In an era of rising costs, a smaller talent pool, and growing competition, businesses — particularly small and midsize businesses (SMBs) — must leverage digital tools to stay viable.
However, digitalizing processes requires tech and industry knowledge, skill, and time that many SMB IT teams don’t have. So, MSPs can fill those gaps and help clients digitally transform their businesses.
The Value MSPs Bring to Digital Transformation Projects
Many SMB prospects are looking for ways to replace manual processes with efficient, digital workflows. Let them know that partnering with your company gives them these advantages over attempting to execute projects on their own. Here are some points you can highlight:
John Dittig
- Dedicated Team: A prospective client often will schedule a meeting with you primarily because they need help to complete their project. Your team offers the expertise they need, and the focus required to execute their plans. Your MSP organization can devote a project manager, technicians, and other professionals necessary to see the project through to completion. An internal team often doesn’t have that luxury.
- Faster Time to Value: SMBs’ primary focus is on their core business functions. However, these businesses likely don’t know which solutions on the market can best help them achieve their digital transformation goals. Your experience will help SMBs reduce the time it takes to select, implement, and successfully use hardware, software, and services.
- Economies of Scale: Your vendor and distributor relationships allow you to source IT solutions at better prices than your customers can alone. The total solutions you build can help your customers control project costs, while resulting in better margins for your business.
- Efficient Service Delivery: Digitalizing processes takes a long-term commitment. The IT solutions that SMBs deploy to manage tasks and help employees work more productively must be monitored and maintained. Remote monitoring and management (RMM), mobile device management (MDM), patch management, remote control, and other tools that you routinely use are designed to keep systems performing in peak condition. These capabilities are beyond what your SMB clients’ IT teams have in-house. So, they will benefit from working with you.
- Scalability: Whether your clients plan to expand to new locations or channels, they need your guidance to choose solutions that scale. A rip-and-replace approach is unacceptable in markets where agility, cost control, and business continuity are essential for survival. Show them how to implement solutions that accommodate a growing business without a negative impact on performance or manageability.
- You See What’s on the Horizon: Your network keeps you — and your clients — informed of industry tech trends. The insights you provide will help them make smart decisions and position them to take advantage of the next-best thing from solutions providers. Right now, you can’t talk about the future without considering artificial intelligence (AI). Share insights from your partners about the AI solutions they’ll bring to market in the coming months, their value, and how to build in options that allow your clients to take advantage of them.
Your Pivotal Role as a Digital Transformation Consultant
MSPs fill another gap in SMB digital transformation: Education.
An SMB’s leadership team is often laser-focused on the day-to-day and may not pause to consider the big picture. A prospect may even be resigned to living with some pain points, like manual workarounds with their current systems or a certain degree of errors and expenses. Help them see the value of upgrading their legacy processes. By using case studies and hard numbers, you can illustrate the ROI of digital transformation in terms of greater efficiency, productivity, and customer loyalty.
You can also educate your clients on how their projects will progress, managing their expectations on timeline, costs, and their team’s involvement. It will help them plan when to begin the project, secure staff buy-in, and avoid surprises that interfere with operations.
MSPs play a vital role in helping SMBs stay competitive and viable in a digital world. Furthermore, SMB Group reports that only about 38% of businesses with 1-99 employees have progressed toward digitally transforming their businesses. It’s a massive opportunity for you to grow your business.
Use your vendor relationships and your network, expertise, efficient service delivery, and insights into the market to help SMBs in your market move their businesses forward digitally.
John Dittig is global vice president, business development and partnerships for MicroTouch. He previously held senior roles for Samsung, Elo Touch Solutions, Tyco Electronics (TE Connectivity), ViewSonic Corporation, and Tech Data.
Image: iStock
