1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,960 Good morning. Welcome to today's CIT Tech for Business podcast. Today we're sitting 2 00:00:05,960 --> 00:00:12,400 down with Kyle and Rob to discuss what to consider when hiring an MSP. Just a little 3 00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:17,080 moment to introduce myself. I know this is our fifth Tech for Business podcast. I'm Kelsey. 4 00:00:17,080 --> 00:00:21,360 I'm part of our marketing team and I'm going to be asking these guys just a couple questions 5 00:00:21,360 --> 00:00:25,240 help us keep centered from all of our tangents that we love to have. But I'm going to kick 6 00:00:25,240 --> 00:00:29,120 it right over to you guys. Why don't you guys give us your first name, your title, and then 7 00:00:29,120 --> 00:00:36,000 we'll dive right into it. Thanks Kelsey. My name is Kyle Eder. I am the president and 8 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:43,360 CEO at CIT. Hey, good morning. I'm Rob Kramer. I am director of managed services at CIT. 9 00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:48,920 Awesome. Thank you both as I kind of led us into in our intro talking about MSPs this 10 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:56,640 morning. Managed service providers. What are those? Well, that's a great question. To different 11 00:00:56,640 --> 00:01:00,440 people, managed service providers means different things. But in general, a managed service 12 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:06,840 provider is an organization that you can call that's going to help answer computer questions 13 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:12,160 for your users. Whether that's, you know, how do I install this Microsoft application? 14 00:01:12,160 --> 00:01:17,480 How do I print? I'm having problems printing. Can you fix it for me? Sometimes it's more 15 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:20,960 important to talk about what they're not and we can get into that in just a little bit. 16 00:01:20,960 --> 00:01:25,240 Yeah, I think you can just add to that a little bit. So there's agreement. Typically, it's 17 00:01:25,240 --> 00:01:32,520 a monthly recurring fee, usually based on users or devices that you have to support 18 00:01:32,520 --> 00:01:37,160 your IT infrastructure. So as Rob mentions, obviously, there's typically help desk, there's 19 00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:44,080 technical expertise provided by the MSP partner that you choose. And then there's a set of 20 00:01:44,080 --> 00:01:52,800 tools, typically automation, to help control costs as well as bring in management framework 21 00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:58,760 for how you manage your IT infrastructure. So it usually provides us some software for 22 00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:05,800 management for things like patching of Microsoft patching, patching of what we call third party 23 00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:11,960 applications, your web browsers, different components, making sure that things are up 24 00:02:11,960 --> 00:02:19,440 or down, servers or firewalls are key components in your IT infrastructure to automatically 25 00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:25,720 monitor for their status, as well as other things like how much disk space is in use, 26 00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:31,880 is the processor running high CPU usage, those types of things. So you have a lot of metrics 27 00:02:31,880 --> 00:02:37,360 and other things that get gathered by those tools. So very valuable, but it's a combination 28 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:45,480 of obviously trained and experienced IT personnel, plus software and services and a monthly agreement 29 00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:52,960 is at a high level, what it is, it definitely varies by vendor or by MSP on how they package 30 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:58,200 it. But it's the end of the day, that's kind of sums up what it is. 31 00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:02,560 Awesome. That makes sense. It's still a lot of things right, right out of the gate that 32 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:07,280 you're like, we could do a million things for you. Congratulations. And some of these 33 00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:12,200 are going to have acronyms just like the name of it. But you guys briefly mentioned, right, 34 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:18,640 these are all the things that MSP can do. Kind of made my brain go. Are MSPs just local 35 00:03:18,640 --> 00:03:23,960 companies or can they be bigger organizations that tend to have more outsourcing? What's 36 00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:28,920 kind of the range of where you can find MSPs and where they're located? 37 00:03:28,920 --> 00:03:33,880 You can find them everywhere. You got MSPs that are anything from a one or two person 38 00:03:33,880 --> 00:03:40,480 company that support small groups within their area. It's a very large national organizations 39 00:03:40,480 --> 00:03:45,840 that have thousands of engineers spread across the world. And the trick is finding the one 40 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:51,840 that's right fit for you. Somebody who's going to be well suited to your organization, who 41 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:57,560 can really partner with you, learn your ins and outs of your unique environment and help 42 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:04,200 support you on that. So small or large, there's advantages in both directions. Finding the 43 00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:07,640 right fit is really what's important. 