Pete Matheson on MSPs and Bespoke Solutions

The pandemic catalysed a lot of change within the IT sector, with millions of people who would have previously assumed the cloud was an actual cloud forced to utilise remote working and cloud computing technology. 

As a result, the demand for third parties to help grease the wheels of speedy progress, so to speak, soared, and managed service providers (MSPs) became hot topics almost overnight.

To gain insight into the MSP world and how it has shifted as a result of the pandemic and the shift to hybrid working, we spoke to content creator and professional tech coach Pete Matheson. A definite tech renaissance man, Pete not only reviews the latest tech on his own YouTube channel but provides MSP coaching and support under his brand “Not a Business Coach.” He also recently sold his own MSP business, so if there’s something he doesn't know about MSPs, it probably doesn’t exist.

Right now, Novatech is working on a bespoke PC build for Pete that he himself calls “a bit of a challenge.” The brief was to take the tiny form factor of the MJOLNIR ITX PC case and “fit whatever we could” inside it, seeing how much power we could fit into such a small case. We’ve been given complete free rein to condense his gigantic tower PC into a more manageable form factor and are more than up for the challenge.

We spoke with Pete about his build and what he plans to do with it, before moving on to his experiences in the MSP world and what he feels the biggest challenges are for MSPs and clients alike.​

A Bespoke Solution

By his own admission, Pete is “very much a Mac-based” individual but needs a PC for testing hardware and software for his YouTube channel. His existing PC, however, was a bulky and uncomfortable thing that he had long since fallen out of love with.

After he caught sight of the MJOLNIR case on Kickstarter, he struck upon an idea - order two of these tiny cases and ask Novatech to create two identical machines that provide power and performance while keeping cool and reliable. The first he’d keep and the second he’d give away as part of a competition.

Pete explains: “The case is around 9.7 litres, which is about a quarter of the volume of a traditional PC case. Like a slightly larger Mac mini. I’m really interested to see how the build goes  and might even see if I can pop into Novatech and get some footage of the build for my channel.” 

He also plans to use the new machine for his second career as an IT coach. His working week, he says, is “fairly evenly split,” so he’ll be writing a script on Monday, shooting videos on Tuesday and then doing course content on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

He loves wearing both hats but where his passion really lies right now is in his YouTube content. He says: “At the moment, I'm just trying to figure out how to market it better because I've spent the last year building it and now I need to really try to market it.” He also started scaling down his  one-to-one coaching sessions to spend more time on his channel, which he admits has “significantly wider appeal” than the more defined MSP niche.

That being said, Pete still likes to keep at least one foot dipped into the MSP world, even though he sold his own company during the pandemic.

Is it a very good time to be an MSP?

While his own MSP business might be in the rear-view mirror, Pete believes there’s never been a better time to be an MSP as there is more demand for them than ever before thanks to COVID. Smaller businesses that might once have “asked a friend of a friend for help” now realised they needed professional help.

Pete explains: “There was definitely an initial rush at the start of the pandemic when everyone was panicking about remote working and spending thousands on new laptops.” 

During this initial period of the pandemic, businesses were so desperate that laptops were literally flying off the shelves as soon as they could be built. Then came the task of converting entire operations into mobile workforces when so many relied on physical servers, which are notoriously difficult to connect to remotely.

Thankfully, Pete’s MSP already did a lot of remote working with their clients but in the pre-pandemic days, it was seen by many smaller companies as an expensive solution to a problem that didn’t really exist. COVID, however, catalysed “a complete mass migration to services like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace from traditional physical server-based solutions.”

This has led to a situation where MSPs are dealing with increasingly large remote workforces that require flawless joiner-mover-leader (JML) processes. Novatech’s Managed IT Service, D2D, offers that and so much more, but more on that later. First, let’s dive into the common challenges faced by MSPs. 

