In-house IT professionals and managed service providers (MSPs) have had an interesting relationship over the course of IT history. Yes, they are vastly different, but if we drew a Venn diagram of IT and the MSP, the intersection of the two is worth exploring, particularly regarding how IT professionals can best manage their MSPs and work harmoniously to advance the common goal of IT performance.
For IT professionals, the very utterance of the acronym “MSP” may conjure feelings of skepticism and fearing the reaper, which doesn’t need to be the case. MSPs don’t always equal outsourcing IT in its entirety. Let’s explore common scenarios where in-house IT professionals and MSPs work together, because in these cases, in-house IT professionals need to understand how to get the most out of these relationships and up-level their careers by properly managing MSPs. It’s a lot more involved than simply passing help desk tickets back and forth.