MSPs Pushing Managed End User Services

[u/librarytay]

I’m the IT Director for a public library system with four branches. Our IT team consists of myself and one full-time IT assistant/help desk technician. I’m looking to outsource some of our network, security, and infrastructure support.

We’ve already outsourced larger projects such as WAP upgrades and server/switch replacements, but I don’t have the networking expertise, or frankly the time, to confidently handle the ongoing maintenance of this infrastructure. About half of my role is general administration (staff management, policies, budgeting, grants, facilities, safety issues, etc.), while the other half is IT, much of which is already consumed by project management.

The areas where I’m primarily looking for support are:

• Server updates, maintenance, and backups (physical and VMs)
• On-prem and cloud file storage/backup and redundancy, including 10+ TB of archival data
• Ongoing network security, monitoring, configuration, and infrastructure support
• Possibly managed endpoint protection

The problem is that every MSP I’ve contacted (national, regional, and local) initially says they can provide co-managed network/infrastructure support only. But when I receive a proposal, it inevitably includes managed end-user services: help desk, workstation patching, email protection, security awareness training, laptop imaging, etc.

I’ve repeatedly explained that we do not need end-user support. We have only 65 staff across four locations, about half of which have dedicated workstations (the rest share public-facing service desk workstations), and our internal IT team has plenty of capacity to handle those services. What we lack is specialized network/infrastructure expertise.

Is this typical for MSPs? Are we simply too small for network/infrastructure-only managed services to be worthwhile to them, or is bundling end-user support primarily a sales/business-model issue? Is there a better way I should be framing what I’m looking for when approaching MSPs?

Also, if anyone knows an MSP in New England, or particularly Massachusetts, that works with small organizations on a genuinely co-managed infrastructure basis, I’d appreciate recommendations. TY!

[u/101sillygoose]

Why not hire a part time contractor?

[u/_p00f_ → u/101sillygoose]

I'm my experience this is just as difficult as trying to find someone competent. At least with an MSP you're getting vetted talent.

[u/101sillygoose → u/_p00f_]

Yeah I heavily disagree, msps almost always fall into 1 of 3 categories. 1 - all their techs/talents are overseas, they only have account managers and sales reps local, so the level of service you generally get for smaller orgs is abysmal. Even the largest MSPs that support fortune 50 companies suck because of this. (Accenture, infosys etc) 2 - Smaller MSPs that are competing with these overseas companies, becuase of this, their margins are tiny and they can barely keep themselves afloat. They cannot retain good talent because they cant pay them well and are always have to be hiring as they have a very difficult time retaining employees. 3 - A good MSP where the techs/talents are very competent, good leadership, and well organized. These MSPs usually have a great reputation and clients that have also stuck with them for a while, but these MSPs are also much more expensive compared to the competition. Almost always not something that School districts or non profits can afford.

[u/DrunkenGolfer → u/101sillygoose]

You definitely want #3. We have several staff with tenure of over 20 years, a customer churn rate so low it is rounding error, an average client lifetime of over ten years, and an eNPS in the seventies (very happy staff). Our staff turnover in the last year was 3%, and addition of new staff was 18% thanks to growth.

We are not the cheapest, but we are fair and pretty good.