SMEs Fueling MSP Growth According to JumpCloud Research

U.S. firms rely more heavily on MSPs than their U.K. counterparts, according to new JumpCloud research.

The survey of U.K. and U.S. admins by JumpCloud shows that small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) are fueling MSP growth. In the U.S., 34% of admins say an MSP completely manages their IT program. This includes technology, process and support – versus 20% in the U.K. Nine percent of U.S. admins have no plans to work with MSPs, versus 16% in the U.K.

There is also a big difference between admins in and outside of London. Twenty-eight percent of companies in London use an MSP to manage all their IT, compared to 14% outside London. Similarly, nine percent of companies in London do not use an MSP at all and have no plans to do so, compared to 21% outside London.

U.S. admins are also more concerned about MSP security. Despite higher MSP rates in use, more U.S. admins (41.5%) report concerns about MSP safety than U.K. admins (34.3%).

Overall, IT admins are cautious about MSP security. MSPs would be wise to have a solid security approach in place and communicate it clearly. Despite high integration with MSPs, over one-third of SME respondents who currently work with an MSP have concerns about how their MSP manages security (37%).

JumpCloud’s Katie Clouse

Katie Clouse is vice president of global MSP sales at JumpCloud. She said with the number of applications most organizations require to get work done, “it’s no surprise that so many SMEs are offloading IT management to partners.”

“MSPs are perfectly positioned to reduce cost and complexity for small and medium-sized organizations. Growing industry interest in simplifying IT will likely lead to ever-faster MSP adoption.”

Key Findings

The JumpCloud research was released to coincide with London Tech Week. It indicates SMEs see MSPs as essential partners. Eighty-eight percent say they currently use an MSP or are considering one. SMEs are most commonly using MSPs to support their internal IT team (38%), though almost one-third (27%) use one to completely manage the IT program.

Knowledge, cost-savings and user experience are key MSP benefits. The top three reasons IT teams turn to MSPs are that they are up to date on the latest technologies (61%), can provide a better user experience (53%) and are cost-effective (52%).

MSPs are deployed for a wide range of functions. SMEs rely most heavily on MSPs for cloud storage (51%), system security (48%), system management (48%) and system monitoring (43%).

MSPs are seen as invaluable for efficiency, security, user experience and overall support. Seventy percent say use of an MSP has resulted in better security. Fifty-three percent report a better employee experience, 37% say it has made their IT jobs easier and 33% say it makes them more effective at managing IT.

IT independence, over-tooling and cost, are the biggest barriers to MSP implementation. For those who don’t use MSPs, the top reasons are that they prefer to handle IT themselves (56%) that MSPs offer more than they need (33%) and that MSPs are too expensive (29%).