Your MSP business can be profitable either in a break-fix or managed services delivery model. Which is most appropriate to your specific tech company will depend on a few factors. Starting out, you may want to go with break-fix options; but managed services are better for building long-term relationships with customers.
Determining Which Is Best for You
If you’re unfamiliar, break/fix support is just what it sounds like. When a customer has a machine break down, you fix it. This is very basic and straightforward. Sometimes, your demographic is more amenable to this service model, and going against it will ultimately be bad for you. However, if you are going the break/fix route, there’s a high propensity for reduced engagement and relationship.
With break/fix, customers often pay a small monthly fee, and you don’t come out until something breaks. Then the costs can vary. Oftentimes, repair is more costly than maintenance. You’ve heard the old saying: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Well, managed services are “prevention”, break/fix services are “cure”.
So, though you may get more money in “chunks” through the break/fix model, clients aren’t likely to put up with that sort of service over the long-haul, especially as they expand. What you might want to do is have a hybridized service delivery model which provides break/fix support to smaller clients, and managed services to larger ones, if that’s feasible for your MSP. With managed services, you’ll be expected to provide a few different large-scale services. For example, you’ll probably have to provide things like:
- Monitoring and support
- Cloud computing options and “as-a-service” provisions
- Protective Security Solutions: Mail Protection, Automated Antivirus Software Patching
- Storage Options, Backup Options, Recovery Options, Archival Solution
A Closer Look At MSP and Break/Fix Provisions
An MSP business that provides services regularly will want to get ahead of infection from external threats. If you’re going with a single monthly subscription fee, and if clients get infected with a digital virus, your MSP foots the bill to get them to normal again within the requirements of your service delivery agreement. If you can’t eat the cost a couple of times when surprise issues develop, you might want to stick with break/fix support for a while.
In terms of cloud computing, this is highly demanded in modernity. So are protective security solutions which keep mail secure and assure automated antivirus updates take place with regularity. Storage, recovery, backups, and archival solutions are additionally trending right now. So, if you’re unable to provide those things, you may want to stick with break/fix service delivery until you can.
Choosing the Best Service Delivery Options
Your MSP business needs to be properly prepared toward the delivery of services clients expect. If you can’t fix surprise issues affordably, if you can’t store data, if you don’t have infrastructure to truly manage client needs, you might want to stick with break/fix support. If you can provide such services, then go the managed support route.