44 00:04:07,640 --> 00:04:11,720 That makes perfect sense in launches. Right into my next question, how do you find one 45 00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:13,720 with all of those options out there? 46 00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:22,200 That's a great question. I guess I'd start off with looking at some of the common options, 47 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:26,040 asking friends or colleagues who they've worked with, if they have any recommendations. Because 48 00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:30,760 finding somebody that somebody else is willing to recommend usually is a good indicator that 49 00:04:30,760 --> 00:04:36,080 they're a solid company, that they're going to do a good job supporting your environment. 50 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:40,120 Going to Google and just typing in a search and just randomly calling somebody, you don't 51 00:04:40,120 --> 00:04:46,080 know what you're going to get. You could be getting a one person shop out of 10 buck two 52 00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:51,160 and they don't know your environment, they don't know your industry. And when they go 53 00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:54,760 on vacation, you still lose your support. So sometimes you're looking for that organization 54 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:58,440 that's just the right size, that they have enough engineers. When somebody's on vacation, 55 00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:01,640 you still get to call and you still get to talk to somebody, you still get support. But 56 00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:07,880 they're not so big that you're just a small fish in a big pond, if you will, that they 57 00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:15,840 Store authority were the right one to hire and replace. So you may need to build 58 00:05:07,880 --> 00:05:12,000 don't really know anything about you. They don't learn your environment. It's just another 59 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:16,640 person calling you. You could just as well be calling a manufacturer someplace and talking 60 00:05:15,840 --> 00:05:26,040 one up for yourself. So as soon as you find someone you know who's been building a Man 61 00:05:16,640 --> 00:05:22,520 to a help desk in India. You don't really know. So finding that right organization, 62 00:05:20,680 --> 00:05:21,680 so-so 63 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:27,040 Asking around, asking, like I said, asking your peers, asking other organizations in your industry 64 00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:27,160 asking around, like I said, asking your peers, asking other organizations in your industry 65 00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:31,840 if they're using a master's provider, who they've used and who they like is probably one of your 66 00:05:31,840 --> 00:05:36,720 really strong indicators of a good place to start. Yeah, that's what I was going to say too. I think 67 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:43,920 the referral side is always a strong aspect. As mentioned, there are national ones. 68 00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:49,840 You know, being a local provider, you're going to be slanted towards believing there's a lot of value 69 00:05:49,840 --> 00:05:57,040 in the local provider just because from what we've seen over the years, just being remote 70 00:05:57,600 --> 00:06:02,160 is not enough. You know, there is definitely times, you know, you need to be on site, you want to be 71 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:08,080 on site, you want to make the connection. It's going to, there's things you need to do to keep, 72 00:06:08,080 --> 00:06:13,680 you know, upgrading on the systems and other components and it's just, you know, nearly 73 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:20,160 impossible to just, you can't do it all remote. It just, if you have on site support to handle 74 00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:24,160 those things and you just need some augmentative, then possibly, you know, a national provider could 75 00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:32,000 fill the need for you. But in many cases where you're truly looking for, you know, an IT partner 76 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:38,080 that can be more holistic and usually find from the customers we work with, you know, the intention 77 00:06:38,080 --> 00:06:45,520 or the expectation is that they're looking for, you know, on site, remote, you know, the whole gamut, 78 00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:51,760 you know, the whole end game is to say they want IT working and keep the systems, keep their users 79 00:06:51,760 --> 00:06:57,520 productive and, you know, quite often, you know, a local provider I think provides a little more 80 00:06:58,160 --> 00:07:03,360 closer relationship, closer alignment with what the customers are actually expecting. 