N-able's David Weeks: 'There's a big opportunity with the talent shortage for MSPs to focus on automation'
Partner boss tips the biggest opportunities for MSPs in 2023 and gives his top message to partners
MSPs can turn the tables on the industry-wide talent shortage problem and use it as a chance to raise their automation game.
Speaking with CRN, N-able VP of partner experience David Weeks discussed the current managed services market, where the opportunities lie and gave his key message to partners.
Weeks believes that a current industry headwind, the talent shortage, can actually be a tailwind for N-able's MSP partners.
"There's a big opportunity with a talent shortage for MSPs to focus on automation," he said.
"Automation is integral to their business to drive more efficiencies and more profitability. And I think it's got to be a focus area.
"I think MSPs need to bring on dedicated staff for this and create what I call this culture of automation in the business."
He added the second big challenge, brought on by the talent shortage, is on the co-managed side.
"If you see a reduction in labour anywhere in the market, it also happens at the mid enterprise and enterprise level," Weeks said.
"So they're looking for that help. MSPs need to start thinking about going up market versus just staying necessarily where they are on the SMB level."
Continue reading to get Weeks' thoughts on whether or not vendor layoffs are benefitting partners...
N-able's David Weeks: 'There's a big opportunity with the talent shortage for MSPs to focus on automation'
Partner boss tips the biggest opportunities for MSPs in 2023 and gives his top message to partners
Are the vendor layoffs benefiting MSPs?
There has been chatter in the channel that the mass vendor layoffs of 2023 have presented an opportunity for channel partners to pick up some of the available talent.
However, Weeks is yet to see this happen to N-able's partners.
"Not yet. I have not seen that but I think it's coming.
"And I think that's just a matter of MSPs finding the right sources to locate those people.
"You do see a little bit of it all the time from vendor down, but in the MSP space, we haven't seen a lot of layoffs in the vendor side. It's been more at the higher level, larger organisations and I think those people tend to work their contacts first.
"It'll be interesting to see if it does trickle down but I think it is getting better anyway today."
Biggest challenges facing MSPs?
Weeks conceded the talent shortage is somewhat of an obstacle for MSPs who are looking to scale, but added this presents another opportunity.
"This is where I go back to MSPs being able to find that efficiency internally because they see the opportunity in front of them, but they have a concern on taking on that additional business if they don't have bodies in seats.
"So MSPs need to make that investment.
"The other challenge that we're hearing from them is, do they have the right stack of security services?"
Weeks explained end customers are becoming more educated, leading MSPs to weigh up what the right number of products to buy and sell is.
Click next to find out what Weeks' top message to his MSPs is...
N-able's David Weeks: 'There's a big opportunity with the talent shortage for MSPs to focus on automation'
Partner boss tips the biggest opportunities for MSPs in 2023 and gives his top message to partners
N-able's top message to partners?
Weeks outlined two areas MSPs need to be thinking about today.
"One is investing in their internal processes and the way that they're delivering their service," he said.
"MSPs buy a lot of technology, but they struggle to harness 100 per cent of the power of that technology.
"My message always is work with your vendors because there's a tonne of training that is provided to help you harness that.
"The second area I think MSPs need to invest in is ‘where do I want to move in the market?'
"So what is their strategic plan and their goal going forward into 2024? And if that's moving up market, then you need to start planning for that today. If you're staying where you are, that's great, but how are you going to manage that scale going forward and still continue to look back at that efficiency internally?"
How is the managed services market evolving?
Several vendors have told CRN they are actively encouraging traditional resellers to start becoming more of an MSP.
In response to this, Weeks gave his thoughts on the future of the market.
"The market isn't gonna change that dramatically.
"MSPs have a lot of opportunity, and I think Covid changed a lot of the perception of MSPs in the marketplace.
"As a result of that, they still have the opportunity to harness that and get themselves into different areas of the market today.
"Ultimately, to me, the role of the MSP going forward, it's just going to be a lot more strategic."
Weeks urged MSPs to look at their specialities in order to continue seeing growth.
"They know how to manage the cloud. They know how to manage security. They know how to manage devices, but managed services is just an overlay of that, so you need to think strategically about how you do that.
"I think we're gonna see a lot more consulting and professional services come out of MSPs going forward, which is going to allow them to attract a different level of customer as well too."
Where is N-able investing?
One of his main priorities right now is to get on the road and in front of partners to lay out N-able's roadmap on what's coming for security and data protection.
On what N-able sees as its high growth opportunity for investment, Weeks revealed the vendor is focused on the cloud, teasing some new products to be launched shortly down the line.
"It's going to give our partners the ability to manage across not just cloud infrastructure, but Microsoft 365 licencing user management.
"It's been a request for a while in the market, so we're bringing a comprehensive platform to them that then attaches to our RMM suite."