The COVID-19 crisis has created an unprecedented situation for MSPs on a global level. As businesses adapt to drastically changed work environments, the quality of collaboration and communication is having a profound impact on both productivity and employee output.
“As enterprises across the globe grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, they need to enable remote working at scale for a majority of their workforce,” said Jan Erik Aase, director and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research. “This requires employees to have seamless access to their workplace apps in the device they carry, whether personal or company-owned.”
MSPs and IT consultancies are in a strong position and in demand now more than ever. However, remote working, and the effects of the pandemic on network traffic, is causing pressure on smaller service providers and captive centers- that have not been as resilient as MSPs- to handle the massive increases in workload.
Large vs small MSPs
Many organizations are looking to work with larger, more established MSPs to cut costs and increase reliability. These larger providers have a greater capability to manage each aspect of a large corporation’s unified communications and collaboration (UCC), like advanced technology foresight. They can also provide an integrated approach to their clients’ communications needs, but can they service the needs of smaller enterprises who need them to focus on their particular business?
Small to medium sized businesses who choose to use smaller MSPs may find a more personalized approach to their needs. But at the same time, they may fall short in back-end processes like 24/7/365 monitoring, proactive IT planning and staying on top of new technologies.
Taking this into account, it’s more important than ever that all MSPs have the right tools and processes in place to improve operational efficiencies.
MSPs for customer experience management
“In light of the COVID-19 situation, the enforcement of remote working and increased shift towards digital communication have accentuated the importance of customer service. Enterprises are looking to serve their customers through digital channels while social distancing measures are in place. Contact Centers take center stage and will play a more critical role in helping enterprises drive customer experience,” ISG reported. MSPs need to ensure that these businesses operate at maximum efficiency and effectiveness and bring key elements to the table.
Managed Platform as a Service
Given the complexity, MSPs are best suited to manage Contact Center environments optimally, utilizing their breadth of IT expertise, providing Contact Center Platform as a Service (CCPaaS) that accelerates flexible workforces and assists enterprises with improved resilience on an unending basis.
Blurred boundaries of the competitive environment
The boundaries of competitive customer experience management services are becoming vaguer, as a result of new service companies, ITOs and BPOs emerging in the market. MSPs are standing out by leveraging digital resource augmentation (AI, Bots, Automation) and enhancing their CCPaaS with high-value, specialized services, like HR or Back Office Services.
Proving value with monitoring and troubleshooting
To maintain excellent relationships and customer satisfaction, MSPs need to access to real-time and granular information about their managed UC and Contact Center platforms. Tools that can help them gain deep insights, comprehensive visibility, and customer-specific reports to help them make critical decisions, will be highly valuable.
The appropriate strategies and indicators will help organizations track progress, and save time, money and resources to maximize ROI.
IR’s solutions provide a new generation of network intelligence and analytics technology for UCC and contact centers. From a single pane of glass, providers can get real-time, application level, multidimensional details about the network, services, network flows, and usage patterns.
