“To Fee?”, or “Not to Fee?” At the start of a in Managed Service Provider (MSP) agreement.
That is NOT the question.
Avoid the all-too-common modern Shakespearean tragedy of a business owner’s negotiation with an MSP:
They shop on price, and presume MSPs and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) have largely identical offerings 
These price-focused entrepreneurs often first ask these important questions…
1. How much is the upfront/on-boarding fee?
2. How can you reduce the overlap between my outgoing vendor and my new MSP?
3. If I sign up for a term agreement, how much will you lower my price?
However, more tenured executives and entrepreneurs focus first on the following critical specifics…
1. Information and data security solutions/stack/deliverables
2. Information and data security process maturity
3. Ticket-response and ticket-close standard performance & SLA
4. Curtailing recurring price variables
5. Termination for convenience
6. Past performance validation/reference checking
7. Defined completion and acceptance terms for the conclusion of onboarding
Competent and scalable MSPs have a strict and consistent process for onboarding a new recurring client. The upfront fees associated with this process are often a hurdle for for small business owners to switch providers or improve security.
If you’re going to negotiate the upfront fees for an MSP’s initial onboarding charge, be sure you are provided protections around the points listed above. We have encountered large, otherwise reputable MSPs in the mid-Atlantic region that have left dozens of users without endpoint protection and have wildly different totals of systems under the MSP’s remote machine management (RMM) tools and endpoint protection; and those quantities differed profoundly from the number of active, enabled users in Office 365.
Our firm assists business owners and executives in testing the IT security of their third-party vendors and resolving these issues where appropriate. Our technical team also verifies that the services and quantities currently implemented align with recent billing. Where recurrent issues cannot be quickly resolved, we help replace the pre-existing vendor with a solution more appropriate for your organization.
Contact Technology Transition Paradigm today if we can assist, examining your Managed Service Providers’ security, and operation services.
