What’s the difference?
When chatting with my colleagues who remained working directly for schools or trusts, one of the main topics is the difference between working for an MSP, versus working directly for the organisation.
The obvious is the scale at which you are working, in terms of how many different experiences you get, and the ability to work closely with partners on a commercial level. Having colleagues with specialisms, and of course a more flexible working experience.
There is often the belief that outsourcing support means schools or trusts loose out on the in-depth knowledge working within it brings. Sometimes you need to experiment to gain experience – is that even possible when not working directly for the organisation you are supporting?
This can be true, and is something I have had to adapt to – for example one of the things I miss is the time you get when working in a single organisation to explore and fully implement technology into adoption at a local level. Because, you can have a working system, delivered by an MSP, which is completely different to a well used system, which meets the organisations unique needs.
The challenge, and difference between my time as a network manager and IT lead to CTO, seems to be between implementing solutions, and using the solutions. Often MSPs are seen to implement infrastructure or platforms, leaving the users to manage adoption, if the right people are not in the organisation to support this – there is a gap. Is this is what is lost when using an MSP?
When I was a network manager – working to increase the usage of systems, to drive adoption was something that took time, which when working within a single setting was achievable – both through a deep knowledge of the organisation and being part of the internal team.
It’s this tailored support, and indeed, being able to action the development – that can really enhance the adoption and embed the core technology stack. Using Power Automate as an example – this can drive the adoption of Microsoft 365 and Sharepoint that it links too. In Google, use of Forms can tie into deeper use of sheets and making data available.
I actually think the need to support this adoption is often a missing link between IT and leadership, regardless of if an MSP or not. It’s not an either – or problem. It is, I believe, down to a wider industry challenge of moving away from how we used to do things and ensuring that supporting users to get the most, rather then just leaving them to do it. Technology is neither as simple or as complex as it once was.
The challenge now for MSPs and internal support teams is no longer just fixing tech, but just as important – empowering users to feel confident in their systems to take full advantage, and invest time in pushing the boundaries in usage and adoption. This means understanding the usage cases and landscape, providing support that encourages confidence of users in their systems and to push the boundaries and embrace, and ideally, seek change in a constantly evolving landscape. Of course this relies on a system that is reliable, adaptable, secure and cost effective.
The adoption of cloud, and removal of on premise hardware can lead to many in IT feeling a loss of purpose from managing and controlling the technical side, but the role has always been about helping people use technology, and it still is.
Working within a MSP allows me to access a wider pool of partners and solutions to get the job done, and let them – with their specialised knowledge – deliver adoption into a classroom. So, perhaps, the answer to the question colleagues ask about the difference I feel is that it’s not all about me delivering every element. And that transition from doing all elements, to allowing others to support the overall goal is an area I have had to adapt to.
It’s that fine balance of being able to bring wider experience and knowledge and then knowing your school enough to make it pertinent to their needs, and regardless of if you are internal or external – you can achieve this. There is also an important point to knowing if it’s something that someone else can do better than you, and then being able to access that resource.
Where we really need to focus on as an industry is ensuring our approaches are not focused and limited on either the technology, or its use. The two are so tightly intwined we must focus on both more than ever before – and this is where experience counts, but also where – with a good MSP, or a centralised team within a MAT – these multiple skills can be deployed without the expectation for it to all come from one or two individuals.
