Managed Speculation Provider: Predictions On What 2016 Holds For MSPs

By Cam Roberson, Director of the Reseller Channel for Beachhead Solutions

Providing managed IT services requires a dedicated vigilance, with careful attention paid to new solutions and new variables as the many marketplaces that a managed services provider (MSP) serves evolve and change. Navigating the oft-shifting sands of regulatory compliance across separate industries requires diligence as well — as does keeping up with new technology standards and practices. To survive and thrive as an MSP, it’s essential to anticipate changes and have an eye on the future. With this in mind, we’re dusting off the crystal ball and making some predictions — based on takeaways from our conversations with thoughtful, forward-looking MSPs we associate with — on what MSPs ought to prepare for going into 2016. (Wait, it’s almost 2016?!)

1. Expertise in regulatory compliance by vertical will become a key component of delivered services. Businesses that enlist the services of MSPs (and often possessing little internal expertise when it comes to those services) are coming to more fully rely on MSPs for advice in legal compliance matters. In some areas this is actually a sensible extension of the MSP’s duties. Take, for example, an MSP providing data security for a medical organization regulated by HIPAA. Under HIPAA rules, the MSP can be held responsible (and, gulp, even liable) if they are in possession of protected information and a data breach occurs. Therefore, it makes sense for MSPs to develop and apply expertise in compliance, as they may share the same stake — and fate — as the business they support.

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