81 00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:09,440 Oh, that makes perfect. Oh, sorry, Rob, go ahead. Well, I was just going to add a little bit to that, 82 00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:14,640 you know, Kyle makes an excellent point and that is, you know, managed service providers, 83 00:07:15,920 --> 00:07:21,600 as we are, we gather a ton of data. We learn a lot about the customer's environments 84 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:28,000 and one of the things that that lends itself to is really looking towards the future and as we move 85 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:32,960 forward, you know, what's going to be the best fit for the customer in the future? Do they need to be 86 00:07:32,960 --> 00:07:36,640 looking at a specific type of technology or something, you know, that's coming down the line 87 00:07:36,640 --> 00:07:42,000 or do we need to make some changes to their system to optimize it? Having that holistic coverage where 88 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:47,120 you actually have engineers who can come on site and can have that hands-on expertise for you 89 00:07:47,840 --> 00:07:52,960 really kind of fills out that managed service desk environment and allows you to kind of have 90 00:07:52,960 --> 00:07:58,000 the other side of it. So if you don't have that local IT presence and you need that kind of help, 91 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:02,560 looking for a provider that has kind of that full package is going to be very important to you. 92 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:08,480 Now that makes perfect sense and just really, really quickly that kind of brought up the question, 93 00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:12,640 right, that say I'm a customer and of course in today's world I'm hybrid or a lot of my workers 94 00:08:12,640 --> 00:08:17,040 are remote and yes, it's great to have somebody on site, but how does that work? Let's say that I 95 00:08:17,040 --> 00:08:22,160 have, right, employees that are all working from their homes, somebody's in Hawaii, somebody's here, 96 00:08:22,160 --> 00:08:25,600 would a local MSP still be able to provide the support that I need? 97 00:08:25,600 --> 00:08:31,200 Yeah, actually very, very effectively and if you're the type of organization who may have a local 98 00:08:31,200 --> 00:08:37,280 network administrator with an organization like ours, we'll give you access to the tools. So you 99 00:08:37,280 --> 00:08:42,480 can actually use our tools to help support your remote users wherever they have to be. So just 100 00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:47,040 like we use it to help remote in and shadow somebody's screen and solve a problem, a local 101 00:08:47,040 --> 00:08:53,200 IT person could use that same tool to do that work as well. So yeah, it is very effective. Having the 102 00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:58,640 knowledge of the organization, learning about their unique software and applications and how their 103 00:08:58,640 --> 00:09:04,640 users need to function really is more critical than where they're sitting. You know, when the 104 00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:12,240 pandemic hit, we saw this mass migration to this hybrid environment and those organizations who had 105 00:09:13,040 --> 00:09:17,920 some pre-planning for that, who had some users who traveled from time to time, had some ability to 106 00:09:17,920 --> 00:09:23,120 work remotely, actually were able to make that transition very easily. So it's very, very 107 00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:28,080 important. And organizations who are fairly static, very in-house, they had to scramble a little bit 108 00:09:28,080 --> 00:09:33,520 and they had to lean pretty heavily on people like their managed service provider to help them 109 00:09:33,520 --> 00:09:36,880 figure out how to get their users out to the house and still be able to do what they need to do. And 110 00:09:37,680 --> 00:09:40,880 it was a very interesting time to see how different organizations reacted in that. 111 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:51,680 Yeah, very much so. And I also think that the tools themselves give such ease of access to 112 00:09:51,680 --> 00:09:58,800 get to those devices, but to have a local provider that can prep those devices and have them sent to 113 00:09:58,800 --> 00:10:03,360 those remote workers when they are ready for upgrades, we see a lot of synergy and a lot of 114 00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:10,080 value in that as well. Just the consistency of the support provider to understand the nuances 115 00:10:10,080 --> 00:10:15,760 that everybody's IT systems has. Nothing is a one-size-fits-all IT. It never is. They're 116 00:10:15,760 --> 00:10:21,600 never the same. So the way that they prefer to have their devices set up and what the users 117 00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:27,760 expectation is of the workstation when they receive it needs to be planned out accordingly. 118 00:10:27,760 --> 00:10:33,120 So when you send it to that remote worker, you want them to be as productive as fast as possible. 119 00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:40,720 And we find a lot of synergy in pre-prep, pre-imaging, even with cloud-connected desktops 120 00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:47,280 and Azure AD and those things. You want to go through some prep on those devices before they 121 00:10:47,280 --> 00:10:52,880 go to the users. And I think a national provider have very difficult time executing on that. 122 00:10:54,240 --> 00:10:57,280 I smell a future podcast coming there about prepping devices. 