A 20-year veteran of the managed service provider (MSP) business and president of Seattle cloud solutions firm Arterian, Jamison West shares three suggestions he’d apply if starting an MSP from scratch right now.

Aldrin Brown, Editor-in-Chief

July 21, 2016

1 Min Read
If I Were Launching an MSP Now  Jamison West
Jamison West

A 20-year veteran of the managed service provider (MSP) business and president of Seattle cloud solutions firm Arterian, Jamison West shares three suggestions he’d apply if starting an MSP from scratch right now.

  1. Focus on cloud – The tricky part is, we are in a world that five years ago doesn’t look like it will five years from now. My first thing is, I’m not doing on-premises at all. I’m never touching a server again. We’re in a mobile-first, cloud-first world. As an MSP, our success is tied to picking (our partner) in that cloud-first, mobile-first world.

 

  1. Become an expert partner – Get extremely immersed in that cloud technology. Pick your horse. For me, it’s Microsoft. Are you comfortable with the technology? You have to believe that this is going to be a relevant platform in the future and pick the company who you can partner with. Microsoft is a partner company. I can support it because I built my business with Microsoft. I totally believe in (CEO Satya Nadella’s) vision.

 

  1. Know your endgame – You have to know what your goal is. You can’t run, over the long-term, a mature MSP at 10 or less people. I don’t believe our competitive environment is going to let you be successful at that smaller scale. So, you could build and sell before you get to that level of maturity. Or, do you plan to grow organically or through acquisition to get past that plateau. Just know what your end game is going to be.

 

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About the Author(s)

Aldrin Brown

Editor-in-Chief, Penton

Veteran journalist Aldrin Brown comes to Penton Technology from Empire Digital Strategies, a business-to-business consulting firm that he founded that provides e-commerce, content and social media solutions to businesses, nonprofits and other organizations seeking to create or grow their digital presence.

Previously, Brown served as the Desert Bureau Chief for City News Service in Southern California and Regional Editor for Patch, AOL's network of local news sites. At Patch, he managed a staff of journalists and more than 30 hyper-local and business news and information websites throughout California. In addition to his work in technology and business, Brown was the city editor for The Sun, a daily newspaper based in San Bernardino, CA; the college sports editor at The Tennessean, Nashville, TN; and an investigative reporter at the Orange County Register, Santa Ana, CA.

 

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