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The days of size necessarily being the greatest advantage in business are past. To take an example from a different sector, photography. Kodak was the iconic brand, the market leader in photography for decades.
March 1, 2013
3 Min Read
By MAXfocus Guest Blog 1
kodak
The days of size necessarily being the greatest advantage in business are past. To take an example from a different sector, photography. Kodak was the iconic brand, the market leader in photography for decades. Founded in 1892 and employing 7,600 people, the company developed the first digital camera in 1975 but was unable to overcome its traditional thinking and capitalize on its lead in innovation, with the end result that it went into bankruptcy protection in 2012. Contrast this with Instagram, launched in 2010 and employing only 16 people by the time it was acquired by Facebook in 2012.Of course these are extreme examples but the undeniable fact is that the business environment in which MSPs operate is undergoing fundamental change on a scale that has not been seen for many years. Many, probably the majority of, IT service companies have worked with the same set of tools and processes for many years but there are radical shifts underway, Microsoft has declared there will be no further versions of Small Business Server, the mainstay of many MSPs businesses for a decade or more. The move to cloud-based services is gathering pace, mobile devices are outselling traditional computing devices, the dominance of the Windows platform in small businesses is no longer absolute and the range and prevalence of security threats is at an all-time high.
The Successful MSP
The MSPs that survive and thrive in this changing landscape will be the ones that are able to react and respond to it quickly and effectively, changing their mix of products and services and building a new portfolio that delivers to their customers a level of service that is as consistent and seamless as what they have been able to deliver using a product set that is all on-premise and fully under the MSP’s control.
This transformation is not something that can be achieved simply by signing up for a new set of reseller programs in the hope that business can continue otherwise unchanged. The ability to adapt has to become part of the DNA of the company. It requires fundamental thought about what the barriers to change are, both internal and external and a willingness to let go of things that have been basic assumptions deeply rooted in the way a company operates.
Such a transformation has several facets and in this series of articles we will discuss the fundamental pillars that can help to create the Agile MSP. We are truly in the era in which the big will not eat the small – the fast will eat the slow.
Follow along over the next few months as we, courtesy of GFI MAX, explore the journey to becoming an Agile MSP.
Alistair Forbes
This guest blog written by Dr Alistair Forbes, General Manager, GFI MAX. Monthly guest blogs, such as this one, are part of a platinum sponsorship at MSPmentor.You May Also Like
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