123 00:10:58,800 --> 00:11:03,520 That could be a whole nother 30-minute discussion. So yes, we'll tuck that one in our pocket for a 124 00:11:03,520 --> 00:11:09,680 future one. But let's say that I am a customer. I have X number of employees. Is there a certain 125 00:11:09,680 --> 00:11:14,640 number of employees that when I'm interviewing an MSP, I should say, yes, you're going to be a good 126 00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:20,080 fit or no, I'm either too big for you or you're too big for me. Do you guys tend to come across 127 00:11:20,080 --> 00:11:26,480 that when talking with people? Kyle can speak a little bit to that probably more than I can, 128 00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:32,480 as he's in a lot of those pre-meetings. But if I look at the kind of customers that we have, 129 00:11:33,840 --> 00:11:42,480 we have a lot of customers from very small, 5, 10 users, all the way up to several hundred users. 130 00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:49,600 So does that mean that one size fits all? No. But there is a point I think you will find 131 00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:55,360 that you need to know the organization you're partnering with has the back end infrastructure 132 00:11:55,360 --> 00:12:00,480 capacity to handle the types of issues you're going to have, that they have the training and 133 00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:05,440 stuff you need. A lot of large organizations will tend to get a little bit more complex. 134 00:12:05,440 --> 00:12:11,520 They may very well have a more advanced environment. And if you're working with a 135 00:12:11,520 --> 00:12:16,800 MSP that's a little on the smaller side, they may not have the breadth of experience and knowledge 136 00:12:16,800 --> 00:12:21,760 that you're looking for. So yeah, it is an important question to ask. Does that mean that 137 00:12:21,760 --> 00:12:27,520 one organization can't service both? No. Like I said, we have many customers that kind of span 138 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:34,080 the environment size. Would I want to take on a 10,000 user organization? I don't think I'd be 139 00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:38,080 ready for that. I think I'd have questions whether or not we have the capacity to handle the number 140 00:12:38,080 --> 00:12:42,640 of calls and stuff. But that doesn't mean it's not possible. It really depends on the environment, 141 00:12:42,640 --> 00:12:50,320 what their expectations are. So yeah, I think it's, you know, again, there is no one size fits all 142 00:12:50,320 --> 00:12:58,240 on this side of it. It's how it's the role the MSP provides can be adjusted accordingly. The smaller 143 00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:04,080 organizations, Rob said, once you're, you know, you're typically less than, you know, 50 full time 144 00:13:04,080 --> 00:13:11,520 employees, you know, an MSP essentially could be your IT department. You know, they handle the 145 00:13:11,520 --> 00:13:16,400 onsite, they provide the remote help desk, they manage the systems, they do the upgrades, 146 00:13:16,400 --> 00:13:23,520 they handle everything. As you start to get larger, and definitely more than 100 plus users, 147 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:29,200 typically you start to see a need for an onsite IT person, somebody within the organization that is 148 00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:35,760 now a full time employee, but the MSP is augmentative. They handle projects, they handle, 149 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:41,840 you know, keeping an eye on the systems 24 seven, they provide the management platform that that 150 00:13:41,840 --> 00:13:49,520 resource uses as an augmentative side of it. But then that employee is more focused on the users 151 00:13:50,400 --> 00:13:54,800 for the customer's productivity, as well as their data, their systems, their line of business 152 00:13:54,800 --> 00:14:00,400 applications. As you get bigger, those become complex. And I know we might talk a little bit 153 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:05,200 about this, let's go through there is where it's a struggle for an MSP is once you get into those 154 00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:11,120 internal line of business systems, MSPs, we can't go that deep into the organization side of it. 155 00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:17,680 It's a more, you know, higher level IT support for the functioning of the desktops and the patching 156 00:14:17,680 --> 00:14:21,440 and the health of the networks and the security of the systems and those things. But once you 157 00:14:21,440 --> 00:14:26,480 get into that data, you know, having somebody on site who really understands that keeps the users 158 00:14:26,480 --> 00:14:31,120 becomes becomes very productive and most larger employees, that's where it really starts to, 159 00:14:32,080 --> 00:14:39,040 to be a need. But an MSP can provide a tremendous augmentative, consistent support that has, 160 00:14:39,600 --> 00:14:45,200 you know, for us, we're 24 by seven, I know there's other MSPs around. So looking for those that you 161 00:14:45,200 --> 00:14:50,000 have somebody on glass, you know, around the clock that can, you know, give you a call if the system's 162 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:55,360 reporting offline that they can potentially take to make sure things are patched to give you the 163 00:14:55,360 --> 00:15:01,040 management platform to manage it. There's a tremendous value there that again, having somebody 164 00:15:01,040 --> 00:15:06,160 internally to try to build that themselves just takes them away from the core business. 