Managed Microsoft 365 Services: A Great Deal for MSPs!

28 JUL 2020

As a Managed IT Service Provider (MSP), you offer tailored IT support and services for servers, networks, applications, hardware, etc. But have you considered offering managed Microsoft 365 solutions? With a booming cloud productivity software market, have you invested a thought on how much of a good business sense Microsoft 365 managed services would make?

One common myth MSPs have is that ‘support and maintenance needs disappear once Microsoft Office is moved to the cloud’. But the truth is managing a digital workplace in the cloud is challenging for businesses and they do need a cloud-managed service provider in that case.

Why Microsoft 365 Services?

As of February 2023, there are about 1,354,969 users in the USA alone that have using Microsoft Office 365 services. SMBs and enterprises that have migrated to Microsoft 365, not only have come to trust the modern collaboration and content software but they also strongly rely on it.

The Need for Microsoft 365 Managed Service

For companies, Microsoft 365 migration is one of the many sides of the cloud spectrum while others are the challenges involved in managing and maintaining the O365 environment. Speaking from a decade’s experience, Microsoft 365 consulting at Star Knowledge understand the problems our 600+ clients go through each day. And they are as below:

• Misconfigurations
• Downtimes and performance issues
• Security threats and breaches
• Patch installations
• High development risks of Microsoft 365 solutions
• Custom integrations
• Workflow automation and customizations
• Costly maintenance of Microsoft 365 solutions
• Outages and hand-off issues
• Overloaded or lack of in-house IT team
• Slow response to user requests
• Issues with Phone System and cloud voice
• And MORE!

To get rid of these and many more mind-wracking challenges, companies are seeking 24×7 support and maintenance. And the thousands of mighty managed IT service providers have extended their offerings to O365 because managed Microsoft 365 support is highly rewarding.

When you’re considering including M365 as part of your Managed IT services and wondering how much revenue this could help you generate, you need to understand the below facts:

• Microsoft 365 requires ongoing management of the environment
• Users frequently face challenges with the new solution adoption
• Performance issues are common
• Misconfigurations occur very often
• Office 365 implementation is not accurate all the time
• A hybrid environment is more challenging to maintain than a cloud-only.
• SMBs cannot afford to invest all the time, cost, and resources to maintain their O365 environment themselves
• Businesses want to rapidly achieve business gains out of their cloud investment hence do not want to experience glitches in the system
• SMBs understand the time and cost it requires to train out-of-scope skills to in-house resources

Considering the above business and Microsoft 365 needs, the benefits you can achieve by including M365 services as part of your comprehensive managed IT services are massive. You might as well hire Microsoft 365 consultants to help you generate increased revenue and higher ROI. With our dedicated remote team as a service model, Star Knowledge can help you hire professionals with over 20 years of experience in the field.

Scenarios Where Office 365 Benefits Your Managed Services

You must be an MSP wondering if offering Microsoft Office 365 services can help you achieve a margin along with your traditional solutions. And here comes the truth: Microsoft 365 opens up a whole new revenue channel for MSPs.

Below are the scenarios to help you validate the reasons to offer Microsoft 365 to your customers:

Scenario 1: Your Customers Use Microsoft 365

Most SMBs you work with today are aboard Microsoft 365. The cloud-based service is so much in the trend that it is not going away anytime soon. When your customers have deployed Office 365, as an MSP you become an immediate solution to their problems. When they’re tangled in the cloud they will look for somebody who would help them lead out of the knot.

It is not only managed Office 365 services that you can offer you could include consulting and advisory, user adoption training, maintenance and support, integrations, and migration support as well in your portfolio. Again, to offer these services you don’t necessarily have to recruit resources and train them, you always have an option to team up with Office 365 consultants who are always there for you to achieve that additional revenue.

Scenario 2: Your Customers Want to Migrate to Office 365

“My customers are switching to Office 365!!!!” This is the ultimate worry of Managed IT Service Providers. And why shouldn’t they be? What happens to all the investment they made in infrastructure and tech solutions to offer their core services?

But… Cloud-based services are growing increasingly popular and collaboration and content software like Office 365 is almost everybody’s first consideration. And when your customers are migrating to Office 365, why not lend a hand?

Office 365 is nothing complicated. It is an easier service to offer. It’s ease of deployment, implementation, and migration is what makes it unique. When you help your customers move to Office 365, you’re signing in for opportunities to strengthen relationships and offering additional services down the line. This involves maintenance of their Office 365 environment, offering a 24/7 help desk with advanced security management services which form the very foundation of managed Dynamics 365 services.

Scenario 3: Your Customers Are Not Office 365 Users

Most newly launched businesses / Startups are adopting a cloud-first approach. But when you’re dealing with customers who do not have any connection with the cloud, well you know, it’s time for them to build a connection. As an MSP, by going the extra mile, you could help them build hybrid cloud solutions and help them adopt teams MSP, SharePoint MSP, one drive, Office 365, etc. This way your customers find a way towards digital transformation and you win a long-term client relationship.

How does that sound?

If you’d like to explore opportunities to provide managed office 365 services, get in touch with us to learn how we can help.