The channel industry has experienced a variety of changes recently, such as acquisitions, new entrants, and the rise of managed services. Continually, the industry invests in technology partners to meet future challenges and speed up the next wave of innovation. “The pandemic and resulting global shutdown have accelerated many different aspects of the workforce and work environments that would otherwise take years to develop,” said Anthony Buonaspina, BSEE, BSCS, CPACC, CEO and Founder of LI Tech Advisors.
2020 and 2021 were true tests for MSP/ITSP businesses, but despite facing significant challenges, MSP/ITSP businesses were able to step up and help businesses across the globe weather the storm. Said Buonaspina, “MSP/ITSP businesses were not only able to acclimate the fastest to this new work environment but were able to assist many other businesses to adapt as well. MSP/ITSPs were able to convert over to having a work workforce since they already had the knowledge and technology savvy to adjust to this abrupt change.”
As our industry continues to evolve, we have recently welcomed another change to the industry —remote work. During the latest revolution, many MSPs changed the way they work, with many now still working remotely. Some MSPs have found that remote work suits them and their business model, while others use hybrid models, with some staff in the office and some remote. And as we continue to adapt to this new remote work landscape, the question on everyone’s mind is — what does the future of work look like for MSPs?
Is the Work From Anywhere Model the New Norm?
MSPs have always been a remote workforce to some extent, but now they are taking a closer look at how they can optimize their remote workforce. Co-Founder and CEO of BACS IT Consulting, Jeremy Kushner said, “At BACS Consulting Group, remote working has already fully arrived for most of our staff. Like many other businesses, this transition was greatly accelerated over the past 24 months by COVID.”
Remote work allows businesses to have several physical offices across the globe without the need to have all their employees in one location. MSPs have been able to take advantage of this by having remote teams in different time zones to provide 24/7 support to their clients.
“We are an MSP headquartered in Northern California with a distributed group of more than 25 employees and with physical offices in three geographies: Northern California, Southern California, and Tijuana, Mexico. Prior to the pandemic, 95 percent of our staff worked out of one of our physical offices. Now, two years later, 80 percent of our staff work remotely from their homes,” said Kushner.
People maintain typical 8-hour, 5-day-a-week work schedules but are afforded the advantage of working remotely. The remote work arrangement for us is here to stay for the foreseeable future. With the happy and comfortable staff this situation has created, we truly believe that it has strengthened our team and improved our service offering.
Cloud-based productivity tools have also made it easier for MSPs to work remotely. These tools allow MSPs to access their work from anywhere and collaborate with their team in real-time. MSPs have been using these tools to their advantage, and they will continue to do so in the future.
“Our MSP had already pivoted to 100% cloud-based productivity prior to the pandemic. We have been able to seamlessly shift back and forth between working remotely or from the office years before the pandemic started. In our industry, hands-on work is often required. Our employees are free to choose their ideal environment for the tasks they have at hand,” said Joe Cannata, Owner of Techsperts, LLC.
Our setup and processes provided a good model for our clients on how we can make them less reliant on their physical office and servers. We were easily able to demonstrate what needed to be done and what products to use to enable them to achieve high productivity in a hybrid work environment. Once a business becomes fully remote-capable, new possibilities and greater flexibility become apparent. We will continue to evolve as new standards become clear. As of now, we are still on a 5-day workweek.
MSPs /ITSPs Are Adept at Enabling Employees to Work From Home
Remote work is not a new concept. Before the pandemic, remote work was already on the rise, with more MSPs/ITSPs offering remote services and support to their clients. The pandemic has simply accelerated this trend, with remote work now becoming the new norm for many MSPs/ITSPs. These leaders have always been an adaptable bunch, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. MSPs/ITSPs will continue to adapt to the ever-changing landscape, whether that means continuing to work remotely, hybrid models, or even the 4-day work week.
As MSPs/ITSPs adapt to the rapidly changing landscape, one of the challenges that will be faced is encouraging employees to work remotely. The reactions from employees will always be mixed when it comes to remote work. Some love the flexibility and freedom that remote work provides, while others miss the face-to-face interaction with colleagues.
“We have been completely remote even post-COVID, and feedback from our team has been a mixed bag. People with long commutes love it, but everyone does miss an in-person working environment. New hires are actually more insistent on having some in-person days. We will likely go to just a particular day of working together in the same space. We are not looking to go back to an all in-person team. Based on our clients’ needs, especially on the operational front, we strongly feel flexible hours or a 4-day work week will not work for our segment of the industry,” said Ashu Singhal, President of Orion Network Solutions.
