Managed services are now officially mainstream across most industry sectors, so much so that many of today's MSPs may already be in need of an overhaul. That's the upshot of last month's European Managed Services and Hosting Summit which confirmed that the current MSP model 'came of age' this year.
Speaking at the summit (staged in Amsterdam by Comms Dealer sister company IT Europa) Gartner Research Director Bianca Granetto (pictured) said: "The future managed services company will look very different from today.
"Digitalisation is redefining the buyer-seller relationship and customers are using more and more diverse IT suppliers. This process will continue in the coming years."
According to GCI CTO Mike Constantine it is now the quality of a managed service that differentiates one MSP from another rather than the number or type of technologies they offer.
"The quality of the managed service has many metrics such as visibility and insight into the usage and performance of the IT infrastructure, faster speeds, compliance and reduced errors," he said.
"Even more critical is having the expertise to integrate these multiple technologies together and deliver a working solution to the customer."
Robinder Koura, Senior Director of Channel Sales at RingCentral, stated: "The landscape is shifting and resellers who do not adjust their sales model will lose their competitiveness and value.
"They have to shift in the direction the wind is blowing and it is blowing stronger than ever."