Over the last few years, many MSPs and industry pundits have claimed that our industry is undergoing a rollup. While I’ve consistently argued that the transaction volume has been minimal in relation to the market size — with data supporting my stance — I now believe we are genuinely entering the initial phase of a comprehensive industry consolidation.
So, what’s a rollup?
It’s consolidation. This is when the market has all the attributes to make it attractive to private investors, meaning private equity companies are willing to invest. These attributes include a rapidly expanding total addressable market (TAM), recurring revenue, solid margins, low churn and opportunities for synergy.
The MSP market checks all those boxes for the first time. I estimate that there will be more than 100 private equity or family offices looking to invest in or are already investing in the space. I sit on the board of two platforms for one private equity investor. After three years of involvement, this is not as easy as some investors think it is, and many of these companies will not achieve their desired goals for return on investment.
While it’s difficult to consolidate, we see several successful examples of that scale. By scale, I mean 100 to 300 million in revenue. So, why should you care?
Well, every MSP has the opportunity to create enterprise value at a rate that’s never been possible, and you don’t have to sell your MSP to private equity to unlock some or all of your value. The same factors creating consolidation make growing your business easier. We all benefit from the same market conditions.
I had been saying that this was the gold rush for several years. However, looking back, I realized that was just the gold walk. Now is the gold rush. (If you don’t feel that way, you have some work to do to get yourself there.)
Be aware that your competition is changing and will continue to change. We are up against professional sales and marketing teams with deep technical capabilities. These big companies used to be big and dumb, but not anymore. So, to compete against them requires deep relationships with our current customers, and more focus on go-to-market.
After decades in this business, I’m thankful I can be here to watch this unfold and see the positive impact the current market will have on so many MSPs.
We are in a new normal regarding the issues surrounding attracting and retaining talent, and many factors contribute to this.
There’s near-zero tech unemployment, the competition for talent is no longer localized and your requirements have changed. Additionally, you’ve doubled the number of tools in your stack in recent years, your customer’s technology has changed and your target market has also crept up. All these things require more experience and knowledge during a time when it’s harder to come by. The outcome is that tech resources need to know more.
So how do we adapt? Here are just a few things to consider.
Hiring and training must be done through a well-thought-out approach, which requires a well-defined process in place. Culture needs to be a real thing that you nurture and get regular feedback on. You also need to be able to get results from less experienced people by leveling them up. This means having a well-defined and well-documented process, providing excellent training, and leveraging automation and artificial intelligence (AI). Each role must be explicitly defined with clear accountability. Also, consider some other sources and potentially offshoring resources.
Ultimately, our businesses are more complex, and this calls for you to become a more mature business continually. You need to set priorities and have a process to stay accountable at all levels of the organization. Human capital is just one example of the new normal for MSPs.
Do you know what time of the year it is? I’ll give you a hint. Many would say it’s the most wonderful time of the year! No, I’m not talking about the Christmas season (although that’s right around the corner, too). Everybody from all walks of life celebrates the season I’m talking about — selling season. And this selling season will be a big one for all of us! I’ll go even further and predict this will be the biggest selling season of all time based on market trends.
For our new folks, selling season is the timeframe between the beginning of September and the end of the year when conditions are optimal for generating more monthly recurring revenue (MRR). This is the time of year when decision-makers are planning for the rest of 2023 and beginning to think about 2024. They’re evaluating their businesses and making decisions — and we need to be part of that process.
It is your job to achieve sales goals every quarter, but during the selling season, you hit the gas. There’s something about the psychology of this time of year as business leaders turn their attention to the end of the year. I have seen the impact of selling season over several decades. Every SMB has a new business plan based on the changing economy and all the other dynamics, which means they’re more open to talking and listening. Use this opportunity to get in front of them!
You have all the tools you need. Our message of technology success resonates even more with all the changes prospects see. You also have great wedges with security and collaboration. There’s no reason not to take advantage of the moment. It is “go time,” and that means you kick things into overdrive. If you already have a strategy, now’s the time to accelerate. If you’re still without a plan, this is the moment to formulate one.
New customers at the right price are the lifeblood of every profitable and thriving MSP. When I owned my MSP, I had a self-instruction card that I read every day: “Every day, I stay focused on finding new customers. I don’t let busy work get in my way. Success is too important.”
What are you still doing here? The selling season is upon us. Get out there and sell!
Have you ever felt alone running your MSP? (I know I have in the past on many occasions!) With MSPs facing many complex issues today, it’s common to feel that no one truly understands what you’re going through. That’s why I believe peer groups are so valuable to our industry.
