A difference of opinion among MSPs and their customers on factors that influence the managed services market could signify an urgent need to rethink business models, according to research by IT Europa.
The study (sponsored by Webroot) revealed that while channel organisations see such factors as recurring revenue streams, scalability and customer retention as the main drivers, for their clients the crux of the matter is reducing costs and capital expenditure as well as greater flexibility.
The research also highlighted a lucrative role for channels providing they know how to charge for services.
"With falling prices for hosting and cloud services, MSPs need to differentiate in an environment where competition is increasing, and offering their specialisms could help them achieve this," said IT Europa MD Alan Norman.
"Customers lack expertise and skills in making it all work, particularly when linking into legacy systems, so there is a clear role for MSPs to use any vertical market expertise they have to provide an essential service, and charge for it."
The survey also found that clearer propositions are needed and that MSPs need all the help they can get in marketing, tools, integration and to use all the available skills and resources.
"MSPs also told the study that they have concerns about finding the right partners, particularly among vendors, citing quality of support and quality of product as the two main areas they regard as important or very important, especially by smaller MSPs," added Norman.
Concerns were also expressed over enterprise mobility, mainly because of the scale of involvement, pace of change and the integration issues.
The future of Managed Services in EMEA - a channel perspective report, is available free of charge to channel organisations via the IT Europa website: www.iteuropa.com/?q=future-managed-services-emea-channel-perspective
The launch of the report comes ahead of the Managed Services & Hosting Summit 2014, organised by IT Europa and Angel Business Communications, and staged at The Pullman St Pancras Hotel, London, on 25th September 2014 - www.mshsummit.com