Kaseya CARES for MSPs Navigating Legal Legwork Amid Coronavirus

Written by Kris Blackmon
April 9, 2020

Kaseya CARES is one program developed to help SMB partners through the COVID-19 crisis.

… protect their businesses, uncover new opportunities and thrive in a post-COVID economy. He’s already completed the first module, called “Protect Your MSP Business,” and says in the coming weeks and months, he and his team will deliver live and off-line content to guide them through the crisis.

“I am working hard to support not only my TruMethods members, [but members] of the MSP community as a whole,” said Pica. “This gave me a chance to touch the lives of more business leaders when they need it the most…There will be winners and losers in the MSP space this year. I’m here to ensure that Kaseya customers are on the right side of the equation.”

Weathering Channel Changes

Who will win and who will lose in this “new” channel post-crisis is the topic of a lot of conversation these days. Tomaszewski says before coronavirus swept over the world, Powered Services was meant to help partners go to market faster with new solutions. His mission was to help partners set their profit margins appropriately and be flexible enough in their business to execute necessary pivots. Those MSPs that took those lessons to heart, says Tomaszewski, will be the ones left standing when the dust settles.

It’s a sentiment echoed by many partners when asked what they think will happen to MSPs through the epidemic. Those in good shape when the coronavirus hit will come out the other side stronger than ever. And those with somewhat sloppy operations might not make it.

“I think efficient MSPs that entered the pandemic era fully aware of their revenue streams and service profit margins will come out stronger,” said Matthew Tucker, CEO at managed service provider Pegasus Technologies. “MSPs that haven’t been actively tracking and managing their KPIs will struggle with cashflow, clients and staff retention. This opens the door for stronger MSPs to capture new business, be it organically or through acquisitions.”

The Ups and Downs of Business Shift

Voccola and Tomaszewski are optimistic about the future health of the managed services market. This paradigm shift to remote work has brought into stark relief the need for businesses to have contingency plans. This includes modern, cloud-based solution stacks, tighter security, adequate backups and updated, mobile equipment. Where MSPs in the SMB market are used to the “I don’t need that, we’re too small” objection, enter COVID-19. Disaster doesn’t care about your company size or what you think you can get away with not having. It is America’s small businesses that are the hardest hit by the current economic freefall.

Powered Services’ Dan Tomaszewski

“It’s really sinking in that, ‘When we come back post pandemic, I need to have my stuff in place. I need to have a pandemic policy, a disaster recovery plan in place. So when my workforce has to work from home, they cannot miss a beat,” predicts Tomaszewski.

But there are MSPs out there for which legal handholding won’t be enough to stop financial disaster. Things may look optimistic for our industry as a whole, certainly. But the prognosis looks pretty grim for a lot of partners.

“You know, we were the world’s greatest economy a month ago,” said Voccola. “Now we’re in a depression.”