More than half of MSPs in Europe have problems trying to persuade customers to adopt the best-fit solutions they recommend, despite a lack of IT security expertise continuing to drive outsource services.
According to Kaspersky Labs’ Maintaining MSP Momentum report, which delves into the challenges and opportunities faced across the evolving IT landscape.
Over the last few years, the MSP market has grown rapidly, with research firm Gartner tipping the global public services market to grow by 17.5 percent in 2019 alone. Reflecting this trend, Kaspersky’s report found that 31 percent of surveyed businesses already outsource cybersecurity – while 21 percent are planning to follow suit over the coming year.
Around a third of companies with 500 employees or less said they do so because they lack the required IT knowledge and expertise within their business.
For MSPs, the challenge is in recommending services to these organisations, Kaspersky says, with 30 per cent identifying disagreements with clients as a significant pain point when offering advice.
Customers’ lack of IT security skills only compounds the issue, with nearly two-thirds of MSPs responding that users are the source of most IT problems and 69 percent saying that users not adhering to security policies represents a key security concern.
To reduce these risks, Kaspersky Lab says it is important that MSPs offer up the “best possible advice” to arm clients with everything they need when looking to adopt the best possible solutions and processes for their needs.
“Organisations are often driven to outsource services because they lack the internal IT systems or security knowledge, but the relationship still needs sufficient investment and understanding, for both parties to get the most out of it”, said Ivan Bulaev, Head of Global Channel at Kaspersky. “Any disagreement or reduced budgets should not come at the cost of compromised IT security.
“MSPs can be key advisors to their customers by offering sought-after expertise, and with an expanded list of solutions they can help businesses stay secure.”
