Benefits, risks and how to choose an MSP
In 2026, SMBs are under mounting pressure to optimise the technology they rely on every day. Yet keeping systems updated, preventing cyber incidents, and resolving issues quickly is becoming increasingly expensive and resource‑intensive. As these pressures grow, more businesses are turning to managed service providers (MSPs) for reliable, cost‑effective support that keeps them secure and competitive.
What is a managed service provider (MSP)?
MSPs provide remote management and support of IT services. This can cover a specific area such as cybersecurity or everything to do with IT. An MSP could, in theory, monitor all your digital systems and connections from a distance, including your cloud-based services. They will pick up on any potential or developing problems and rectify them and make sure that your IT systems, licences, and subscriptions are up to date. When you need to update or replace hardware or software, they will let you know.
How do they work?
MSPs will charge a fixed fee for providing all or some of these services, usually this is done on a monthly basis (although you’ll usually be expected to sign-up for a year and possibly longer), which means you have a fixed and predictable spend and you won’t have to worry about managing and monitoring your IT systems.
Benefits of managed services for small and medium businesses
Cost-efficiency and predictability
Knowing how much your IT is going to cost you each month is a big plus – and you won’t have to worry about managing the technology yourself or recruiting and retaining an IT expert. For medium-sized businesses, it may mean that you only need a small IT team. In the end, using an MSP can end up costing you much less than trying to do it all in-house.
With most MSPs you will pay a fixed, monthly fee for a set of pre-defined services, which the provider will deliver to a defined service level agreement. The agreement should also include regular reporting and measurement of performance and contingency plans – and costs – for any exceptions.
Access to expert knowledge
You are also benefiting from the expertise of the MSP and its technicians. They will keep you up to date on developments and changes and make recommendations to you when they feel it’s appropriate, so you do not have the burden and worry of doing all of that yourself.
If a more serious issue develops at some point, you will also benefit from having indirect access to the MSP’s specialists in different areas of IT, such as cloud infrastructure, networking, business applications, and security. These experts can be called in to provide further assistance when required.
Further to this, it’s almost certain that you will be looked after by a named individual or team from the service provider who, over time, will get to know your business and workers. In this sense, it really is like having your own remote IT team.
Scalability in-line with business growth
Scalability is another advantage. If your business is growing, adding and supporting more users or a more complex infrastructure won’t be a problem. Managed services businesses are set-up to be extremely scalable and to take on additional users and customers at short notice. If you need to add new services, to cover remote teams or home workers, for example, it should be possible to do that at relatively short notice.
Cybersecurity improvements
Working with an MSP can be especially useful in an area like cybersecurity, which is vitally important to all businesses now, but also extremely complex, and results in real improvements to overall protection. Managed security specialists will keep on top of new developments and ensure that your systems are kept right up to date, relieving you of these considerable burdens and ensuring you always stay fully protected.
As you have real specialists monitoring, managing, and updating security, you are much less likely to fall foul of any cyberattacks or infiltrations.
Reduced downtime
Similarly, with a team of IT experts constantly overseeing and fine-tuning your network from a distance, you are less likely to experience any downtime. MSPs will be pleased to provide you with details of their track record in this respect, and customer testimonials. Indeed, the maximum amount of downtime you can expect should be set out in the service level agreement, along with the response times and procedures that they will invoke in the event of a system failure.
Decreased need for internal IT staff
With the MSP’s expertise and experience at your disposal, there should be no need for a small business to employ its own dedicated IT staff. In some cases, medium-sized businesses will keep on one or two specialists, to ensure that they have someone to provide hands on support for users. But for most SMBs, once a good working relationship has been established, there should be no need to recruit and retain permanent IT staff. This can reduce costs considerably, free up staff who had previously taken on the role of unofficial IT expert to focus on their real job and save the business a lot of time managing specialist IT staff and trying to replace them when they leave.
Ultimately, using an MSP could mean you will have a better, more efficient, cost-effective IT set-up. Your systems will be more secure, and you’ll have much less downtime.
Potential drawbacks and risks
Loss of direct control
The most obvious concern any business might have is losing direct control of IT services. While this is true, the contract that you have with a managed services provider simply can’t work unless this happens. It means that as well as clear terms of engagement with the MSP, you will need to have a relationship of trust. This of course, can only be built over a period of time and on the foundations of a good, open and candid relationship and a clearly defined service level agreement.
Dependence on third party
Certainly, with respect to security, handing control of IT over to a third party would seem to be exactly the opposite of what you should be doing. MSPs however, will have measures in place to ensure that no-one in their organisation can see or access confidential or personal information and they are themselves, highly secure.
You will though, need to give them the power to change settings on your system. Here again, you will need to have a tight SLA in place and establish a relationship of trust with your MSP. There should be clear and open communications channels, and a reporting schedule that will keep you fully informed of activity and the effectiveness of services.
Concerns about response times
There may also be a concern over response rates and the possibility of your business becoming just one fish in a much larger pond of the MSP’s customers. Here again, the MSP should be able to reassure you. By necessity, MSPs operate on a scalable model, which means that while their expertise is available to numerous other businesses, they should be able to meet quite stringent response times. Most of the time, they will try to prevent issues arising rather than solving problems only when they arise.
Here again, the SLAs you put in place at the start of the agreement will be important.
Contract limitations and hidden costs
Clearly, MSPs cannot be successful if they are not deemed to be entirely trustworthy and they should have no problem providing you with customer references. You should also ensure that provision is made for any unusual circumstances or events that might fall outside the scope of the managed services agreement and how these will be dealt with and paid for. The contract and the SLAs should be reviewed regularly.
Moving over to a managed service
Transitioning to using a managed service does present challenges and it may take time for staff of both companies to get used to the new regime. There may be some disruption in the initial stages and it’s important for both parties to remain flexible and ready to adapt and adjust processes as required.
MSPs will be used to managing their way through this period of adjustment and may be able to help customers by introducing new technologies and procedures that will help things run smoothly. The more preparation you can do in advance, the better.
Key considerations when choosing an MSP partner
Your choice of an MSP partner will be vitally important. Here are some of the factors you should consider:
Service-Level Agreements (SLAs)
Make sure the MSP offers clear service levels that stipulate expected response times, firm guarantees with respect to uptime, documented escalation processes, and clear and measurable performance metrics.
Track record
It is always best to work with an MSP that has a proven record in delivering good results for customers – especially businesses like your own. All MSPs should be able to provide you with:
- Up-to-date performance metrics for their existing clients
- Recent and verifiable customer references and testimonials
- Use-case studies that detail how they work with current clients
- Clear terms and conditions and SLA expectations
Good support structure and communications
You should ensure the MSP has adequate capacity and resources in place to support you and really good communications systems that will ensure you can always get help when you need it.
Adaptability
The MSP should be ready and able to adapt as your needs change and grow along with your business.
Why it might be time to consider a managed service?
‘For SMBs that would rather not deal with the constant challenge of managing the IT systems and cybersecurity, working with a managed services provider is a good option’, says Jon Carnell, channel director – managed service provider partners at TD SYNNEX. ‘This is especially true for fast-growing businesses that may need to scale-up quickly at some point. A managed service gives you a pre-set cost for IT and if you can manage your way through the transition, ensure you have covered all eventualities in the SLA, and develop a good working relationship with your MSP, when done well it carries few risks.’
TD SYNNEX provides a wide range of support services to MSP partners.
Find out more about TD SYNNEX’s Professional, Support & Managed Services on Trusted Advisor.
