Over 90% of the business population is represented by small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). 

Although 68% of SMBs’ executives believe working with an MSP helps them stay ahead of their competition, unfortunately, MSPs’ primary focus has been on supplying “products and services to sustain IT infrastructure” – not explicitly on the list of SMBs’ crucial customer technology requirements. A recent report from CloudBlue revealed this lack of alignment between what small businesses want and what channel providers believe they should offer, showing that providers are missing the mark on SMBs’ needs.

Rahul Bhavsar, Global Cloud Platform Strategy Leader at CloudBlue, believes that MSPs can refocus their mission to better align with the needs of SMBs, including:

  • MSPs must become ecosystem builders: Connect with the right software vendors to provide the technology services that SMBs are looking for. 
  • MSPs must put the business objectives of their SMB clients first, and then work backward to be able to provide the technological tools needed to accomplish those objectives.
  • The lifeblood of any business is its data, MSPs need to start thinking outside of the IT box and refocusing their sights on data security, storage, and analytics.

CloudBlue helps businesses succeed in the as-a-service economy and accelerate time to revenue by managing subscription and billing, vendor and product information, and partner onboarding across multiple channels. Through its leading ecosystem orchestration platform, CloudBlue enables companies to create their own ecosystems, as well as connect vendor and go-to-market ecosystems, automating the distribution of traditional and digital products and services across partners in the digital supply chain. 

Learn more about CloudBlue at www.cloudblue.com

See our previous itnerview with CloudBlue: https://www.e-channelnews.com/julian-discusses-channel-partner-growth-with-cloudblue-vp-tarik-faouzi/amp/