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Maximising manpower for business customers
With IT teams struggling with a lack of manpower and skills to cope with the increase security demands on networks, MSPs can provide a welcome relief. In the second of a three-part series, we look at the growing need for managed security service offerings
If you’ve spoken with one of your customers lately, you’ve likely heard the all too common difficulties they are having when it comes to managing IT resources. In particular, security teams that are lacking in staff and necessary skills, yet are expected to drive consistent results regardless.
Over the past two years, this lack of internal IT skills among users has become the primary catalyst for manager service provider (MSP) demand.
When Barracuda surveyed 50 channel partners across Europe in 2019, we discovered that a majority (69%) cited customer skills shortage as the main driver for managed services uptake, compared to the leading factor in 2018, which was reduction of capital expenditure (capex) and other costs (61%).
Unfortunately, their circumstances aren’t likely to change any time soon. In the meantime, they’re crying out for help from partners like yourself to alleviate their challenges and help their security teams maintain a secure network.
With time and resources at an all-time low, the last thing user security teams should be losing time on is menial, repetitive tasks such as network management, security remediation and patch updates. Their time is precious and such tasks shouldn’t continue to weigh them down.
Even if they were to suddenly have significantly more time on their hands, IT teams would still be held back by their limited numbers. Shortages in skills and finances prevent them from growing their team to be able to cover all the tasks before them, but they can address how they operate to ensure better output.
What are they looking for?
What businesses are crying out for is a way to ease their burden, to shed mindless tasks and focus their limited resources on creating and maintaining a secure environment throughout their organisation. That’s where managed services come in.
By taking over the finding and testing of the latest patches and software updates as they become available, and providing continuous insights into security levels that need addressing; managed security solutions can absolve teams of repetitive routine tasks and give them the ability to manage and monitor security throughout a network.
If you’re not already providing a managed security service for your end-user customers, or you know a potential customer that would benefit greatly from this level of support, I urge you to start that conversation today.
When offering the ability to lessen the load of today’s IT teams, I guarantee you’ll be met by nothing but interest and gratitude – with sales to follow.
Read more from Barracuda’s MSP series
- Part one: For those uncertain about investing in managed services in 2020, doing so could be the answer to freeing up your IT team to turn its attention to areas where it’s needed most.
- Part three: Barracuda’s EMEA director talks of the importance of delivering promises and being honest about services to build customer trust.