165 00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:11,600 Because the MSPs do a very, very good job at that. It's what their purpose built for. 166 00:15:12,720 --> 00:15:15,520 And that was going to go. Yeah, sorry, Rob, I was gonna say, 167 00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:19,920 yeah, to Kyle's point there, you know, we're not going to know a lot of those line of business 168 00:15:19,920 --> 00:15:24,480 applications. However, for some of our customers who are kind of in that in between category, 169 00:15:24,480 --> 00:15:28,320 they don't have a local local IT person, but they have kind of a unique application. 170 00:15:29,280 --> 00:15:32,560 We proxy that we will call the vendor on their behalf, we'll get the tickets set up, 171 00:15:32,560 --> 00:15:36,640 and we'll work with the user to try and solve that problem. We don't necessarily have that 172 00:15:36,640 --> 00:15:41,920 expertise, but we can help broker the connection and help translate for you for the person on the 173 00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:46,640 technical side to the business side. So, you know, we can act as kind of an intermediary 174 00:15:46,640 --> 00:15:51,680 for those calls as well when we need to. It's a good point. Perfect. I was going to say two 175 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:55,680 things first. Can you give an example of some of those line of business applications? Which ones 176 00:15:55,680 --> 00:16:02,080 are easier to proxy with? Which ones are maybe a red flag to be like, hey, you're going to have 177 00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:07,600 to use their support. Well, that's kind of a grab bag, but just if somebody was like, how do I look 178 00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:12,080 my applications and know whether this is going to be a problem child or if it's fairly easy? 179 00:16:13,040 --> 00:16:18,960 ERPs, CRMs, a lot of those, you know, accounting, into your accounting set, 180 00:16:18,960 --> 00:16:23,440 it kind of falls in the ERP side of it. Why don't you get into those things? I won't name 181 00:16:23,440 --> 00:16:31,040 it even by name. And obviously some things that are custom built side with it. And even some of 182 00:16:31,040 --> 00:16:37,040 it is just the data workflow that some organizations have evolved into. How they're using, you know, 183 00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:44,320 your Word and Excel documents, their file share structure. Companies have evolved over the decades 184 00:16:44,320 --> 00:16:50,960 of how they're using just, you know, unstructured data that just sits on a file share within it 185 00:16:52,160 --> 00:16:57,360 in very unique ways. You run into those things and they have very unique processes with all 186 00:16:57,360 --> 00:17:04,080 they print and share and execute a workflow within their business side of it. So, you know, it can 187 00:17:04,080 --> 00:17:09,680 be very far reaching. And for an MSP to walk in the door and just have, you know, some, 188 00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:15,440 there's no magic sauce to just say, boom, we get it. We understand everything. There's, 189 00:17:16,080 --> 00:17:20,320 it takes, you know, it takes time and certainly to go deeper into those things. 190 00:17:20,880 --> 00:17:26,480 Again, we have to rely on the vendors or somebody on site to champion those products that we can 191 00:17:26,480 --> 00:17:33,920 make sure that the systems are operational and healthy and available up to the point of then 192 00:17:33,920 --> 00:17:38,800 once it's in the application, it gets much more complex, but that just requires a lot of 193 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:45,040 collaboration and making sure that you're talking, which I think circles back, I think the importance 194 00:17:45,040 --> 00:17:51,040 of the local, because you need that regular cadence and communication to keep everybody on the same 195 00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:56,240 page, just as you would if they were internal. You need to make sure that the teams are talking, 196 00:17:56,800 --> 00:18:01,200 whether they're external or not, you got to have that. And that's definitely what we've seen over 197 00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:09,440 the years is just the need, when we've seen things start to become problematic between our services 198 00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:15,040 and the customer, increasing the cadence between our managed team and the customer's teams, 199 00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:20,320 resolves those challenges, whether we go to a weekly call and then make sure things are 200 00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:25,840 quieted down because some system upgrade went through, there's a spike in calls, users are upset, 201 00:18:25,840 --> 00:18:31,360 customer comes upset, start talking more, miraculously things start to get back on track, 202 00:18:31,360 --> 00:18:36,160 people are collaborating better, and then you start to move forward. So it's not that much 203 00:18:36,160 --> 00:18:40,160 different than what you do internally between departments. Things aren't working, you got to 204 00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:45,840 get people meeting to resolve things, and that's, you got to look at your MSP in that way, kind of 205 00:18:45,840 --> 00:18:50,800 extension to say they don't have a crystal ball, they're not going to be able to walk in and see 206 00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:56,000 things behind the curtain. So you got to get people talking. 