An MSP’s Survival Guide to Co-Managed IT services

A crotchety old geek’s road map on marketing, selling and providing Managed Services to organizations with existing IT staff

Can Managed Service Providers (MSPs) work with organizations that have their own IT employees? Historically this has always been a recipe for disaster. Either the service offering is so watered down (think monitoring only) that it loses its value, or the MSP tries to convince management to completely eliminate the position.

But it can be done. More importantly, it can be done systematically, and without recreating your traditional MSP offerings. An MSP can directly market to organizations having IT departments, offering measurable benefits and values. And create a unique selling proposition in an industry where many MSPs are becoming a commodity.

By creating a mutually supportive relationship between the Internal IT employees and your MSP organization, both parties will see the benefit. By creating an environment where the Internal IT Folks use your current systems, tools, methods and procedures, you’ll build a lasting, positive relationship between the two parties. This book breaks CoMITs down into 4 sections:

This book won’t force you to reinvent your existing MSP practice, but will help you adapt your existing MSP organization into one that can concurrently offer CoMITs services in addition to traditional MSP services.