Channel Chatter is the parsing of the listening posts that the Business of Tech podcast has around the MSP community across discussion forums and groups to bring together insights and discussions that I think are worth considering. In considering the needs of MSPs by listening to them for the podcast, there are insights specifically for vendors serving the space to be shared. That is this newsletter.
I was struck by offboarding this week. I trialed a product, and while I wanted to work with them, I was too small. So the trial ended, and their system had a very graceful offboarding process to automate the uninstall.
I noted this as there were several offboarding conversations I spotted.
One was entirely as expected — a client asked for advice on offboarding, and MSPs gave very reasonable answers.
They should remain professional about the whole thing, yes. That isn't always the case though, they are still human and the level of professionalism you get just depends from person to person. They will take their stuff off if you're paid up, normally they won't if you have a balance.
As an msp employee... I never hold a grudge on a good customer making a business decision. Sometimes the managment tries, but once the project comes to me, I send them off hoping they will contact me for future projects or if the winds change. Relationships are important start to finish.
That kind of stuff.
Of course, there aren’t all the same reactions.
I lost a client to a bigger MSP. All because a new “manager” got hired and was bringing her people with her.
It blindsided me as these clients had been with me for almost a decade. I was cordial and gave them all they needed.
5 months pass and I get a call from the owner to have a letting with me. They explained that the new MSP was not servicing them they way they needed and if I was interested in coming back. I said yes but things were more expensive now. They agreed and I have them back.
Yes, bigger is not always better but we do provide white glove service to them. Honestly they are not a complicated client.
Had a similar issue but with a bit more maliciousness with a law firm, long time customer hired a new practice manager who proceeded to require all tickets and jobs pass through him, ended up with him causing a lot of grief with tickets by not responding, delaying work, ignoring emails till finally the client dropped us due to issues with service.
We've been exiting a client that wanted a more commercial MSP. I think our logins still work. Our firewalls are still in place. Months passed before we removed our endpoint protection.
New MSP is all about tickets and help desk with days passing before resolution etc.
I have a client that I fired almost 2 years ago, they still are pushing out my RMM agent. I’ve given up telling them I just push an uninstall and move on. I’ve cc’s the directors and all but they still do it.
I had a client leave me for someone who ‘could handle them better’ at the end of 2021, after we had been with them for several years and assisted with their remote transition during COVID. “Nothing ever works” while they never really took my advice.
End of 2022 rolls around and I find myself getting emails from one of the principals asking if he could just ‘talk to me real quick’
By January we had fully re-onboarded them.
Now, why do I focus here?
The inconsistency of the offboarding process extends to both sides of the IT channel divide. While no one wants to consider losing customers, the smoother that process is, the more likely they may return.
Interestingly, this was a feature in my MSP. We had a manual we issued at the beginning of the relationship with all our procedures for it.
For vendors, your role is to make sure your product easily supports uninstallation via the console. Many small vendors don’t consider this need in the process.
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Topics of Interest
This section is a high-level summary of the major topics of discussion within the community during the time period. This gives you a sense of the questions the community is raising and what they are discussing.
Pricing Managed IT Services for Large Clients
Summary: A discussion focused on pricing a large-scale managed IT service opportunity involving 900 seats, 30 servers, and 9 locations. MSPs debated pricing strategies (e.g., per-user/month vs. fixed costs), resource allocation, and risk mitigation. Participants emphasized understanding compliance requirements, SLAs, and the client’s internal IT maturity.
Insight: Vendors should develop tools that help MSPs accurately assess client needs and risks, calculate resource allocation, and align pricing with SLA demands. Solutions that provide compliance tracking and profitability analysis would resonate strongly.
Client Offboarding Processes
Summary: MSPs shared experiences with client transitions, highlighting the contrast between smooth transitions to new MSPs and chaotic ones involving internal IT teams. The discussion stressed the need for clear offboarding procedures and robust documentation, with a focus on ensuring service continuity and protecting client data.
Insight: Vendors can address MSP pain points by offering tools that standardize offboarding processes, automate the secure handover of credentials, and manage the logistics of transition timelines. Simplified reporting to clients during transitions could also add value.