By working together and sharing knowledge, MSPs can create a stronger industry where everyone is better positioned for success. Although it may seem like competition is the driving force behind success in business, collaboration and support are the true keys to lasting success.
Think about it like this: One of the most important aspects of problem-solving is perspective, so getting a broader perspective is essential when facing a difficult decision or solving a complex issue, right? Well, being part of a peer group means you have access to different perspectives and can learn from the experiences of others, enabling you to make more informed decisions and solve problems more efficiently.
For instance, I saw a thread on our peer group platform where a member needed help pricing a security offering. Other members who had dealt with the same issue shared their experiences and offered advice. This collective wisdom and support are invaluable for MSPs growing and scaling their businesses.
So, how do peer groups foster information sharing among MSPs? At TruPeer, we’ve designed our platform specifically to promote collaboration. This includes our customer benchmarking platform, regular accountability calls and quarterly peer meetings. By providing a structured environment for sharing information, we make it easy for MSPs to connect.
However, peer groups are more than just for solving business challenges. They also provide you with a support system. You’re among people who are going through or have gone through the same challenges. This can be incredibly comforting and help you stay motivated when all you want to do is stick your head in the sand.
If you’re reading this and without a peer group, I highly recommend exploring your options. Being part of a community that understands and supports you can make all the difference in the success of your business. Whether solving complex problems, sharing information or simply finding support during difficult times, peer groups are essential.
So why go at it alone when you have a community of peers ready to support you?
Personal productivity is paramount in gauging an individual’s or an organization’s success. How productive you are impacts results more than how hard you work. Yet, many business leaders overlook personal productivity, rarely discussing it during interviews or making it part of their training or performance metrics.
During interviews, I always start with a few questions about productivity, like “How do you organize yourself?” Naturally, if their response is as brief as a “to-do list,” I dig deeper. I then ask them to outline a typical day in 15-minute increments. The idea here is to see if there’s a routine and if it matches how they organize themselves. When asked about their email and messaging habits, many, aiming to impress, reply, “I’m extremely responsive, or I reply instantly.” Unfortunately, this often translates to them allowing constant interruptions — counterproductive, for sure.
In today’s digital age, staying productive demands even more discipline. There are constant disruptions — emails, chat messages, alerts, not to mention the ever-present pull of social media, which many can’t resist checking every five minutes. Do you see where I’m going with this?
Enhancing productivity by just an hour or two daily can create significant differences. For instance, consider a support desk team with a daily average of seven resolved tickets. Upon refining their process, this number might jump to 12. For less straightforward roles, breaking down primary responsibilities is essential, devising ways to quantify and agree upon productivity benchmarks.
Recalling my early days at my MSP, we had an employee responsible for all our quotes and proposals. Whenever she’d fall behind, affecting our responsiveness to clients, I’d intervene. Each morning, we’d categorize the quotes by size and urgency. I’d then guide her on prioritizing tasks, emphasizing focused work. “Handle these specific tasks. Avoid emails or calls for now.” Typically, we’d overcome the backlog within two or three days, revisiting this strategy weekly to maintain momentum.
Never take for granted that your team inherently grasps productivity. It’s a skill often taught, not instinctual. If you need a starting point, introduce your team members to “The Myth of Multitasking” by Dave Crenshaw. This initial investment in time can pave the way to a more efficient team and faster profit growth.
Champions do what others can’t or won’t do daily and make it look easy. There’s a lot to unpack in this statement.
Building the discipline to fulfill your potential at anything takes work. It starts with uncovering the building blocks of the role, the task or the skill and then mastering the foundation.
They say that it takes 10,000 hours to master — and maybe that’s true, but 10,000 hours doing the right things. For instance, if you have a bad golf swing and go to the range for 10,000 hours, you’re just grooving a lousy swing. It’s the same in business.
So many business owners worked so hard for so many years just to groove a lousy swing. In business, the basics are command, business planning, execution and accountability. Until you master these things, you’ll never fulfill your potential, no matter how smart you are or how hard you work.
I hate to admit this, but I’ve sometimes grown frustrated with some of our TruMethods members over the years. They claim they want more success and have potential, but they never really put first things first. Over the years, I’ve softened my view of this by saying that not everybody wants the same things out of life. But in the end, I struggle with this logic.
