Marketopia CEO Terry Hedden (@thedden03) left the sunshine state last week and braved the cold of the Midwest. He did receive a warm reception, though, speaking at the IP Pathways’ 2016 IT Trends Event during three days in Des Moines, Iowa, Kansas City, Missouri and Omaha, Nebraska.

At each presentation, midmarket CIOs in attendance were able to learn about:

• The changes in the IT business
• How IT is delivered
• Ways clients adapt to IT approaches to remain relevant

Terry’s presentation included CompTIA research that gave insight to how mid-markets and enterprises view and use managed service providers (MSPs) for IT services.

MSPs can also benefit from this intelligence. You can gain a better understanding of your prospective clients, enabling you to better position your business for success. Here’s a summary of Terry’s presentation entitled “Trends in Mid-Market & Enterprise Use of Managed Service Providers.”

Challenges Midmarket & Enterprise Firms Face with MSPs

More than 90% of end-user businesses are “very familiar” or “somewhat familiar” with the managed services model. However, 51% of those businesses don’t outsource any of their IT functions. The reason is that many have concerns about outsourcing business functions.

Top Inhibitors of Managed Services Adoptions:

• Skepticism over cost savings/return on investment (ROI)
• General lack of need
• Reluctance to outsource to an outside company
• Perceived loss of control by IT or operations staff
• Concern over disruptions during transition
• Difficulty finding a qualified MSP
• Concerns about pulling IT back in house if things go wrong
• Lack of understanding of how an MSP works in a real-world setting
• Overcoming a negative experience with an MSP or IT outsourcing

How Midmarket & Enterprise Firms Are Using MSPs

Even though these concerns exist, a CompTIA study shows that 50% of businesses not currently using managed services will consider using an outside IT firm in the future. Already, 15% are now evaluating an outside IT firm.

Businesses are beginning to realize that with an MSP, they have the ability to offload work that they can’t do or that they don’t want to do. The benefits are outweighing businesses’ concerns, and many are moving towards outsourcing IT services.

Primary Factors Driving End-User Managed Services:

• Improved efficiency
• Enhanced security
• Proactive approach to maintenance
• Better ROI
• Access to new technologies
• Lack in-house IT for certain functions
• Predictable pricing

Many businesses that already have an in-house IT team recognize that they cannot manage IT by themselves. They don’t have the resources or they simply don’t have enough time in the day. Essentially, they need more hands. In those cases, co-managed IT services makes sense.

By understanding the concerns and the primary factors that drive end-user managed services, MSPs can start the right conversations with prospective clients. You can easily give them peace of mind by settling their concerns.

Three phrases that should always resonate the most when it comes to sharing the benefits of co-managing and collaborating between an MSP and client are:

• Reduce costs
• Do more with less
• Decrease, or even eliminate, downtime

At the end of the day, the more businesses know about your MSP business, the more likely they are to understand the full spectrum of benefits and see the necessity of co-managed IT services.

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