Managed Service Providers or ‘MSPs’ have never been more relevant or critical to the success of their Australian business customers navigating choppy waters as they will be in 2024.

Simultaneously, MSPs face headwinds from growing recessionary fears constraining budgets, access to talent and, counterintuitively, an explosion of choice complicating on which technologies they build mutual success.

So how to twin the technology and business model strands of an MSP’s DNA?

CRN went to the source to ask leading Australian MSPs how they synch these mutually supportive aspects of their business.

This State of the MSP 2024 report covers the trinity of high-level concepts affecting the sector in the year ahead, these being:

• Sustainable business models to promote success for MSPs and customers
• Managed security insights to propel resilience and profitability
• How to get the word out through proven marketing programs and techniques.

CRN canvassed 30 voices across the ecosystem from MSPs themselves to vendors and critically, customers to ‘sense check’ claims we heard. We interviewed the voices one-on-one, asking standardised questions to guide our deeper dives.

Among our MSPs were well known names from around Australia:

• Paul Bouris, CEO, Hexicor Group (formerly Azentro and Calibre One), a provider of managed services, IT and telemetry services in Qld, SA and the Northern Territory.
• Grant Crough, MD, Leap Strategies, a provider of managed cybersecurity, compliance and storage solutions based in Melbourne.
• Chuong Mai-Viet, MD, Fuse Technology, multiple Microsoft-awarded managed services provider from Sydney.
• David Norris, MD, Nortec, a storied provider of managed services including cybersecurity from Sydney.
• James Sutton, MD, Office Solutions IT, a Perth managed services provider and virtual CIO specialising in accounting, healthcare, resources and legal.
• Zaun Bhana, MD, Leap Consulting, IT business advisers specialising in professional services in Perth, WA.

Against this MSP team, we spoke to analyst Don Ribar (Gartner) and Ryan Spillane (360 Consulting) — both former MSPs — and marketing experts Nina Christian (Braveda), Thomas Unwin (Mogrify), and Nigel Murphy (Social Gen). We also spoke to other experts who you will meet in this report.  

We ran this collected intel through the likes of Bruce Fitzgerald, CEO of Melbourne electronics designer and manufacturer Extel Technologies, to learn what really mattered to customers and how a MSP can pique their interest.

And while we acknowledge that there are inestimable thousands of potential voices, we hope that what our sample had to say will resonate with you.