How To Choose a Managed Service Provider (MSP)

As businesses scale, keeping pace with evolving technology solutions and requirements can be overwhelming. To more effectively identify, integrate, and manage the latest technology, many organizations enlist the support of outside expertise by partnering with a managed service provider (MSP).

Selecting the right MSP requires time and thoughtful consideration. In this guide, learn more about what a managed service provider is, as well as steps and best practices to choose an MSP that can drive maximum impact for your business.

What is a managed service provider (MSP)?

A managed service provider (MSP) is a third-party company that remotely manages and supports one or more areas of a business when an organization can’t or chooses not to do certain work on their own. Organizations often engage MSPs when they have limited internal resources or are looking to access specialized expertise while driving cost efficiencies.

MSPs are most commonly used for managing an organization’s information technology (IT) infrastructure, services, and systems. Companies may also partner with managed service providers for a range of other functions, such as HR and recruitment process outsourcing, operational support, and sales and marketing.

Choosing a managed service provider that aligns with your unique needs, goals, and budget can help you drive growth while managing costs. While MSPs can oversee many functions, for the purposes of this guide, we’ll focus on steps to select an MSP for IT.  

How to choose an MSP

Because many managed service providers are available today, identifying, evaluating, and selecting the best-fit partner can be complex and time-consuming. The following steps can help you thoroughly vet potential MSPs and make an informed decision.

1. Understand your business needs

Before partnering with a managed service provider, having a clear understanding of your business needs and IT requirements is critical. Conducting a comprehensive review of your business needs and gaining internal alignment from stakeholders across your organization can help you more effectively select an MSP that can support your short- and long-term objectives.

Criteria to take into consideration when outlining your business needs include:

• Strategic business objectives
• Short-and long-term budget projections
• IT infrastructure and technology solutions currently in use
• An overview of business processes and operational workflows that rely on technology and IT systems
• Scalability needs to support future growth and expansion
• Industry-specific regulations and compliance requirements
• Security and risk management priorities
• Customer expectations related to your technology and IT support capabilities
• Remote and hybrid work IT infrastructure considerations for distributed teams
• Disaster recovery and business continuity planning requirements
• Level of existing internal IT resources and knowledge, along with gaps that need to be filled by an MSP

2. Identify your IT goals

Outlining IT goals that align with your strategic business objectives can help ensure you identify and select an MSP capable of achieving critical outcomes for your business. IT goals vary depending on an organization’s size, industry, and technical maturity. They typically focus on leveraging technology to drive growth, efficiency, and innovation.

Examples of IT goals include:

• Increase revenue by embracing data analytics and business intelligence tools to identify and exploit growth opportunities
• Reduce manual, routine tasks by integrating artificial intelligence and other automation solutions
• Improve the customer experience by implementing customer relationship management (CRM) software or related technology
• Enable more efficient and secure remote and hybrid work by leveraging remote access systems, video conferencing technology, and virtual collaboration tools
• Strengthen cybersecurity measures to protect against evolving and sophisticated data breaches, malware, and other potential vulnerabilities
• Back up critical business data and implement disaster recovery plans
• Modernize IT infrastructure to improve business performance, scalability, and reliability

3. Evaluate your IT infrastructure

Your organization’s IT infrastructure includes all the components—including hardware, software, networks, data centers, and cloud services—required to operate and manage your business from a technical standpoint. As technology continues to evolve and become more sophisticated, poor IT infrastructure can lead to business inefficiencies, service interruptions, lost productivity, and cybersecurity risks, among other negative situations and results.

Many organizations enlist the support of a managed service provider to improve or replace their existing IT infrastructure. Before partnering with an MSP, determine what’s working with your IT infrastructure and identify key areas of improvement needed.

The following questions can help you evaluate your IT infrastructure:

• What is the current state of the company’s hardware infrastructure, including servers, networking equipment, and end-user devices?
• Which software applications and systems are in use across the organization, and are they meeting your business needs efficiently?
• What’s the current process for reviewing and approving new software applications and systems?  
• How effectively is your infrastructure currently supporting business and IT operations IT strategy and where is there room for improvement?
• Can your existing IT infrastructure support business operations as the company continues to scale? If not, what changes are needed to support growth?
• How secure is your IT infrastructure and what is the process for protecting against data breaches, phishing attacks, and related cyber risks?
• What’s the current process to ensure your business meets regulatory compliance requirements?
• Do you have a process in place to regularly review and improve your IT infrastructure?
• How will emerging technologies or trends impact your IT infrastructure, and how are you preparing to adapt to these changes?
• Who’s currently in charge of managing your IT infrastructure? Do we need additional resources to manage IT infrastructure more effectively?
• How does our IT infrastructure contribute to achieving your overall business goals, and what strategic initiatives should be prioritized to better align IT with business objectives?

