Normal’: Focus on Value-Add

Adapting to the “new normal” is crucial for MSPs as COVID-19 continues to create uncertainty in markets, worldwide. MSPs are evaluating how to adapt and evolve their business models. Having weathered the day-to-day practicalities of the initial crisis, the focus now turns to preserving strength while growing the business.

Managed service providers should focus their efforts in four key areas. Doing this can help them stabilize the business and optimize their operations. They’ll also have the ability to gather resources to identify and maximize potential opportunities.

Understanding the financial health of the business is critical, and in doing so, will help the leadership team identify what needs to be accomplished in the coming months. Maintaining the strength of the balance sheet goes beyond calculating how factors such as customer churn or the potential prolongation of payment terms may affect revenue. It also depends on reshaping the business for today’s realities and prioritizing activities that generate maximum impact. Adapting to the new normal means doing things differently or rethinking how you’ve been doing them.

Get Going with Digital Transformation

For MSPs that failed to complete a digital transformation in recent years, the current pandemic has served as a major wake-up call. Enabling a remote workforce is the No. 1 priority for ensuring productivity in today’s climate.

Implementing the resources that a distributed workforce will need to connect, communicate and collaborate is the first order of action. After doing so, MSPs should equip themselves to offer the remote workforce solutions customers are looking for.

The current crisis has demonstrated the importance of having the right tools in place to maintain business continuity. If nothing else, the pandemic is driving companies of all sizes to expedite their digitalization plans and reconsider how their employees will work for the long term.

For MSPs, this presents an opportunity to have applications cloud-enabled and offer customers a digital transformation plan tailored to their exact business needs.

Cybersecurity Knowledge Is Crucial

Enterprise security and data governance are of utmost importance with the rapid shift to distributed working models. Prior to the pandemic, most MSPs were focused on the tools side of the security conversation. However, the post-coronavirus world of work has created an opportunity for MSPs to help customers establish education and policies for securing operations and maintaining compliance.
MSPs must become well-versed in cybersecurity to continue their role as a trusted adviser to clients. It’s particularly important to understand how the secure perimeter is dissolving and how cyber threats are increasing.

Cybersecurity isn’t just about technology alone — it also encompasses people and best-practice processes. With customer workforces gradually becoming more remote, and in many cases permanently remote, improving their security posture is ever more important. As endpoints increase, so do potential vulnerabilities and risks.

MSPs will need to adopt a holistic solution approach to help customers transcend these security challenges. The approach should focus on informing customers of the potential risks that need to be addressed as well as …