Protecting Your Profits
Inflation is roaring - registering its largest increase since 1982.
While the Federal Reserve has taken note and started hiking interest rates, their efforts won't be stopping inflation anytime soon.
CPI (Consumer Price Inflation) increased 7.9% in the year to February.
This has severe impacts on your business and your margins.
As an MSP you have a few choices: you've got to drive revenue higher, cut costs or simply make do with less. The final option isn't palatable. The great news is that it's possible to increase revenue while cutting costs.
Increasing Revenue
Now is the time to make changes. That includes updating your prices and expanding your service offering.
With inflation being no secret, MSPs are having success with passing along price increases. Many of you are years overdue! Your risks are increasing as service providers, and you need to be compensated for it.
Next, you have several ways to enhance your service offering. As an example, your clients are in need of your assistance in procuring cyber security insurance. Cyber insurance applications have gotten much more stringent, requiring professional IT counsel and additional services.
It's no secret that layering in additional services helps you (a) deepen your client relationships and (b) expand your bottom line. What could be better?!
Let’s take a look at some of these additional security services insurance companies are requiring.
- Patching - keeping all systems on the latest software updates. This seems easy, but it so often isn’t. Unpatched networks are a wide open door for attackers.
- Backups - keep solid backups! You don’t ever want to have to use them. But you’ll be thankful you’ve got your data secured if you are ever attacked.
- MFA/Password Policy - implement MFA (multi-factor authentication) and/or implement a strong password manager.
- Anti-Virus - this one kind of seems obvious. You need a strong AV solution.
- Privileged Access Management - all sensitive data access should only be granted on an as-needed basis.
- Security Awareness Training - saving the best for last here. 9 out of 10 attacks start with an attacker fooling one of your employees.
If you're not doing any of the above, each is an opportunity to expand your client service.
And if you've checked all those service boxes, then your next step is cutting costs through automation. Not all tools are equal when it comes to work required to manage.
Cutting Costs
We'll keep this part simple.
And no, this is not about cutting staff or cutting wages. In fact, you're probably already under-staffed and likely looking for ways to increase wages and find more talent.
Automation is the key - you'll be hard-pressed to find any other way of cutting costs while maintaining or improving your service level.
"[MSPs] need to automate more and reduce the repetitive tasks that the staff are doing. You can service more customers with less staff but you can also have your experienced people focus on what they’re good at and less on the initial general repetitive tasks."
David Papp, Chief Technology Officer for MSP Corp.
You've got to seek automation across your entire stack. Yes, that's much easier said than done. But again, not all tools and not all vendors are built to simplify your service delivery.
As an example, INFIMA helps Partners save 1-2 hours per month per client with automated Security Awareness Training.
While the world remains gripped with fear over inflation, smart MSPs will take steps to protect and grow their organizations.
And INFIMA is here to help!
If you're an MSP and want to learn more, go check out how we work with Partners here. If you like what you see, book a time to chat!