According to industry research from Jumpcloud, close to 50% of small to midsized businesses (SMBs) rely on a managed service provider (MSP) for all their IT needs, while between 75% to 94% outsource one or more IT functions (e.g., cybersecurity, data backup, virtual CISO) to an MSP. Outsourcing to an MSP gives SMBs access to the latest tools, such as AI automation and cloud-based solutions, with reduced operational downtime and lower total cost versus maintaining internal IT staff.
Despite these advantages, a study from ConnectWise finds that 25 to 50% of small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are looking to replace their current MSP, in large part due to cybersecurity concerns. Other top complaints include poor device performance, remote monitoring issues, and frequent/unplanned outages.
How do you know if your MSP is hindering your business growth? Here are the 5 top indicators that it might be time to move on.
Slow Response Times
An MSP’s response time is the period between the user submitting a service or support request and a technician starting work on it. The time between ticket submission and the issue getting fixed is known as resolution time. Most MSPs use service level agreements (SLAs) to anticipate how fast they will respond depending on a problem’s severity.
If your MSP consistently fails to acknowledge, address, or resolve tickets within the expected or contractually agreed timeframe, they are negatively impacting your productivity and slowing down the pace of your operations.
Indications that slow response times are becoming a long-term problem include:
- Consistent failure to meet SLAs
- A growing backlog of unresolved tickets
- Poor technician communication, especially on critical or urgent problems
- Failure to promptly or proactively address problems unless employees repeatedly complain
- Difficulty getting accurate status updates on tickets
Limited Scalability
Many MSPs are SMBs themselves, and operate with a limited staff. For them, scaling up to support growing customer organizations can be a formidable challenge, especially when it comes to accessing high-demand and honing important skills in rapidly evolving areas like AI, cybersecurity, and cloud computing.
Signs your MSP is struggling to grow with you include:
- Staffing bottlenecks where support comes down to one or a few overworked admins
- High turnover of MSP staff, making it hard to build continuity and context
- Long lead times to add new user licenses, which delay rollouts or complicate onboarding
- The MSP has not upgraded its own systems, which limits their efficiency and business capabilities as well as yours
- The MSP has limited preventive focus and addresses server crashes and other issues reactively
- Patches and updates are backlogged, exposing known vulnerabilities and jeopardizing cyber insurance contract compliance
- The MSP does little to help your business with IT planning or strategy
Recurring Outages or Reliability Issues
Downtime should not be routine in any organization. Recurring reliability or performance issues are a strong indication that your MSP is unable to provide a stable operational environment and avert preventable outages.
Symptoms of an MSP’s inability to address recurring operational shortfalls include:
- Reliance on quick fixes versus identifying and solving root causes
- Reactive recovery from IT failures versus proactively preventing them
- Ongoing or frequent failures to meet SLAs
- Lack of advanced technology and/or expertise to address recurring issues or keep up with business changes
- Hardware and other infrastructure components failing because replacements weren’t scheduled
- Poor visibility into IT performance, making it hard to measure value and ROI for the IT services you receive
Security Gaps
Cyber threats are constantly evolving. Today threat actors frequently leverage AI to escalate attack speed and cadence. Security defenses and risk management priorities need to evolve also, while still integrating smoothly with IT services.
Red flags that your MSP is not maintaining an adequate security program include:
- Reactive cybersecurity posture: If your MSP isn’t regularly assessing and enhancing your security controls, such as layering on AI-powered threat detection, your business may be exposed to increasing levels of financial, operational, and reputational risk.
- Lack of cybersecurity strategy: Your MSP should be actively collaborating with you on implementing advanced security and compliance solutions aligned with your business goals. If you’re doing that on your own, they are not fully meeting your security needs and are putting your growth and brand at risk.
If advanced, active security services like 24×7 threat detection and incident response are siloed from your MSP’s core offerings, switching to a provider that offers both IT and security services in an integrated package can help you reduce risks and support incident recovery capabilities while simplifying your vendor portfolio.
Project Delays Due to Lack of Support Resources
If your IT projects are delayed due to a lack of support resources, chances are your MSP is overextended, understaffed, and/or straining to manage their clients’ capacity needs.
These are top warning signals that an MSP is starved for resources and slowing your business process improvements and growth:
- Stalled IT infrastructure projects: Deadlines on key IT projects like security upgrades or cloud migrations keep slipping because specialists are frequently pulled away to resolve support issues.
