The power of the managed service provider

The survey provides a look at the current state of the MSP market, demonstrating the critical role MSPs play in the overall success of small and mid-size businesses, as well as how the landscape has evolved and what the industry can expect in the coming year.

Holly Pateman, Kaseya’s SVP of Product Marketing said, “while MSPs have long been the unsung heroes of tech, this year’s survey results clearly speak to a growing understanding of the critical role technology plays in a sustainable business. With revenues and competition on the rise and a focus on the need for a superior customer experience, MSPs have a front-row seat to what makes their customers successful. As a result, these MSPs have a clear view into what keeps a major cornerstone of our economy - small and midsize businesses - running.”

Growth, competition, and innovation in a competitive market

Nearly two-thirds (64%) of MSPs in Europe experienced year-over-year revenue growth, and among them, 37 per cent of those experienced an increase of more than 10 per cent.

At the same time, the survey shows that competition is stiff. More than a third (35%) of MSPs globally cite competition as the biggest challenge, up from 29 per cent last year. While seen as a challenge, MSPs are harnessing this competition to drive innovation and are offering solutions to better meet their client’s needs, with 91 per cent regarding customer experience as a high or top priority.

Looking ahead

With the IT needs of SMBs and MMEs constantly changing, the main priorities that stood out for IT professionals to keep in mind in the coming year include:

• Embrace vendor consolidation: 74 per cent of respondents said they prefer to use fewer vendors to meet their technology needs — up from 64 per cent in 2022.
• Expand the service portfolio: Top services that respondents anticipate adding to their portfolios include collaboration software (27%), business intelligence or analytics software (22%), and incident response and forensics (22%).
• Embrace cloud migration: Approximately half of the respondents report that 50 per cent or more of their clients are shifting their workloads to the cloud. Nearly half of the respondents (47%) predict that 75 per cent to 99 per cent of their client base will move workloads to the cloud in the next three years.
• Address cybersecurity concerns: 28 per cent of respondents cited their customers' lack of concern about cyber risks as a major cybersecurity challenge.

Holly added, “as we head into the end of the year and the start of 2024, we can all learn from the stories, challenges, and successes of the MSPs shaping the future of IT services. We hope that this report will shed light on this thriving industry that is currently experiencing more growth potential than ever before.”