Backup and Recovery Preferences
Summary: MSPs discussed dissatisfaction with backup solutions like Axcient (for slow recovery speeds) while praising others such as Cove and Datto for their reliability and flexibility. Automated backup verification and customizable disaster recovery options were frequently mentioned as critical features.
Insight: Backup vendors should prioritize speed, flexibility, and support in their offerings. Enhanced automation for backup testing, the ability to tailor DR options per client, and transparent pricing could secure a competitive edge.
Transition from Vulnerability Scanning to True Penetration Testing
Summary: MSPs debated the difference between vulnerability scanning and penetration testing. Tools like RoboShadow and Vonahi were discussed, with concerns about their effectiveness compared to traditional methods. The need for unbiased and comprehensive testing was emphasized, particularly as cyber threats evolve.
Insight: Vendors in the cybersecurity space should focus on creating easy-to-deploy penetration testing solutions that integrate with MSP workflows. Highlighting independence, compliance alignment, and detailed reporting could win trust among MSPs.
NAS and Networking Tools, Especially Ubiquiti
Summary: Ubiquiti’s NAS solutions sparked interest, but MSPs expressed skepticism due to firmware concerns and lack of documentation. Alternatives like Synology and custom TrueNAS builds were highlighted for their reliability and adaptability.
Insight: Networking and NAS vendors must prioritize transparency, robust documentation, and long-term support for their solutions. Investing in consistent firmware updates and community engagement can build trust with MSPs who prioritize reliability.
Product Gaps
This section is intended to highlight “gaps” that appear to exist in the market, where a specific weakness or need is highlighted in terms of product offerings. This can also include potential gaps in the market. If you wondered what MSPs “wish things did”, that’s this section.
Comprehensive Offboarding Solutions
Gap Identified: Offboarding clients during transitions to other MSPs or internal teams often leads to logistical, technical, and data security challenges. Current tools lack seamless integration to manage the entire offboarding lifecycle.
Opportunities:
Automated Credential Transfers: Secure tools to automate the transfer of passwords and credentials.
Timeline Management: Features to plan, track, and execute offboarding milestones.
Transparency for Clients: Generate client-friendly reports detailing the offboarding process and ensuring accountability.
Standardized Procedures: Pre-built templates for common offboarding scenarios to reduce customization efforts.
Enhanced Standardization Tools for Diverse Client Setups
Gap Identified: MSPs struggle to standardize IT environments, often dealing with diverse client technologies. This diversity increases complexity and operational inefficiency.
Opportunities:
Configuration Modeling: Tools to diagram and document client IT environments dynamically.
Standardization Recommendations: AI-driven analysis suggesting standardization opportunities, such as preferred hardware/software stacks.
"Pods" for Client Segmentation: Organize clients based on similar tech standards and provide tailored management tools.
Automated Audit Trails: Built-in audit logs for compliance and SLA tracking.
Client Retention and Subscription Management Tools
Gap Identified: MSPs face challenges in managing client subscriptions, especially with the complexities introduced by co-termination and evolving billing models.
Opportunities:
Subscription Alignment Features: Tools for syncing and co-terminating client subscriptions to streamline billing.
Predictive Revenue Insights: Dashboards showing potential churn risks and billing gaps.
Flexible Renewal Options: Enable MSPs to switch between billing models (monthly, annual) seamlessly.
Client Engagement Tools: Features to educate and inform clients about subscription value, reducing churn.
Vendor Discussion
This section is designed to give you insights into who was “discussed” this week. These are vendors that were mentioned or commented upon, and not necessarily a specific set of complaints about the vendor. This may be a good opportunity to learn about a new name, or get a sense of who is in the zeitgeist. It’s long. It’s intentionally long, to give you the firehose.
Acronis: Discussed for its backup solutions, praised for remote bare metal recovery capabilities, but criticized for additional costs and complex pricing. Sentiment: Mixed.
Adobe: Mentioned regarding licensing and management challenges in the VIP program, leading to dissatisfaction with the transition to the VIP Marketplace. Sentiment: Negative.