207 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:07,200 One of the things that came out of that, Kyle, that came to my mind was we talked about the calls 208 00:19:07,200 --> 00:19:12,560 and the cadence and stuff with the customer. To be clear, it's not always an IT person we're talking 209 00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:16,880 to, the customer. When we're talking about those applications, who that point of contact is for the 210 00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:24,000 line of business application, sometimes that is the accounting person, sometimes that is the office 211 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:28,800 administrator, but they have the knowledge, that local application, that there are interface locally 212 00:19:28,800 --> 00:19:31,840 on site for that support when we're troubleshooting with the vendor. 213 00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:38,800 No, that all makes perfect sense, and I know it can be right, a whole deep, dark hole of it's hard 214 00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:43,040 within 30 minutes to say, hey, here's all of the things that you can look at. But on that vein, 215 00:19:43,040 --> 00:19:48,640 if you had a really high level, say, I have a business, I'm looking at MSP, when would an MSP 216 00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:52,640 maybe not be the best fit, and when should I maybe look to hire somebody internal? 217 00:19:55,200 --> 00:20:00,480 Boy, that's a tough question. There's a lot of different things I think that play into that. 218 00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:09,200 First of all, what's your technology environment like today? Is it fairly stable? Is it functioning 219 00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:17,840 and providing the resources you need to do your business moving forward? If it's just hanging on 220 00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:26,720 by a shred of life, and it's about to die, that may not be an indication you want an MSP, but 221 00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:31,040 rather just a technology partner who can come in and help you breathe some new life into that, 222 00:20:31,040 --> 00:20:36,720 get it upgraded, get it stable, and then to maintain it going forward, you would want to 223 00:20:36,720 --> 00:20:41,920 look to an MSP, somebody who can help you as you look to the future to make sure that things are, 224 00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:46,640 again, patching it, that they're healthy, that you've got good security in place. 225 00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:52,480 And then as new things come around and we understand your business, we should be able 226 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:56,240 to work with you during things like quarterly business reviews to say, hey, here's some things 227 00:20:56,240 --> 00:21:01,440 you should be planning for. Did you know that the Microsoft Server 2012 R2 goes into life in October 228 00:21:01,440 --> 00:21:06,160 2023? We should be planning an upgrade. We should be looking to make sure that we're staying ahead 229 00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:11,680 of this so that we can do it in a controlled manner and not get blindsided and also have to 230 00:21:11,680 --> 00:21:17,520 scramble because that's always going to put you in a bad situation. So if you're in a good situation 231 00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:24,320 today and you're just looking for that help, that security and that support to keep things 232 00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:30,080 functioning, it's a great time to start talking to an MSP. If you've got a local IT person and 233 00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:33,520 you go, you know what? This person is going to be out for a period of time. They're going to take 234 00:21:33,520 --> 00:21:37,920 some vacation. They have a personal life too. They can't always be available. I need somebody 235 00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:42,400 to help them, to augment them. That's another great reason to look for an MSP. We're not there 236 00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:47,600 to replace that IT person. We're there to be their partner, to be their henchmen, if you will, to 237 00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:53,760 help them keep that environment working. If you're coming to an MSP and saying, hey, my environment's 238 00:21:53,760 --> 00:22:00,720 a complete mess. I need somebody to straighten it all out. Somebody who's holistic like we are, 239 00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:05,440 we can work with you. We can work with your environment. We can get you upgraded and then 240 00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:10,000 transition that into our maintenance and support under managed services. So there's a lot of 241 00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:14,160 different things that can play into that. Is there one right time for every company? No. 242 00:22:14,160 --> 00:22:19,120 You kind of got to look at it and say, what are my needs? Am I growing to the point where 243 00:22:19,120 --> 00:22:22,720 I don't know how to keep this functioning? I don't know what the future holds. I need some advice. 244 00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:28,240 That's probably a good time to talk to somebody. