A report from Kaspersky found that when evaluating potential vendors, price continues to be the most important characteristic managed service providers (MSPs) consider. A full 89% of MSPs surveyed said price was their top priority, followed by features and functionality (88%) and technical support (88%).
The MSPs in 2023 survey polled 500 MSP decision-makers in the U.S. and Canada in October 2022 to identity the needs, priorities and goals of MSPs in North America as 2023 kicks off. Overwhelmingly, the results found that the most important characteristic MSPs look for in vendors is price, with 89% of respondents listing that as their top priority.
While price point was ranked the most important factor for MSPs when considering whether or not to work with a vendor, features and functionality tied with support for second place (88%), followed by efficacy (87%) and market share (84%).
Further, the survey results showed that when it comes to technical support, MSPs placed the most value on around-the-clock availability; full-time technical support was a major consideration (58%). This was followed by telephone support (56%), regular business hours (55%) and support via email (54%). Extended technical support is so valuable to MSPs that 42% of respondents said they'd be willing to spend between 11% and 15% of their product cost on extended support, according to the survey.
“It comes as no surprise that MSPs are looking for a competitively priced solution. However, almost neck and neck are the requirements for features/functionality and efficacy,” said Trevor Serebro, MSP and distribution territory channel manager for Kaspersky North America, in a statement about the research. “This data highlights that while MSPs that serve the SMB market need to be competitive from a pricing standpoint, they understand that providing resilient layers of security and effective solutions is just as important.”
When it comes to security, many MSPs are increasing their focus in that area, and vendors are taking notice. According to the survey, MSPs and MSSPs are currently selling—or plan to sell in the next 12 months—managed detection and response (50%), threat detection (47%), endpoint detection and response (46%) and endpoint protection (45%).
Considering that MSPs sell into a number of industries, it was important to know what verticals they believe are seeing the most growth. Predictably, IT came in first at 52%, followed by finance (32%), healthcare (27%), transportation (27%), retail (26%) and manufacturing (26%), according to the survey.
With cyberinsurance also increasingly important, MSPs were also asked if they required their customers to have coverage. An overwhelming 90% of total respondents said they required their customers to have cyberinsurance, proving this relatively new model is mandatory and here to stay in 2023.