Amazon: Cited as a common hardware source where clients might bypass MSPs for purchases, leading to challenges like grey imports or mismatched specifications.
Axcient: Criticized for slow recovery speeds, feature removals, and poor support. Sentiment: Negative.
Blacksmith InfoSec: Provides compliance-as-a-service for MSPs to manage security programs.
Cisco: Mentioned as a high-end alternative for networking solutions compared to Ubiquiti and Mikrotik.
CiraSync: Recommended for syncing large numbers of contacts, praised for handling close to 10,000 contacts efficiently.
Cloudflare: Noted for its lack of static IP support in its VPN offerings.
Comet Backup: Backup solution discussed for its support of diverse operating systems and storage options.
ConnectWise: Criticized for billing errors, non-responsive account representatives, and high account rep turnover. Sentiment: Negative.
Cove (N-able): Highly praised for its reliability, flexibility, and responsive support in backup and disaster recovery. Sentiment: Positive.
Cyberfox AutoElevate: Recommended for managing admin rights and temporary privilege elevation for software installations.
Datto: Mentioned for its BCDR and endpoint backup solutions, noted for high reliability but higher costs. Sentiment: Positive.
Deceptive Bytes: Focuses on ransomware prevention beyond traditional methods.
Dell: Mentioned in warranty claims and hardware sourcing contexts.
Foxit: Recommended as a simpler alternative to Adobe Acrobat.
Gradient MSP: Offers resources like ebooks to help MSPs understand unit economics for profitability improvement.
IBM Trusteer Rapport: Suggested as a possible cause of unexplained microphone access during a banking transaction.
IT Glue: Mentioned as a documentation tool for organizing client information.
Jamf Pro: Praised for managing Apple devices and integration with other tools like Halo.
Kaseya: Criticized for unauthorized charges, billing errors, and unresponsive support. Sentiment: Overwhelmingly Negative.
Logpoint: Provides solutions for ingesting data from Kubernetes for improved security and compliance.
Microsoft: Discussed extensively for M365, Intune, SharePoint, and licensing challenges during the NCE transition. Sentiment: Mixed, with frustration over policies but praise for support in domain renaming.
Mikrotik: Recommended as a cost-effective networking solution.
NARMADA: Discussed for its tools streamlining QBR preparation and lifecycle management for MSPs.
NetFoundry: Mentioned as a commercial implementation of OpenZiti for zero-trust network access.
Netsapiens: Cited as the platform behind OIT VOIP services, with issues attributed to this platform rather than the service provider.
Nexxo: Introduced Mizo, an AI-driven tool for ticket triaging and documentation discovery.
Nord Security: Partnered in webinars about cybersecurity strategies for email, endpoints, and network access.
NovaBACKUP: Backup and recovery solution discussed for data protection.
OpenVPN Cloudconnexa: Mentioned for AlwaysOn VPN support.
Palo Alto Networks (Palo): Cited for having firewall vulnerabilities, illustrating that all brands face similar security challenges.
PAX8: Distributor highlighted for managing M365 subscriptions effectively and offering better pricing for some vendors.
Proton: Highlighted for Swiss Privacy Law protections in its VPN offerings.
RoboShadow: Offers free vulnerability assessments and integration with PSA systems for ticket logging.
Securden: Mentioned for its PAM tool for managing privileged credentials and access.
SentinelOne: Discussed during webinars on endpoint security strategies.
Synology: Praised for reliability and support, particularly for SMB NAS setups, despite its lack of iSCSI support. Sentiment: Positive.
Todyl: Mentioned for its full-stack security solutions and web filtering success.
TrueNAS: Recommended for reliable NAS setups with ZFS replication. Sentiment: Positive.
Unifi (Ubiquiti): Interest in their NAS was countered by skepticism over firmware reliability and perceived product abandonment. Sentiment: Mixed to Negative.
Vonahi: Evaluated for pentesting but associated negatively with Kaseya. Sentiment: Mixed.
Zyxel: Criticized for vulnerabilities exploited by ransomware, with ongoing concerns about security. Sentiment: Negative.