In a COVID-19 world there is a lot to think about and focus on. The most important thing to always keep in mind is the safety of our family and friends, but for better or worse we still have to think about being business owners. Clients need to be able to work from home and MSPs need to make sure we can pay the bills and stay on track with processes. Economic, emotional, and social instability like this is something that nefarious groups can easily exploit. We have already seen an upshift in hacking, ransomware, and malware attacks on everyone those people can reach, and it is likely to get worse. What do we do to make sure we are protected?
MSPs are always thinking about their clients, as they should be. The client needs to be compliant with security best practices to make sure they are not open for a possible attack. We at TruMethods are providing multiple 100 percent remote templates in our myITprocess software to facilitate this endeavor.
It may feel selfish or irrelevant to take care of ourselves as an MSP right now, but if we are not well as an organization, we are unable to help others. Think of the saying ‘The shoemaker’s children always go barefoot’. It’s the idea that the people closest to us sometimes don’t benefit from our expertise. Eventually, if those kids don’t wear shoes they’re going to step on something that hurts them; if we do not protect ourselves, we are going to have things hurt us too. The shoemaker must make time to take care of their children and we as MSPs must take care of our own.
A great way for our members to start taking care of things internally is to complete a review using the template ‘Improving Cyber Security of Managed Service Providers’ that is found in myITprocess. All MSPs though should have some way to keep track of the software and equipment in their environment, and a way to keep it organized. A consistent review process should be set up internally as well, to make sure our own cables, firewalls, and antivirus software are all the versions they should be and no vendor relationships have expired.
Your company should also have its own Strategic Roadmap set up, stipulating when new things will be implemented or installed. Maybe you decided to implement a new backup system or a marketing campaign. If that implementation isn’t running as smoothly in the timeframe you wanted it to, having it on the strategic roadmap can help keep everything more accountable. For some ideas on what to include on your roadmap right now, our members can reach out to their dedicated Member Success Advisor, who can show them the COVID-19 response team roadmap that was created as a helpful guide.
We all know how hard it is to focus on working ON the business as opposed to working IN the business. Things can get out of hand quickly and it’s easy to focus on things that feel like they matter right now, as opposed to the things that actually matter for the long term. While it can seem counter intuitive, if a hacker can get into your business, not only can they ruin everything you’ve built, they can ruin everything all of your clients have built too. This is not said to scare anyone, but we all must be realistic about what is going on, especially right now. A healthy MSP is better equipped to make their clients healthy too!