Challenges for MSPs

While there is more demand for MSP services, the shift towards cloud-based servers means businesses are less reliant on the MSP than they were before. This has meant many have had to shift focus, according to Pete. He says: “MSPs had to start looking at automating processes and making things more efficient rather than just doing technical support.”

The big challenge, however, is in finding actual clients. Pete explains: “The path that I've gone down with the media marketing side of things is relating the value of brand building.” 

When Pete ran his own MSP, he just thought of a brand as “a logo, a business card and a website.” But realised it’s so much more than that. “It’s only when we started doing the video marketing and the podcasts that we realised the brand is more what people think of you than what it looks like,” he says.

That’s what he’s focused on now in his coaching work, which he admits can be difficult as most people are still so ROI-focused. But, he promises, “committing time and effort to your brand building pays back so much more.” 

Because you get more out of putting £10 into the machine every month than putting £1 into it every day and Pete says that, if you stick with it, “whether it’s your blogs, your video marketing, Adwords, or whatever, you will win in the end because you'll be the one the only one left that's doing it.”

Finding an MSP you can trust

Of course, it’s always easier to generalise but even though they are essentially selling the same services, no MSP is ever going to be exactly the same. Pete says: “We’re at a place right now where there are lots of beginner MSPs that have only made their way through the pandemic because of the increased demand.”

He said he’s lost count of the times he’s been out to audit a site and been met with a hopeless IT solution that’s been engineered by an MSP that simply doesn’t know what they’re doing. And that’s what businesses should really one looking for - the ones that have been around the block for a while and know what they’re doing. 

The difficulty is how do the end users know what a good MSP is or not? Because everyone's saying they're an expert so if you don't know the difference between what a good MSP looks like and what a bad one looks like, how are you going to see it?

“It's that age old story,” Pete says, “as long as they know a little bit more than you do, then they're the expert.” But how to combat this directly? Regulation would be a good start and is already on the cards but, according to Pete, initial government discussions have only just been made. 

As it stands there is no industry body to keep the mavericks at bay and all existing cyber essentials certifications are more end user-facing than MSP-facing. Pete would, however, recommend that you look for the companies that are essential plus certified, even though, he admits “it’s only really a little bit more than a box ticking exercise.”

Above all else, however, until a verifiable “check a trade for IT companies” comes along, he feels the best way to ensure you’re getting the right help is to ask the advice of people you trust and to not be afraid of asking questions.

If, however, you’re looking for a remote IT device logistics service that is fully automated and takes all of the guesswork out of the JML process, Novatech has the perfect solution.

Introducing Our Managed IT Service, D2D

A service created to offer a fully automated, sustainable service for managing remote device logistics, D2D simplifies and perfects the JML process.

Ideal for businesses looking for a quick-to-deploy and easy-to-use solution that can be tailored to their specific needs, D2D uses a bespoke web-based portal to act as a single point of access from which all IT solutions can be configured, procured, integrated and deployed. 

D2D is perfect for enterprise organisations with large remote workforces that require a flawless JML process. This is a process that’s already being used by major brands such as Monzo, Octopus and OVO and, as we provide everything in-house, all equipment and platforms we provide are 100% compatible and reliable right out of the box.

D2D offers full lifecycle management, favouring device reuse and redeployment as a first choice. It will also contribute to your Net Zero Goals, thanks to our host of sustainable policies, partners, and new investments.

We work directly with a wide range of providers like Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Apple, to give you a limitless range of hardware options, all of which our team of in-house experts can tailor to you from the beginning. If someone leaves, meanwhile, with just a single day’s notice we’ll collect and assess their equipment for you, resetting and refreshing the device ready for rapid redeployment.

D2D is a comprehensive solution that manages to avoid almost all of the challenges faced by many MSPs. Just tell us what you need and where you are and we’ll do the rest.

We want to thank Pete for his time and his insight. If you’re in need of his coaching services you can find them here or if you are interested in his YouTube channel, you can find it here.

Get in touch with us today to learn more about our D2D solution, or any of our other dozens of tech-based services.