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's very far reaching, but I 245 00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:34,480 think Rob makes a very good point. What I've seen from customers, if you're looking at the MSP and 246 00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:40,800 you're thinking they're going to go into that managed service contract, it's going to alleviate 247 00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:46,640 all your IT problems and you have a lot of IT problems, that is not going to be the fix for it. 248 00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:53,200 You may have had somebody else managing the IT, whether it's another managed service provider or 249 00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:58,000 it was somebody internal or an independent contractor. If the IT budget wasn't realistic, 250 00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:03,200 if you were not investing into the correct IT infrastructure, and that is the reason for the 251 00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:08,240 issues, just switching to another provider or bringing MSP in there is not going to that by 252 00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:15,360 itself fix it. You're going to have to allow for and have strategic conversations to make sure 253 00:23:15,360 --> 00:23:21,520 that you're investing in the IT infrastructure to make IT work right. The customers that we work with 254 00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:29,280 that continues to invest and drive the most value out of the IT invest in their IT. IT is not 255 00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:34,720 inexpensive. It's not something that needs to be managed for the least cost possible. That has 256 00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:39,360 never been a successful model. I've done this for over 30 years. The customers with the least cost 257 00:23:39,360 --> 00:23:48,480 have never proven successful. I've never seen it. Why there can be some cost strategic benefits of 258 00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:53,520 the MSP side of it. Again, we mentioned some of those on providing the platform, providing 259 00:23:53,520 --> 00:23:59,360 the augmentation, providing those things. That's just working smarter and using people in their 260 00:23:59,360 --> 00:24:05,840 right seats to drive the most value out of your IT spend. They can definitely be done in those 261 00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:11,200 customers that we engage with that do that. There's tremendous synergy and they really drive their IT 262 00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:17,040 systems. We see them actually produce better results for their customers and that's the end 263 00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:24,400 goal. It looks tremendous side of it. Take a close look. My advice is make sure you have a realistic 264 00:24:24,400 --> 00:24:30,320 budget for this. Technology is a tool. It's a tool you use in your business to help your business 265 00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:34,480 to move forward and to service your customers. Just like any tool, you got to take care of it. 266 00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:36,800 If you don't take care of the tool, it's going to fail you when you need it the most. 267 00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:43,920 No, that makes perfect sense. There's all of these tools, all of these options. Just kind of 268 00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:47,360 wrapping it up for today's discussion because I feel like we could probably turn this into a 269 00:24:47,360 --> 00:24:52,160 whole series if I could go on so many tangents about all of these things. Let's say that I am 270 00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:56,000 looking at somebody and I'm looking at their tool set and I'm looking at all of the in-house 271 00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:59,840 services beyond. You go to an MSP website and they're like, we can do printing and we can do 272 00:24:59,840 --> 00:25:06,160 all of this. Your brain goes, do I need all of that? Again, I'm sure it's custom to the customer, 273 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:09,600 but is there something that if you were looking checklist and you were being like, 274 00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:15,200 okay, what are some of the differentiators between MSPs that are maybe red flags or things 275 00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:23,120 that you're like pro tip, that's a great thing to have. I think in this current environment that we 276 00:25:23,120 --> 00:25:30,320 all live in, any provider that you partner with, any MSP that you look at really should have a 277 00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:34,400 strong security focus. You want somebody who's going to be looking out for your environment to 278 00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:37,680 make sure that we're doing the right things to keep you as secure as possible. 