4. Research potential MSPs

Once you outline your overall business needs and IT goals and understand the current state of your IT infrastructure, you can keep this information in mind as you identify, research, and consider managed service providers to help your business drive long-term success.

Consider the following process and criteria when researching and evaluating potential managed service providers.

Check for experience and certifications

Leading managed service providers earn certifications to validate their expertise, alignment with industry best practices, and compliance requirements. They demonstrate commitment to delivering the highest quality services to customers.

Look for the following certifications to help you narrow down your list of top MSPs:

• Service Organization Control 2 (SOC 2). This certification, defined by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) outlines how businesses should manage customer data. An MSP with SOC 2 certification has demonstrated a commitment to strict security, data processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy standards.
• ISO/IEC 27001. This is the most well-known international standard for information security and provides companies of all sizes and industries with guidance for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving an information security management system (ISMS). MSPs can earn ISO/IEC 27001 certification by adhering to advanced security controls and processes to protect client data and information assets.
• Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). MSPs may seek certification in ITIL, a framework for IT service management. ITIL certifications showcase an MSP’s expertise in IT service delivery, incident management, change management, and related best practices.
• Partner-specific certifications. The most qualified MSPs have certifications or are official members of a partner network relevant to the technology solutions or services you use at your organization. Examples of partner certifications and networks include the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network, and Google Cloud Partners.

Understand service offerings

A wide range of MSPs are available, each offering a variety of services. As you evaluate managed service providers, consider which services are most critical to your business. Also look for a provider that strikes the right balance between focused and more comprehensive services.

An MSP that offers only a few specialized services may not meet the full range of your needs, while a provider that offers an extensive list of services may not be an expert in the specific area where you have needs.

Common services provided by IT MSPs include:

• Strategic IT consulting and planning
• Network monitoring
• Technology vendor management
• Software updates
• Cloud services
• Data backup and recovery
• Cybersecurity
• Compliance and regulatory support
• Help desk and technical support

Evaluate performance and reliability

When you partner with a managed service provider, you’re trusting them to keep your IT infrastructure up and running. Any downtime can lead to decreased productivity, frustrated customers, and lost revenue. When assessing different MPSs, evaluating performance and reliability is a critical step.

The following metrics can help you choose a managed IT service provider with a reliable track record of strong performance:

• Uptime. This measures the total percentage of time an MSP is available and operational, which is a key indicator of the MSP’s infrastructure reliability, as well as its monitoring and maintenance strategy.
• Incident escalation rate. This refers to the percentage of incidents that require escalation to higher levels of support or management within the MSP. An elevated escalation rate may be a sign that the MSP has gaps in service delivery or insufficient technical expertise.
• Mean time to resolution (MTTR). Mean time to resolution is the average time it takes for the MSP to respond to incidents or service requests once they’re reported. A faster MTTR often indicates the MSP has effective incident management capabilities.
• Service level agreement (SLA) adherence. This metric evaluates how closely a managed service provider adheres to the SLA by comparing performance with predetermined goals for metrics such as uptime and MTTR. A history of meeting or exceeding SLA targets shows that an MSP is committed to reliability and service quality.
• Backup and recovery performance. Understand the MSP's ability to back up and recover data and systems in the event of data loss, a data breach, or a disaster.
• Customer satisfaction (CSAT). A CSAT score is a commonly used metric that determines how satisfied a customer is with a company’s products or services. The scoring scale is usually zero to 100, with 100 being exceptional service.

Check case studies and references

While CSAT scores can provide a high-level view of overall customer satisfaction, diving deeper into firsthand customer feedback can give you increased confidence in selecting the right managed service provider.

Here are some ways to gain additional insight into customer feedback:

• Request customer case studies or read them directly on the MSP’s website
• Read customer testimonials or watch testimonial videos
• Ask for reference details and schedule brief conversations with a few of the managed service provider’s existing customers
• Solicit MSP recommendations or referrals from your professional network
• Assess feedback on review websites such as G2, Capterra, and Gartner Peer Insights

When evaluating feedback or speaking with customers, look for both qualitative and quantitative feedback. For example, qualitative feedback may be a quote from a customer saying how seamless their software upgrade process was after partnering with an MSP. Quantitative feedback may highlight how the MSP helped an organization reduce their help desk ticket resolution time by a certain percentage or number of hours.