You don’t have to choose between quality of life and doing real work. In fact, it’s the opposite. I’ve watched many business leaders grow, change and achieve great things, but when I think about the most significant impact that TruMethods has made, I think about the team members who work with the business leaders. The managers and the individual contributors I’ve seen fulfill their potential that they didn’t even know they had. This is why I tend to get frustrated with some business owners because you have a choice. However, your team only gets the opportunity if you can do what others can’t or won’t do daily and make it look easy.
So, for example, for our TruPeer members, I ask them to do four things 100% of the time consistently: register and attend our quarterly meetings, enter their smart numbers and understand them, put the time and effort to complete a quality business update for your peer meetings, and attend and be prepared for your accountability calls.
Now, there are many more things you can and need to do, but this is where champions start. This is the core; make these four things non-negotiable. You can apply the same logic to every role, every task or every skill.
Weeks ago, I hired a team to paint the trim on my house, which is quite high up, so they had to use a bucket lift to reach it. Everything started smoothly, but then complications arose.
Eventually, I received the following text message from one of the painters, “Hey, sorry to bother you. We seem to have run out of gas with no way down. Do you, by chance, have any gas in the garage?”
My first thought was, you’re kidding me, right? I thought they were punking me! I even went outside and started looking for hidden cameras. After making fun of them for a few minutes, I found a solution to get them down — but what a comedy.
This incident reminded me of countless scenarios within my own businesses and those of the MSPs I collaborate with, where I’ve observed a lack of established processes or checklists. Too often, we don’t think ahead and end up stuck. Remember: You’re playing chess, not checkers.
Now, your team isn’t stuck 40 feet in the air in a bucket (at least, I hope not), and they don’t risk their safety (at least, not too often). But they do risk your relationship with your customers. While in most cases it’s small, it’s death by 1,000 papercuts. Eventually, one day, lack of process causes a significant issue that costs you money, a customer, or worse.
You need a process in place today to review tickets, projects, and other outcomes regularly to know the impact. A small effort to gain visibility into your team’s work will yield a roadmap to greater efficiency.
So, keep in mind: Without a process, you might find yourself stuck in mid-air.
One disturbing trend that I see with MSPs of all sizes and scales is a reduction in a metric that’s super important — tickets closed per support tech.
This is a big problem because if everything else stays the same, your support costs go up if you’re closing fewer tickets each day per team member. This kind of cost increase is the worst kind since it cuts into your profits and lowers your value. Every dollar of support cost is a dollar you can’t spend and invest in high-value COG tools, such as TAM or vCIO.
I always try to uncover the reason(s) for this with MSPs, and they always fail to provide good answers. Recently, I highlighted to a major MSP their low rate of resolving only four tickets daily. This underperformance suggests severe inefficiencies or a lack of accountability and command over key cost drivers, both equally alarming issues.
Take immediate action by assessing your tickets closed per support tech. Identify who’s accountable and ensure the person understands the expected standard. Ensure this metric is readily available on a weekly dashboard for all leaders to review.
It’s time for you to take a closer look at this metric and make any necessary changes to your business.
We have entered the heart of summer — a time when many take vacations, soaking in the sun’s warmth and enjoying precious moments with family and friends. Personally, I find myself reshuffling my schedule to prioritize leisurely pursuits during this season — and I think it’s a fantastic thing to do.
However, while we cherish these moments of relaxation, we cannot lose sight of our overarching goals and quarterly objectives. Our sales targets, professional service commitments, billing goals and more mustn’t be overlooked or dismissed due to summertime schedules or vacations. We must ensure that we consistently achieve our milestones every quarter. Striving toward and reaching these objectives can become integral to a fulfilling summer — it’s all about the mindset.
I was introduced to this perspective early in my career as a young salesperson. I had the privilege of being part of several large sales organizations and observing a wide spectrum of behaviors. I noticed a pattern among some salespeople — they would use the summer holidays and vacations as a reason for not meeting their monthly or quarterly sales goals. On the other hand, I saw the top performers achieving consistent results month after month, irrespective of external circumstances or events. They always had a plan that accounted for these variables. This was a profound lesson for me, one that I have since integrated into my ethos as a business leader.
So, take some time to reflect on this. Decide that you and your team will consistently achieve results across all quarters every year, regardless of the season. After all, success is not seasonal but the result of unwavering commitment and planning.
Sydney, Australia- 18 July 2023– Kaseya, the leading global provider of unified IT management and cybersecurity software for managed service providers (MSPs) and small to mid-size business (SMBs), has announced the availability of ConnectBooster, Datto Networking Suite, and Unitrends Endpoint Backup to our partners in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
Kaseya has always believed that there is no limit to what our partners can achieve if given the right tools. That is why we are expanding these products into the region. ConnectBooster, Unitrends, and Datto were built with the sole purpose of making people’s lives easier, automating tasks that would otherwise take up valuable time employees could be using for other things.