279 00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:42,640 Their tools should reflect that. If they're not using current tools, things like endpoint 280 00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:48,240 detection and response or what's called EDR, traditional antivirus is fine, but EDR is really 281 00:25:49,440 --> 00:25:55,600 an important factor for securing those endpoints. It's really the recommendation that I would expect 282 00:25:55,600 --> 00:26:00,240 most MSPs to be making to other customers today. Looking for a customer for an MSP company that 283 00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:06,240 has a strong focus on keeping your environment secure as well as being able to support you 284 00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:11,200 around the clock when your business needs it. I think those are some of the key factors that you 285 00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:17,280 should be looking for. Yeah, I think having the manager as a provider, having security 286 00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:25,760 trained personnel on staff is also, in 2022, incredibly important. Just because nobody has 287 00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:30,880 a get out of security incident free card, it seems. There's a lot of things that come through 288 00:26:30,880 --> 00:26:37,520 there and having experts that go through those things. I think it's an important point. Not all 289 00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:44,480 MSPs are equal. I know when you see the proposals, it looks very static. We all present very similar 290 00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:52,800 things in little different manners, but it can be confusing. Ask about how they secure their systems. 291 00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:59,200 Ask how their staff, how do they handle these after hours? How do they handle a security incident 292 00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:07,520 if it were to occur? What would they do? Vet those out. If they're too small for your needs, 293 00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:12,800 you're going to find a pretty large gap there and that's going to be strenuous in a critical 294 00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:20,160 situation to make it worse. Ask how they approach the IT budgeting side of it is another thing. 295 00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:26,880 We just talked about that side of it. Do they help with having realistic budgets that are strategic 296 00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:32,640 and aligned with the business so you have predictive spend as much as possible with this side of it? 297 00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:39,600 That brings in security, investment sides of those and the operational budget, and just the overall 298 00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:44,400 support of the systems. How do they account for it? How do they do it? And then how do they secure 299 00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:51,680 the systems? Because MSPs in this side of it, we all know that we're under the scope of the 300 00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:58,880 of the threat actors to come after because there's, you know, we have access to system 301 00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:05,760 sides of that. So if your MSP is not secure, you know, you're open yourself up for an issue 302 00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:11,200 there as well. So just stuff that you want to definitely ask to make sure that they have things 303 00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:17,040 covered. We're a SOC 2 type 2. We went through that certification. We invest in a tremendous 304 00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:22,000 amount of tool sides of those. The EDR Rob mentioned is, you know, definitely one thing we 305 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:27,520 rolled in early last year's side of that into the platform side of it because you need to keep 306 00:28:27,520 --> 00:28:32,640 evolving these things. It's well beyond just patching and stability and remote control 307 00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:35,360 and 22 is what you want your MSP to be. 308 00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:43,920 That sounds like it routs up really well. I've got a lot more to say on that topic. 309 00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:49,360 We're like, and that's the cherry on top. And no, as I mentioned throughout this one, I feel like 310 00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:53,360 we could talk with both of you in multiple different series. I'm hoping that this sparks 311 00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:57,280 good questions for people where people are like, what did you mean by that? And that we can turn 312 00:28:57,280 --> 00:29:02,080 it into a whole other series. But thank you both for sitting down today talking about what is an 313 00:29:02,080 --> 00:29:07,600 MSP? All the good things, but how people would get in contact with us if they do have those 314 00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:13,360 questions, they can email us info at cit-net.com or they can head on out to our podcast page, 315 00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:20,160 which is cit-net.com backslash podcast. There's a form on there. You can send us an email, 316 00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:24,880 call us, chat us. These guys love to talk. If you haven't caught on by now five episodes in, 317 00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:28,880 we're like, yeah, we can talk all the time. We just keep ourselves on the timer for these. 318 00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:33,040 So we're going to be back next week with another episode, but thank you both so much for sitting 319 00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:43,760 down today and filming another tech for business podcast. Thanks for watching.