Managed service providers have a big opportunity to grow their business, even as some elements of life return to normal. Consider the many recent announcements at Microsoft Ignite 2021, including new Microsoft Teams features, which affirm that remote work isn’t going away.
Ongoing collaboration needs will continue to challenge organizations that lack the resources to manage the increasingly large tasks of data migration and backup. MSPs can deliver these key duties with easy-to-use AvePoint solutions, as I discussed in my last blog post.
But those aren’t the only concerns MSPs should anticipate.
Data security and governance must be part of any organization’s game plan, especially as more employees perform their jobs using Microsoft 365. With AvePoint’s Policies & Insights tool, MSPs can find, prioritize, fix, and enforce Microsoft 365 access controls for their customers.
Here’s why you can’t ignore these safeguards and how to get started delivering them.
MSPs Must “Button Up” Customer Data, Not Just Back It Up
I recently spoke with a prospective customer in the pharmaceutical industry who told me, “The priority now isn’t just backup — it’s cleanup.”
In other words, there’s a strong need for Microsoft 365 solutions that identify and reduce risks in everyday remote work.
Remember, when used out of the box Microsoft Teams allows anyone to make Teams or channels as they see fit. Without proper governance and naming conventions, organizations find themselves awash in duplicate Teams and inconsistent site and channel names. This can bring sprawl and chaos to the Microsoft 365 platform almost overnight.
Deliver Automated Security Configurations to Boost Your Value
Our Policies and Insights (PI for short) solution enables recurring security and configuration services for Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams so you can “set it and forget it” when it comes to policies, permissions, and sharing controls.
MSPs, in turn, can add value for customers by facilitating this AvePoint service on their behalf.
Starting a dialogue is easy. Within 24 hours, at no charge, providers may present clients with a personalized dashboard report from AvePoint’s Automated Risk Assessment tool to underscore the benefits of a third-party solution.
Find Relief (and Revenue) in “Collaboration Sanity”
My talk with the potential pharmaceutical customer — whose company had rapidly shifted 2,500 users to Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams — ultimately led to a risk assessment.
And the results had immediate value: Several highly sensitive documents had no sharing restrictions and some documents with private lab-testing information could be accessed by external users.
MSPs have a major opportunity to help their customers with collaboration security and what we call “collaboration sanity” by finding vulnerabilities and enabling control over how their customers’ data is sorted, sterilized, and/or scrubbed.
Even better, you can build an incremental monthly recurring revenue service for existing customers and prospects.
Want to take the next step? Download a free PI trial or schedule a demo with an AvePoint engineer to show how your company can build out this new service.