“I’m looking forward to further expanding our presence in the region,” said Senior Vice President and General Manager of APAC, Dermot McCann. “These offerings show our commitment to the APAC community as we provide our partners with the comprehensive, integrated solutions they need to grow their businesses.”
Giving APAC a Boost
ConnectBooster, the channel’s leader in account receivables automation, enables businesses to get cash in their bank faster while streamlining back-office manual invoice reconciliation leveraging the sync triangle of accounting and professional services automation (PSA) solutions. Businesses of all sizes spend a frustrating amount of time on repetitive, manual accounting tasks. On average, ConnectBooster reduces the time it takes to get paid by 30 or more days. ConnectBooster gives you back your time, while ensuring the security of both your customers and your business.
For the first time ever, Datto Networking Appliances (DNA) will be available to the Australian and New Zealand market. The DNA Secure Router is an all-in-one, integrated firewall, router and wireless LAN appliance, ideal for small businesses that need uninterrupted internet connectivity.
The DNA Secure Router is cloud managed, making it easy to set up and manage from anywhere. DNA offers small businesses high-performance routing and includes a built-in firewall, intrusion detection and prevention, web content filtering, integrated Wi-Fi, and seamless 4G failover.
Networking-as-a-Service is offered by 79% of MSPs, making it one of their top five services. Around 65% of MSPs reported that firewalls and remote access technologies positively impacted their businesses. Through DNA, partners’ cloud and local data will be protected from ransomware with military-grade security.
Unitrends is proud to introduce two new solutions; Unitrends Endpoint Backup for Servers and Unitrends Endpoint Backup for PCs. These direct-to-cloud backup and disaster recovery technologies offers customers more deployed and available datacenters globally, improved retention options and enhanced capabilities including bandwidth throttling, bare metal recovery and more. Unitrends Endpoint Backup improves the resilience of remote servers and PC workloads that are difficult to protect with a traditional appliance-based approach, such as remote sites, distributed environments and virtual machines (VMs) running in the public cloud. Improve the resilience of your data with automated backup and replication, screenshot verification, ransomware detection, disaster recovery (DR) testing and spin up in the Unitrends Cloud.
New Unitrends datacenters are newly available in Australia. Servers are licensed in 500 GB increments of protected data which includes backup retention of one year, seven years or infinite retention. PCs are licensed by device, with one year of retention and a 1.5TB capacity of protected data per PC, an increase of 50% compared to the legacy Unitrends Endpoint backup product.
“I’m thrilled that we are expanding key products to our incredible partners in region,” said Vice President of Business Development for APAC, Shaun Witherden. “They are constantly engaging with us, and more products is something they’ve been asking for.”
Kaseya DattoCon Asia-Pacific
Kaseya DattoCon Asia-Pacific returns to the Hyatt Regency Sydney, November 14-16, 2023! Award-winning sailor Jessica Watson OAM will be giving a keynote on resilience. Watson was just 16 when she became the youngest person to sail solo nonstop around the world. She has gone on to incredible success in various other projects, including leading a team that became the youngest ever to compete in Australia’s notorious Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, serving as a youth representative for the United Nations World Food Programme and founding Deckee.com, a boating and fishing mobile app.
Join us to hear from Jessica Watson OAM and so much more by registering for Kaseya DattoCon Asia-Pacific now at https://www.dattocon.com/apac/.
About Kaseya
Kaseya is the leading global provider of cybersecurity and IT management software for managed service providers (MSPs) and IT professionals in small to mid-size business (SMBs). Through its customer-centric approach and renowned support, Kaseya delivers best-in-breed technologies that empower organizations to seamlessly manage IT infrastructure, secure networks, backup critical data, manage service operations, and grow their businesses. Kaseya offers a broad array of IT management solutions from industry-leading providers: audIT, ConnectBooster, Datto, Graphus, ID Agent, IT Glue, Kaseya, RapidFire Tools, RocketCyber, Spanning Cloud Apps, TruMethods, Unitrends and Vonahi. These innovative solutions fuel Kaseya’s IT Complete platform, which addresses the challenges of multifunctional IT professionals. IT Complete empowers them to centrally command hardware, software, security, data, compliance, operations and more from within a comprehensive, integrated, intelligent (AI utilization-optimized), and affordable platform. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, Kaseya is privately held with a global presence in more than a dozen countries. To learn more, visit https://www.kaseya.com/.
