Whoever came up with that name should be held accountable.
Vague. Pretentious. Tells you nothing about what actually happens. Could describe a hotel concierge, a staffing agency, or a mid-tier consulting firm that ran out of ideas. Three words that somehow managed to name an entire industry without describing it.
I use it because this newsletter is called The MSP Contrarian and for better or worse — mostly worse — the name stuck. We are all living with someone else's branding decisions.
Three words. Let's look at them.
————————
Provider.
The MSP doesn't make the technology. Doesn't write the software (except for some scripts that the techs love). Doesn't manufacture the hardware. Provides it, in the sense that a travel agent provides flights.
The travel agent industry saw what happened when the internet made it easy to go direct.
————————
Service.
What service?
Monitoring. Patching. Help desk. Incident response. License resale. Explaining to the client why their Microsoft bill went up and what Extended Service Term billing means and why nobody told them it was coming.
All legitimate. All under pressure. Most of it either automating, offshoring, or getting absorbed into the bundle of the vendor the MSP resells.
————————
Managed.
Here is where it gets interesting.
Managed implies intention. Someone deciding what good looks like for this client's environment and working toward it. Not just keeping the lights on. Knowing where the lights should be.
What actually gets managed is the gap between what the client has and what they need, using tools named after capabilities they approximate, certifications that prove completion rather than competence, and a pricing model the industry hasn't agreed on in twenty years.
The client calls this "paying for break-fix with a monthly invoice."
The MSP calls this "the customer doesn't understand the value."
They're both right.
The value was always in the knowing, not the managing. The name just never admitted it.
————————
The MSP Contrarian: Unstacking the Business Model
An independent publication. Not affiliated with, sponsored by, or particularly popular with any vendor in the managed services ecosystem. Subscriptions are free. Opinions are not.