Opportunities available for MSPs in 2023

Year 2022 brought new security challenges, the rise of cloud services and the introduction of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), 5G and Internet of Things (IoT). These five trends will shape the coming year based on what we are seeing already and what MSP partners and vendors are seeing in the market as cloud infrastructure and deployment continues to grow.

It's the time of year when we balance closing out the current calendar year with planning for the next year, although we also begin to relax and enjoy the holidays. Year 2022 was a record year for managed service providers (MSP), and channel players saw more and more Small Business businesses and more and more large enterprises turn to experts.

Businesses are more focused than ever on digital transformation driven by cloud capabilities and faster networks and more sophisticated and widespread cyber attacks. Businesses know they can benefit from better communication and applications to stay competitive and even survive. Economic conditions are uncertain and challenging in 2023, but SMEs are finding opportunities to grow and challenge macroeconomic forces.

2023 will continuously be affected by current pandemic effects, supply chain issues, inflation and uncertainty in Ukraine. These effects don't necessarily stop MSPs on transforming their businesses by leveraging cloud technology, maintaining a laser focus on revenue growth and profitability, improving sales and support functions and focusing especially on the needs of their SME customers.

Many SMBs are starting to look more like larger companies as organizations of all sizes turn to MSPs because they can't afford to keep up with new technologies. Such is the case in categories including cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, which makes it impossible for companies not to use managed services.

SMEs know that digital transformation can help them become more adaptable and competitive, especially during economic downturns, and digital transformation is an area in which they say they are ready to invest.

Pax8 invests in advanced data analytics machine learning to help partners find the next presentable products to recommend to their customers.

Finding and acquiring the right technology is only part of the MSP solution. Technology alone does not drive good cloud results. It is key for MSPs to improve their business skills and take advantage of training opportunities, networking and peer development to help solve business and technology challenges.

The way work is done will also change in 2023 which has been enabled by technology and continued recruitment, training and promotion of employees. Attracting and retaining talent continues to be one of the biggest barriers to business growth.

The dynamics of the labor market also offer SME companies an opportunity to use technology to manage certain business activities and increase efficiency.

MSPs can take advantage of fast-growing markets to drive innovation and support the manufacturing processes and artificial intelligence, machine learning and augmented reality. MSPs can do more than traditional web access, voice, data, collaboration and general computing support.

With thanks to investments in digital infrastructure, globalisation will grow further in the new year, not slow down. However, that same infrastructure will bring new cybersecurity risks associated with moving such large amounts of data across the networks.