Not all MSP solutions are the same, and not all providers will measure up

Whether you are looking to select a Managed Service Provider (MSP) partner for a new program or evaluating your options for a solution you already have, understanding what you are trying to achieve with your contingent program will be critical to making the right decisions.

Knowing what you need and then evaluating potential partners based on several key attributes will ensure that your MSP solution delivers your goals from day one and does not stop there. The three most important things you will need to evaluate include:

• Measuring your potential partners on how they will deliver value across your organization
• Their expertise in designing customized solutions vs. pressure sales for standardized solutions, and
• The caliber of the team responsible for delivering for you   

Measuring your potential partners on how they will deliver value across your organization 

Simply put, every area of your business is tasked with complementary goals that, when aligned, create a successful outcome for your organization. While finance may be looking to manage costs, legal is focused on mitigating risk, and operations will do whatever they need to do to access the talent they need to hit their goals. Overarching all these are the talent goals held by human resources, the understanding by talent acquisition that today's contractors may be tomorrow's employees.

Managing all these organizational needs holistically to help select the right partner is where procurement focuses. Experienced MSP partners understand that by balancing the needs across the organization, not everyone will get exactly what they want. Still, they will get what they need, and the end goal will result in a positive impact. Many providers will evaluate needs one-dimensionally, and that will lead to stakeholders walking away from the table unsatisfied.   

Expertise in designing customized solutions vs. pressure sales for standardized solutions 

As the MSP landscape has continued to evolve, MSP providers have continued to hunt for and compete for the largest programs in the industry, whether based on spend, size of the workforce, or geographic spread. To deliver these larger solutions, they have begun to standardize offerings and limit customizations to control costs and support profitability. These providers are looking at the short-term wins instead of the value of a long-term partnership with a client that values them and their contributions.

This vanilla approach to smaller programs has also become more widespread. When an organization does not have hundreds of millions in contingent labor spend, they often lose the focus and attention of some of the larger providers and suffer with a program that is implemented with little to no variation from client to client, despite these clients having significantly different goals.

To deliver the best results, the partner you select should be looking to solve your unique challenges with a program designed for you and not just the program architecture that will deliver on their bottom line.  

The caliber of the team responsible for delivering for you  

It is no secret that some providers reserve their best team for their largest programs, while the smaller programs lack this same attention. An ethical partner focused on delivering for their clients ensures they have experts in place for all their programs and consistency of the delivery teams by treating them right so they stay longer. Implementing a new MSP program or changing an MSP partner requires a great deal of change within your organization. It is up to you if you want to go through this challenge multiple times throughout your contract and partnership when the account team turns over, producing inevitable gaps when you do not choose a stable partner. 

Check out our solutions here and examples of how we have delivered for our valued clients from our case studies. If you are ready to talk more, we would love to—connect with us here!