Australian VAR Describes Managed Services Momentum

I’ve heard the hype about managed services in Australia. So I decided to reach out for some more information. I wanted to learn how MSP trends in Australia differed from those in the U.S. Scott Jones, general manager and owner of IT Leaders, an Australian solution provider that has more than 1,000 small and midsize customers, answered my call for perspective.

Here are Jones’ thoughts on Australia’s emerging MSP market, and some background on why he chose N-able’s managed services platform.

Jones’ company, IT Leaders, has been operating for six years with two branches in Queensland, Australia. “IT is now ubiquitous in small enterprises, and SMEs are looking for better IT Management and new ways to gain a commercial advantage,” said Jones.

Now, for the key challenge: A lack of measurable and comparable quality standards in IT has led to “a lot of IT vendors with poor skills,” said Jones. In terms of business ethics, IT providers at the smaller end of town are in danger of being compared to “used car salesman.”
The result has been low margin for vendors and low return/value for customers, he adds.

VARs shifting to the managed services model stand to benefit greatly, he says. “If Australia follows the US in its technology trending, then many vendors will shift to an MSP model over the next 5 years.”

Already, Australia’s MSP market is growing about 20 percent annually, according to recent research findings. Fast forward 10 years, he says, and the only break-fix providers left in Australia will be boutique agencies servicing a rapidly shrinking market.

Eager to avoid that type of commoditization, Jones says his firm “we will be one of the first to the Australian market with a bold new set of offerings, and set a new standard that will be challenging to match. The questions then become what can’t you fit into an MSP model, and why the heck not?”

Jones spotted two MSP platforms that his company could have leveraged. But the company ultimately standardized on N-able because the company “had the right attitude. Sure, their product is slightly better in interface and a few other areas, but when you are spending significant amounts of money over several years on a product that will be at the center of your organization, a major concern is whether the vendor is on your wavelength through all stages; sales, implementation and support.”

Full disclosure: I first discovered Jones through an N-able press release. So yes, he was upbeat on N-able before I even reached him.