I still remember walking into my first week as IT Operations manager, eager to tighten up our delivery and work with the business, I’ve been told that I will need to work on the Managed Service Partner (MSP) relationship – only to discover they’d “stopped bothering” with our contract. No Service Level Agreements (SLAs) reviewed for six months, no patch schedules kept, and worst of all, zero oversight. They’d sidestepped the CIO, built cosy ties directly with business units, and used that to drive dissent, and left us with skyrocketing costs and mounting risk. If your MSP feels more like part of the office fittings than a partner, it’s time to call it out.
What are the Red Flags on your IT Service Delivery Partner,
- When you ask for some advice, you get a quote!
- When you want to have a difficult discussion, they, tell you it was your mis-understanding, or its not part of the contract!
- Projects over run every time, and they come to you with a new invoice to cover their inability to deliver!
- They say “none of our other customers” have ever asked for that!
- Offer to be a one stop shop for all IT services and then tell you they don’t do that!
If this is your normal, then it might be time to consider a new relationship but where do you start?
Governance in Complexity
For Mid-Large Org CIOs & IT Delivery Managers
Your environment is anything but simple: hybrid cloud, legacy hardware, SaaS integrations and strict compliance mandates and constantly changing business drivers. Yet too often, MSPs treat core deliverables as “nice-to-have” extras rather than bread-and-butter obligations, and really would like to do more project work, or work outside of the defined services you bought them in for. Here’s how to regain control:
- Core deliverables: Ensure your definitions are clear, and non-negotiable line items.
- Clear ownership: You set the strategy; the MSP executes, reports and logs every risk and action item.
- RACI discipline: Use an ITIL-based RACI chart to nail down grey areas – who’s Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed for each activity, only go as far as need to diminish the grey area, the document is a record of the discussion and agreement, which is far more important.
- Rules of engagement: Agree on how you are going to work together, this is important as you don’t want to spend time quoting the contract back and forth. Agree on the Quarterly steering-committee meetings, weekly run-book reviews and iron-clad Sev-1 communications, document in real language who and how things get done.
- Get these governance gears meshing and you’ll turn firefighting into forward momentum.
Keeping It Simple When You’re Fully Outsourced
For Small Business Owners, CEOs & CIOs
If you’ve outsourced 100% of your IT, simplicity is your weapon. No mixed-vendor politics – just you and your single MSP partner:
- Bundled SLAs: One uptime, response and resolution metric across the board.
- Health reports: Monthly asset health dashboard plus an action log detailing every patch, backup test and capacity forecast.
- Accountability split: MSP owns day-to-day execution; you own the quarterly sign-off.
- Exit plan from Day 1: Don’t wait for problems to discuss how you’d leave. Embed lift-and-shift steps in the contract so there’s no stall-out if things get rocky.
When every dollar counts, a lean engagement model keeps everyone honest – and nimble.
3 Must-Dos Before You Sign
- Document your deliverables: Spell out your critical Services, understand your IT asset Management, ensure patch cadences and change-approval gates are in your Statement of Work
- Govern the grey: Build a RACI for every service line – and meet it religiously.
- Plan your exit: A robust onboarding deserves an equally robust offboarding playbook. It’s hard to negotiate this when your unhappy, or leaving a service provider.
These “boring” prep steps are your best insurance policy against service-delivery nightmares.
Future Actions: Transition from Challenges to Excellence
Are you prepared to transform your Service Providers narrative? Let’s schedule a Health Check Workshop with our experienced delivery specialists. Bear in mind: Integrity in Technology begins with transparency in your contract. Let’s convert those challenging situations into successful improvements for you and your Business.