Assess customer service and support

A managed service provider’s customer service and support capabilities can have a significant impact on the success of your partnership. MSPs with a proactive approach to service and support can help your business run smoothly, support a positive customer experience, and quickly resolve issues if and when they arise.

When speaking with customer references, ask for direct feedback on the MSP’s customer service and support capabilities. Ask questions related to the managed service provider’s proactive outreach, responsiveness, and issue resolution.

In addition to customer references, also conduct research and ask the MSP directly about their approach to customer service and support. Some areas to cover include:

• Available service and support channels, such as a dedicated account manager, phone support, email support, ticketing portal, chatbot, live chat, and self-service resource center
• Average response time, broken down by channel
• Customer service and support team technical knowledge and expertise
• On-site support options to provide hardware repairs or upgrades
• The MSP’s approach to proactively identifying and resolving customer issues, as well as preventative maintenance of IT systems
• Reporting and analytics used to share key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Other ways the MSP highlights progress toward goals, such as monthly or quarterly review meetings
• The MSP’s process for collecting and implementing customer feedback

Consider scalability and flexibility

Because selecting a managed service provider is an in-depth process, you’ll want to look for a partner that can meet your long-term business and IT needs, which includes providing flexible technology solutions, resources, and support to help your business scale.

Asking potential MSPs the following questions can help you determine which providers have the resources and capabilities to support your growth plans:

• How do you scale your infrastructure and resources to accommodate growing client demands?
• Can you share details about the scope of your data centers, network capacity, and technical resources?
• What are your future growth plans and how do you plan to invest in technology and infrastructure upgrades to support clients’ scalability and evolving needs?
• How do you help clients stay updated on the latest security and compliance best practices and requirements?
• What’s your process for proactively integrating new technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI), to help clients drive efficiencies while continuing to prioritize security and compliance?
• How have you supported clients in the past during periods of rapid growth and expansion? Can you share specific examples or case studies?
• Which processes or technology solutions do you have in place to ensure reliable service during times of rapid growth or expansion?
• How can you support growth from a geographic perspective across different business and customer locations?
• How extensive is your global reach and what are your plans to add services or coverage in additional regions?
• How flexible are your service offerings and contracts to adapt to evolving client needs?

5. Discuss pricing and contracts

Schedule discussions with MSPs that align with your overall business goals to learn more about their pricing and contract structures. During these meetings, you can gain insight about each managed service provider’s pricing model, billing cycles, terms of termination, additional fees, and opportunities for flexible or customized pricing.

Common managed service provider pricing models include:

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6. Negotiate terms that fit your business

When you’re in the final stages of selecting a managed service provider, ensuring contract terms align with your business needs is just as important as choosing an MSP with the right pricing model. Reviewing and negotiating contract terms in detail can help you avoid hidden fees and clarify responsibilities and expectations, among other benefits. Make sure all relevant stakeholders, such as your legal, finance, and IT teams, review MSP contracts before negotiating or signing with a managed service provider.

MSP contracts and terms vary; this is a shortlist of some of the contract elements to review in depth and consider negotiating if needed:

• Scope of services, including a detailed overview of the services, support, and solutions provided by the MSP
• Service level agreements (SLAs), which define the performance standards, service guarantees, and responsibilities of both the MSP and your organization
• Payment terms and fees to ensure pricing is fair and transparent and confirm payment cycles, acceptable payment methods, and potential added fees
• Contract term and termination language, such as the contract timeline, renewal options, notice period for contract termination, and penalties or fees associated with early termination
• Change management clauses, including any processes or requirements to change the contract, services, or scope of work, which can help support flexibility as your business scales
• Confidentiality and non-disclosure clauses to ensure the MSP maintains confidentiality of your company’s sensitive and proprietary data

Choose an MSP with confidence

By taking a thoughtful approach and following a step-by-step process, you can select the right MSP to help drive positive outcomes for your organization, such as heightened security, increased customer satisfaction, and improved efficiency.

Aligning internally on your business needs and IT goals, as well as evaluating your IT infrastructure, can help ensure you have the relevant information needed to research managed service providers. Once you’re ready to consider different MSPs, checking for experience and certifications, assessing service offerings, and reviewing customer feedback, among other criteria, can help you choose an MSP with confidence.

Upwork is not affiliated with and does not sponsor or endorse any of the tools or services discussed in this article. These tools and services are provided only as potential options, and each reader and company should take the time needed to adequately analyze and determine the tools or services that would best fit their specific needs and situation.

This article is intended for educational purposes and should not be viewed as legal or tax advice. Please consult a professional to find the solution that best fits your situation.