How to choose the right MSP for Your Business

How the role of an MSP has changed & how to choose the right one for Your Business

The term Managed Service Provider (MSP) has existed since the 1990s, when the concept of outsourcing certain elements of your IT infrastructure and service was thought to achieve a higher quality of service at a lower cost.

These reasons remain key business drivers for clients opting for this route but let's face it, outsourcing is no longer solely viewed as a cost-saving exercise – with increasingly competitive markets across all industries innovation has never been so important.  In fact, it is now the leading business reason for outsourcing IT functions, as it allows existing staff to focus their time on developing new ideas to take the business forward.

There are MSPs in abundance nowadays, all of whom offer various service models and capabilities: find details of DSP-Explorer's Oracle MSP status, and our comprehensive Managed Services offerings, on our website. But what key criteria should any business consider when selecting their MSP of choice?

Innovation

Cloud? Hybrid Cloud? Devops? Automation?  These are well recognised trends in today’s marketplace: rather than your service provider resting on their laurels and repeating the same service delivery model day in and day out, businesses SHOULD be appointing MSPs who are forward-thinking and constantly looking to introduce efficiencies for their clients.

DSP continues to champion clever, industry-first initiatives and re-invent the way they deliver database Managed Services, whether they're working on-premise or across multiple cloud platforms.  Using Analytics and Data Visualisation DSP-Explorer can offer a far more intuitive service and use our crystal ball to predict system performance before businesses even have time to consider that these might actually happen.

Quality of Service

Think about it - why would any business outsource parts of their IT responsibilities if they thought doing so would lead to a significant down-turn in the levels of service they can offer, both to their internal and external customers?

We deliver our Managed Services in line with leading quality standards, so our clients know their delivery will be executed in a controlled and structured fashion.  Dedicated Account and Service Management from DSP-Explorer helps us to maintain the highest levels of service for our current and new prospective clients.

Operational scale with a real focus on your business

Don’t be a small fish in a big pond – your business is as important as any large multi-national, so don’t settle for second best.  DSP-Explorer is approaching 20 years in business, with decades more experience to be found within our combined workforce and thousands of infrastructure elements managed under our Managed Services portfolio.

Our clients benefit from fast, responsive support across any level of their infrastructure, database and applications, from a large team of experienced consultants.

Specialisation

By collecting accreditations for specialist skills, MSPs demonstrate the impressive depth of their experience and knowledge in supporting businesses.

Some MSPs – particularly SI’s – will provide huge teams of people to support and manage all aspects of IT, from 1^st Line calls through to the detailed management of underlying infrastructure and applications.  This model seems to have achieved mixed success rates as some businesses have had no choice but to bring services back in-house due to poor service, high cost and lack of business understanding pertinent to the client’s operations.

Make sure the business you partner with are specialists in the field that is the key focus for YOUR business: if you focus primarily on database and applications, then entrust your support to specialists in that field.  DSP-Explorer possesses a multitude of accreditations across our Managed Services business, all of which focus on managing data.

Long-standing client relationships

Over the years there have been several cases of high-profile providers who have fallen by the wayside. This may have been due a multitude of factors, but a key contributor is the fact that they chased down the short-term wins without thinking of the long-term.

By paying close attention to YOUR business needs, as opposed to just focusing on our own goals, DSP-Explorer has cultivated and maintained long-standing relationships with our clients (check out some of our Case Studies to read what our clients say about us).  Regular customer satisfaction surveys and face-to-face meetings allow DSP-Explorer to adapt our services to suit your business when it needs to make a change.

Reference-ability

When selecting your partner to look after your ‘crown jewels’ - i.e. your enterprise infrastructure and applications - it’s important to know that they understand your specific business challenges and focus.  Having points of reference within the key industries in which our clients work is a valuable asset.

As DSP-Explorer have Managed Service clients operating in all key industries, we can offer our clients business peace of mind.  We know what is important to your business and how we can help keep you ahead of the competition (or perhaps simply provide a grounding on what is happening with your competition), so that you can focus on margins, innovation, and growth.

Financial Stability

The ‘B’ word looms large over the UK economy and this uncertainty poses questions about the future of countless businesses, the stability of revenues and supplier costs across multiple industries.  Don’t risk your service levels with MSPs who are small, potentially running at risk and with little investment.

Equally, don’t rely on your big SI’s who run multi-million pound contracts. They will have exorbitant running costs: you don't want to risk a few high profile contract losses on their part having a knock-on effect for your business.

Instead, trust your services to DSP-Explorer, an MSP with solid financial footing, that manages all aspects of operational costs, delivery and resourcing to granular level, and has the backing of continued investment in enhancing our customer service skills and growing the business.

DSP-Explorer has recently been awarded Oracle MSP status to go alongside our already well-established Microsoft CSP accreditation – this is a testament to our ability to offer our clients an all-encompassing service across the respective Cloud platforms.  If your business remains sceptical about the Cloud and the technical, financial and overall business benefits it can bring, why not let us prove them to you through our Oracle Cloud Bitesize Programme?

Don’t get left behind and settle for receiving an average service for the ‘fear of the unknown’ – get in contact with DSP-Explorer today and let us help you drive your business forward.