By Charlene O'Hanlon

Managed services providers and VARs looking to enter the MSP space now have an additional resource to help them set up shop or finesse their current business practices.

CompTIA, in conjunction with MSP Partners, has developed a series of four best practices” business templates to assist MSPs and MSP wannabees with the basics of doing business. The templates are available free of charge to CompTIA members through the associations Member Resource Center and to master-level members of MSP Partners.

Currently, four templates are available:

The templates were developed in cooperation with the Institute for Partner Education & Development and are based on research of the current managed services market, including information from successful MSPs, CompTIA noted.

The demand for these templates came from the CompTIA Managed IT Services Community,” said Jim Hamilton, senior director of member relations at CompTIA. This group focuses on developing industry standards and resources to improve the marketing and delivery of managed services and managed print services. The group was created in 2009 and there are currently more than 200 members of the CompTIA Managed IT Services Community. In the past weve offered all kinds of best practice education, but this is the first time weve offered templates.

Anybody whos building a managed services practice or is running a managed services practice will find these templates useful,” he added. Theres a utility for everybody.”