Many leaders in the MSP and ITSP industries were already working remotely even before the pandemic. What is the difference? What has changed? The pandemic has forced MSPs/ITSPs to really consider how they work and what work needs to be done on-site versus remote. MSPs/ITSPs have always been a remote workforce to some extent, but the pandemic has forced them to take a closer look at their business models and how they can be more efficient remotely.
“LI Tech Advisors was working remotely 2 years prior to the shutdown. I had at least one different employee each week work remotely in the event of a storm or building outage. We had converted all of our on-prem hardware and services to the cloud including our phone system and servers. We adopted a serverless environment utilizing many of Microsoft’s services as well as other synergistic cloud-based systems. So, when the shutdown occurred, we hit the ground running and were able to convert many of our clients over in record time,” said Buonaspina.
Currently, we are working in a hybrid model, where employees go to the office on a rotating basis, and we allow the employees to schedule this themselves. We have found that this has allowed for a better work-life balance for our employees, and I have to say that my employees tend to give 110% all the time, and employee productivity is the best it has ever been. The employees really appreciate this flexibility of working remotely, especially with fuel prices soaring. Due to the nature of our business, we most likely will continue with a 5-day work week and we tend to only bring on clients that support our structure.
Time Is of the Essence for MSPs/ITSPs
As remote work becomes more advantageous to customers, MSPs will need to find ways to provide remote services and support. MSPs have been able to do this by being readily available to their clients and offering remote services such as remote monitoring and management, remote desktop support, and remote IT infrastructure management.
Said Stephen Riddick, VP of Sales and Marketing of CSP, Inc., “The shift in work has actually been advantageous to us as an MSP as remote-work technology has become more important for firms. For us specifically, we had the technology in place to easily adapt to remote work. Thus, it was an easy transition. The biggest challenge is to maintain our culture in a remote setting. It has also impacted new hire onboarding and training. We are continuing to tweak our processes to make sure we have the best approach possible.”
We are still fully remote. I anticipate we will move to a hybrid model sometime soon, but it would only be 1 to 2 days a week at most. I highly doubt we would ever go back to full in person. Also, I do not anticipate moving to a 4-day workweek. As MSP, we have to work and be available when our clients are working. We would be one of the last firms to shift to a 4-day week, and only if all other clients had already done so.
“In our line of work as Managed IT Services, we cannot allow 4-day work weeks for our technical roles. Our customers are operating six days, or sometimes seven days, a week operating, so we cannot lessen those days to four. For non-technical roles, we could see a four-day workweek become a possibility, although that hasn’t been a big discussion factor internally at this point,” said Nick Martin, Director of Managed Services at Mainstreet IT Solutions.
Since time is so important, many MSPs/ITSPs prefer hybrid models. They are in the office two to three days a week and remote the rest. This gives them more time to focus on their remote work, which can be more demanding, while still being able to provide on-site support when needed. “We are finding the hybrid model works the best for our company. As a business owner, I personally love being able to see everyone face to face, yet there are varying circumstances for each employee that may make more sense to provide remote work. For us, we still require at least a partial on-site per week to maintain communication,” said Martin.
How Productive Can Employees Be Working From Home?
Working remotely and tracking productivity is beneficial for everyone. Keeping track of what’s happening in a team not only helps managers stay on top of it, but also helps employees adjust to the new conditions without losing sight of their goals.
Using KPIs for remote working arrangements can help MSPs to manage and monitor employee productivity, as well as identify any issues that may need to be addressed. Said Martin, “When we develop our standard operating procedures, these are built out to help deliver and cater to our Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). We need to understand what our KPIs are and what measurables are good/bad for the business. Then, we need to ensure that our policies and procedures are built to deliver a healthy KPI measurable. We monitor these KPIs daily through management, so we can quickly audit what is and what is not working.
For some companies, remote work is a temporary solution while the return to the office remains uncertain. However, many MSPs/ITSPs are planning to implement remote and hybrid solutions for the long term. Either way, it’s beneficial to evaluate performances and conduct regular assessments. It is also essential to find the right balance because nobody wants to feel they’re controlled during their work.
Do you run an MSP or ITSP business? What remote work arrangements do you have in place? Are you thinking of changing anything in the future?