- Lack of dedicated project staff: Planned upgrade activities are often put on hold so technicians can reactively do damage control on an outage or other crisis.
- Strategic stagnation. Lack of staff leaves no time for strategic planning and proactive decisions involving technology systems and capabilities.
Moving from a “Good Enough” MSP to a Great MSP
A great MSP is not just a service provider or product vendor but a strategic partner that is ready and able to go beyond simply maintaining the status quo. The best MSPs offer proactive solutions that align with your specific business needs to help advance efficiency, productivity, profitability, and growth—while keeping digital risks in check.
The following table compares qualities of great versus “good enough” MSPs:
| “Good enough” MSP | Great MSP |
|---|---|
| Reactive problem-solving | Proactive problem-solving and solution implementation |
| Communicates using technical jargon or complex terms | Clear communication that explains technical issues in business terms |
| Offers standard or basic solutions | Innovative, leading-edge solutions tailored to your unique needs |
| Does not support strategic planning | Focuses on strategic advancement |
| Focuses on meeting SLAs | Pricing is transparent and predictable |
| Costs creep up with no corresponding increase in service efficacy | Has deep experience in your industry |
| Not a specialist in your industry |
How to Objectively Evaluate Your Current MSP
MSP relationships don’t necessarily end with a crisis. More often, smaller problems continue to arise and eventually build up to a level which can’t be overlooked.
To evaluate how well your current MSP is supporting your business:
- Clearly define your expectations for success, including capabilities you want but do not currently have (e.g., 24×7 threat monitoring, managed detection and response).
- Scrutinize your MSP’s performance. Do they consistently hit—or miss—SLA targets? How well does their team communicate under pressure? Do they offer dashboards and other timely performance reporting? Do they have a proven, documented process for client success?
- Are they able to deliver and support the latest technology? Do they regularly review your IT and cybersecurity roadmap?
- How do their SLAs and performance compare with industry benchmarks? Are they ahead of their peers, or not keeping up?
How to Switch MSPs
Moving to a new MSP can create considerable anxiety and business risk. Take these steps to help reduce potential disruption:
- Review your current MSP contract with your legal team to ensure you correctly understand termination clauses, notice periods, and potential penalties.
- Proactively map out your short- and long-term IT strategy and goals to help you identify and engage with your new MSP.
- Research new providers based on services, industry expertise, recommendations, cost factors, and cultural “fit.” Be sure to also evaluate their onboarding/transition process.
- Manage the change internally with timely communication to reduce resistance and uncertainty.
- Notify your current MSP in writing based on your contract terms. Include a frank explanation of the factors that led to your decision.
- Work closely with your new MSP on a detailed transition plan that defines detailed steps and timelines, shared and separate responsibilities, and risk reduction tactics.
- Be prepared to facilitate the information transfer from current to new provider. You should be able to lean on your new MSP for support.
Next steps
If you suspect that your current MSP relationship is holding your business back, it may be time to consider alternatives before the situation worsens.
CBIZ is a trusted partner delivering advanced, cost-effective solutions that integrate IT and cybersecurity services for SMBs across all business sectors. Our expertise and comprehensive offerings enhance business success, reduce risk, and offer peace of mind to stakeholders.
Frequently Asked Questions
A managed service provider (MSP) focuses on general IT infrastructure, operations, and user support. A managed security service provider (MSSP) specializes in advanced cybersecurity services.
Typical drivers for IT outsourcing among SMBs include lower or more predictable costs, improved access to technical experts, 24×7 monitoring capability, better cybersecurity, and support for growing compliance demands.
The main financial benefit of outsourcing IT may not be total cost but rather converting an unpredictable cost into a predictable monthly cost. Access to skilled professionals on demand without the high cost of full-time, dedicated IT employees is also important for many SMBs.
Common reasons why businesses switch MSPs include increasing costs, outgrowing their service offerings, poor support response times, insufficient focus on cybersecurity, poor communication, lack of transparency/reporting, and recurring downtime.
The chief risks during an MSP transition are service gaps, extended downtime, data lockout, inadequate documentation, backup failures, and “surprise” exit costs. A leading MSP will follow a proven onboarding roadmap to minimize disruption and downtime.
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