The answer to what MSP software is, lies in the core principles of business operations. Managed Service Providers, or MSPs, are individuals or companies that specialize in delivering IT solutions for other businesses. To fulfill that mission well, MSPs need the right software tools.
Indeed, alongside considerations of hiring skilled staff and optimizing employee retention, choosing effective MSP software is one of the key factors that shape an MSP firm’s success and profitability.
To provide guidance on how to select MSP software solutions that are ideal for your business, this article explains which types of software MSPs need, how they use it and how to go about building a stack of key MSP software tools.
Table of Contents
What is MSP Software?
MSP software is a suite of digital tools that Managed Service providers use to implement and manage IT resources on behalf of their clients.
To a certain extent, MSP software is similar to the tools that a business’s own, “in-house” IT department would use to manage applications and infrastructure. Like any type of IT software, MSP software tools should include core features such as:
- Monitoring features: These help MSPs track the health and status of software systems, as well as identify problems.
- Automation capabilities: Automation allows MSPs to streamline processes and make them repeatable.
- Reporting: The ability to generate reports helps MSPs to track the outcomes of workflows and identify errors. Reporting is also often important for compliance purposes, since it helps MSPs demonstrate that they’re meeting compliance requirements.
- Security: Security features help to prevent misuse of software tools and to reduce security and data privacy risks.
Backup and Disaster Recovery
Data backup and disaster recovery software helps MSPs keep clients’ data safe. Ideally, backup and recovery platforms will do much more than just create copies of data. They should also include features like automated recovery (to streamline recovery operations), multiple recovery methods (to give MSPs more options when performing recovery) and the platform-agnostic backup storage (so MSPs can store data on whichever platform is most effective and cost-efficient for their needs).
MSP360 Managed Backup checks all the boxes: it is a centralized, multi-platform MSP backup software that offers automated backups, compliance-ready security, white-labeling, and seamless integration with MSP360 RMM and PSA tools. With flexible pricing and vendor-neutral storage support for Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, Wasabi, Backblaze B2, and more, it enhances data protection while optimizing costs.
Also, MSP360 offers data protection for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace with a cloud-to-cloud SaaS backup solution that supports all components of both platforms including Exchange Online, Mail, OneDrive, Contacts, Calendar, SharePoint, and Teams for Microsoft 365, as well as Gmail, Google Drive, Contacts, Calendar, and Shared Drives for Google Workspace. It ensures secure data protection and quick recovery of critical business data without using local infrastructure. The solution features different types of automation with no need for deep technical expertise to set up and maintain it.
Remote Monitoring and Management Tools
As we mentioned, MSPs often perform administrative IT work remotely. The software tools they use must therefore allow them to monitor and manage client systems from any location using remote monitoring and management (RMM) features.
At the same time, it’s critical for RMM tools to include robust security protections, such as strong authentication and the encryption of data as it moves over the network.
If you’re looking for the reliable and cost-efficient RMM solution for your software stack, explore MSP360 RMM: an all-in-one remote monitoring and management solution designed for IT teams and MSPs looking for centralized monitoring and management, automation, and cost-effectiveness. With unlimited endpoints, centralized management, built-in remote access, proactive monitoring, automated issue resolution, MSP360 RMM empowers IT professionals to streamline operations, reduce downtime, and manage endpoints effortlessly, all without long-term commitments.
PSA Tools
Professional Services Automation (PSA) tools allow MSPs to automate processes like communicating with clients, sending invoices and managing tickets. While PSA software is not necessarily essential for supporting customers, it plays a key role in helping MSPs to operate efficiently.
Good PSA tools should be flexible enough to support whichever bespoke or specialized processes an MSP wants to automate. They should also include security features like the ability to separate client data within PSA systems, which helps reduce the risk of accidentally exposing one client’s information to another customer.
With MSP360 Managed Connect, you can implement integration with HaloPSA that gives MSPs one-click remote access to any endpoint using MSP360 Managed Connect directly from the HaloPSA console.
Invoicing and Billing Tools
While PSA tools often include features for automating the management of invoices, it’s common for MSPs to use dedicated software platforms for the purpose of generating invoices and tracking bill payments. This is another type of software that is critical for helping MSPs operate efficiently.
