High Stress, Demand for Security Services Among MSP Pain Points

A new Pulseway MSP pain points survey reveals a high level of stress among MSPs and concerns about growing their businesses.

Pulseway polled its MSP partners to identify main pain points and common struggles they’ve encountered through 2020.

Pulseway surveyed MSPs in four categories:

• Working arrangements and how they have changed because of COVID-19.
• How MSPs and their staff have been personally impacted by COVID-19.
• How the service provided has been impacted by the pandemic.
• What impact COVID-19 has had on the business.

Fifty-six percent of MSPs reported demand for security services, but only 38% said they had introduced such services.

Fifteen percent reported that IT security was “much worse” as a result of COVID-19 restrictions and 32% said it was “slightly worse.”

Gap Between MSPs, Customers with Security

Andy Ellwood is Pulseway‘s product marketing manager.

Pulseway’s Andy Ellwood

“MSPs recognize security is an issue,” he said. “Customers also understand the need for more services. Looks like there is a gap.”

Rising demand for security services comes as no surprise after the rise of phishing attacks targeting remote workers since the beginning of the year.

There is a clear demand for additional services, Ellwood said. In addition to security, two in five (40%) report a demand for help desk services, 36% for backup and 27% for patching. All are relatively easy to support with the appropriate technology.

Personal, Business Findings

Among personal key findings:

• Two-thirds (67%) of MSPs said their job was stressful and 64% said it has become more stressful in the past nine months.
• Three in four (74%) had to work outside of normal hours and 53% said workload had increased.
• More than half (52%) said their team’s stress levels increased. Eighty-two percent said customers were contacting support outside normal hours, either a little or a lot.
• One in three (33%) said work/life balance had deteriorated, and 70% said life had become harder in the past nine months.
• One in four (24%) said worries about their own health were keeping them awake at night.

Among business key findings:

• Nearly half (47%) of MSPs had customers canceling, while 48% had customers postponing projects. This mostly impacts new hardware projects.
• Fifty-five percent said growing the business was keeping them awake at night.
• Almost half (48%) said customers were cautious about investing in new services and/or technologies.
• Forty-six percent said customers were cautious about committing to new contracts.
• More than one in four (28%) experienced customers canceling contracts.