News
Over half of managed service providers that use vendor management systems are unsatisfied, with complaints that the systems are too complex and expensive to maintain.
By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities
New data from research firm Maravedis, LLC dives into the pain points of managed service providers (MSPs), with over half of respondents claiming they were unsatisfied with their current vendor management systems.
The complexity of those systems, along with the associated costs and a lack of skilled developers, were all contributing factors, according to Adlane Fellah, a chief analyst at Maravedis.
Fellah presented his findings on a webinar earlier this month, which was moderated by Broadband Communities editorial staff.
During his presentation, Fellah said he was surprised to see that over 60 percent of MSPs that responded to the Maravedis survey are spending between $200,000 and $500,000 annually for integrations. According to Fellah, some MSPs he spoke to reported investing north of $1 million annually into research and development.
Additionally, he reported that a little more than half of MSP respondents reported having six or more developers in house.
In an ideal state, Fellah said vendor management systems would not have vendor lock-ins and would have better integration with business systems.
New technology means new challenges
Magnus Johansson, co-founder and CEO of WiBUZ, which is behind a solution he describes as vendor-neutral known as wibipOS, said new technology has also brought new challenges to MSP CEOs.
He described vendor lock-ins as “golden handcuffs” and said exorbitant integration costs also present a challenge to MSPs.
“One of the CEO’s that Adlane interviewed said, ‘it feels like being cornered,'” Johansson said.
He also called vendor-specific platforms “a great cookie cutter way of being able to deploy early.”
“But, over time, you are locked in,” he said. “There’s not much flexibility to scale or diversify.”
He described the current market surrounding vendor management systems as unsustainable.
Following the webinar, Johansson discussed how he believes his own product addresses some of these concerns.
“wibipOS isn’t a concept pulled from thin air,” he said. “Over the past nine years, we’ve built, refined, and validated this platform alongside major telcos and with thousands of deployments. We support MSPs across a variety of use cases, all on a shared platform where each MSP has its own customizable, scalable universe.”
Click here to see the full webinar on YouTube.
Get content like this delivered to your inbox. Subscribe to the Broadband Communities newsletter.
