Is this you? Your house cleaner is scheduled to come by, and suddenly, you feel compelled to organize the house ahead of their arrival, to declutter so they can actually clean the surfaces they need to without having to move all your junk out of the way. Your goal in doing all this 'pre-cleaning' is to boost the cleaner's productivity by accelerating the rate at which they can work, and by improving their ability to do the work.
"MSP pre-cleaning" is exactly what Seabeck does for clients by helping them find MSPs, preparing the organization for their engagement, communicating the client's needs with the MSPs, and streamlining their MSP relationships over the long-term. MSPs love nothing more than a general request, one without established boundaries (a.k.a., a blank check). Seabeck helps clients sharply define their needs to bring you real business value by avoiding asking MSPs questions like, “What should we do with AI to match or beat our competitors? To be clear, we’re not suggesting your MSP is looking to take you for a ride. We’re not saying that at all. MSPs make good economic sense—especially when you engage Seabeck to help. We let organizations maximize the value they get from their MSP by acting as educator, interpreter, manager, coach and (to a certain degree) therapist.
We help by asking MSPs the questions clients typically do not know to ask. Because often, our client turns out to be less technical than we might have expected. Often, they're unclear what issues their infrastructure may be suffering from, what they need to do to achieve their goals, or lack the technical language to describe what they need done. We streamline project success by acting as your personal technical interpreter. We explain new technologies in terms the business can understand (including business impact). We help the business describe its needs to IT. And we provide a proven approach for interacting and negotiating with the MSP. For instance, Seabeck helps clients avoid opening a can of worms by asking for everything all at once.
In short, we speak both languages.
Established over two+ decades of service, our framework encourages and facilitates communication with MSPs across departments and areas of the business.
First, we conduct an assessment, working holistically with the client's pool of data, to understand their environment and develop a roadmap for moving forward. This way, we’re operating with a full 360˙ view of your environment long before your MSP sets foot in your door. This facilitates change management while allowing for the deliberate, methodical documentation of each service/tech project—critical since developer documentation (the client's and the MSP's) is often written in a language only that developer understands. But documentation is a critical to project success. So, we help clients translate bad documentation into the proper format and terminology to ensure comprehension and agreement by all parties.
Seabeck helps countless non-technical partners and clients (including IT leads) navigate common speed bumps and blockers. For instance, when a team member's agenda fails to align with business need. When rogue ideas are approved or in development. Or, when new details suddenly come to light that change a project's course (e.g., departments don't share infrastructure, say. We've seen it all: ecosystems meant to be modernized flooded with non-essential data due to every employee having been given administrator access. Product engineering teams that lack an automated process for getting products out to the customer and perform all tasks manually.
Left to their own devices, these situations hamper productivity and cause internal dysfunction that is difficult to resolve—all of which further complicates your transition to an MSP. We are deeply experienced at facilitating candid technology sessions to identify need, expose realities, and ensure accurate, comprehensive communication with the MSP. Seabeck facilitates discussions that bring the truth forward while putting everyone at ease.
Further, Seabeck helps clients by conducting all MSP vetting, both internal and external. We not only help organizations save time and effort interacting with their MSP, we also help them find the right MSP for the job.
What's that you say? You've already engaged an expert IT consultant? You still need Seabeck. Here's why. First, it's unlikely your consultant's expertise will encompass all the challenges your organization faces, and it's very likely they'll become overwhelmed by the work. Either scenario means you'll need additional IT consultants (or an uber-IT superhero). But, the need for talent doesn't disappear just because funds are lacking.
Think of Seabeck as your technology General Contractor. We analyze your ecosystem, organize problems into projects, and provide a prioritized roadmap for success. We help you understand each project's vendor needs, we help you find the ideal vendors, and we help you manage the vendors by acting as an intermediary. This proven approach has helped countless clients achieve their goals and complete tasks more efficiently than ever. For over 25 years, Seabeck has empowered clients to extract greater value from their MSPs and internal teams and enabled new levels of business success by providing strategic planning, change management, cybersecurity, and infrastructure modernization services custom-tailored to each organization. Your organization should be next.