Here again, the ability to support bespoke processes is important, since each MSP may manage invoices in a unique way. So, too, are security features that keep sensitive financial data secure.
Documentation Tools
Effective MSP documentation can be the unsung hero of a great MSP business. When MSPs systematically document processes and resources, they can better automate and streamline processes in a consistent way.
To that end, MSP software stacks should include documentation tools that help to generate and track documentation. Simply storing information in Word documents or generic wikis may not be enough. MSPs need features like the ability to manage documentation access in a granular way (since documentation files may contain sensitive data that shouldn’t be available to all users), track version histories and navigate documentation bases efficiently using advanced search or AI-powered summarization.
Key Features of MSP Software
Going beyond core IT software capabilities, MSPs often face special requirements that don’t typically apply to internal IT teams. For this reason, MSP software usually includes special capabilities that would not be available in most generic IT tools. Examples include:
Multi-tenant capabilities
Because MSPs frequently work with multiple clients at the same time, the software they use requires multi-tenant support, meaning the ability to administer several distinct IT environments at once.
Remote management
MSPs often deliver IT services remotely, so the tools they use must allow them to access client systems without being physically present on-site.
Scalability
The number of clients that an MSP works with, and the scope of clients’ IT environments, can fluctuate. For that reason, MSP software must be able to scale up and down as needs change.
Platform-agnosticism
Unlike internal IT departments, MSPs don’t typically have a lot of control over which technology platforms or services their clients use. As a result, MSP software will ideally be agnostic, meaning it can support multiple types of platforms, operating systems and so on.
Explore unified MSP software in a single pane of glass: MSP360 Platform is a centralized, all-in-one IT management and data protection platform for MSPs, that combines MSP360 Managed Backup, MSP360 Managed Backup for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, MSP360 RMM, and MSP360 Managed Connect under one management console for MSPs.
The Importance of Software for MSP Success
For an MSP business, the importance of having the right software tools on hand is about much more than simply helping to execute workflows. MSP software is critical for addressing many of the special challenges that can hamper an MSP company’s ability to operate efficiently and profitability.
Challenge 1: Moving Away from a Break/Fix Model
Historically, some MSPs operated on a break/fix model. This meant that when something went wrong with a client’s systems, they fixed it. This was not ideal for clients, since it meant that no one was proactively maintaining their systems and preventing disruptions. It was also not great for MSPs, who had to rush to respond when something broke, and who also often earned less because they could only bill for the hours they spent fixing problems.
A better approach is to shift away from break/fix to a true managed service business strategy, which provides more value for clients and MSPs alike. Software tools that offer features like proactive monitoring and remote management help MSPs to make this pivot. With these solutions, MSPs can efficiently deliver fully managed services that maximize client uptime and value.
Challenge 2: Tool Sprawl
Another common challenge for MSPs is tool sprawl. Too often, MSPs end up juggling multiple solutions from different vendors, often because each client requires a distinct set of solutions.
Tool sprawl hampers MSP productivity because it requires staff to master multiple software platforms. It also tends to increase an MSP’s licensing costs and overhead, since the business has to pay for each platform separately.
To solve this problem, MSPs should choose software that can support multiple platforms and environments using a single solution stack. This allows them to do more with less.
Challenge 3: Standardization
Along similar lines, disparate, fractured sets of tools also make it challenging to deliver managed services in a standardized, consistent way.
Here again, the solution is to choose a unified set of MSP tools that can support multiple clients in a streamlined fashion. That way, MSPs are able to offer consistent processes across diverse client environments.
Challenge 4: Compliance Requirements
MSPs must frequently comply with a variety of compliance regulations, such as GDPR and HIPAA. Failure to comply can lead to violation notices and fines – not to mention high customer churn rates due to concerns that an MSP can’t meet its clients’ compliance obligations.
The right MSP software alleviates this challenge by providing built-in compliance features, such as reporting capabilities that help to prove that hardware and software systems are managed in a compliant way.
Challenge 5: Cybersecurity Risks
Cybersecurity risks like ransomware (which surged by 275% in 2024) have grown persistently worse in recent years.
To meet this challenge and prevent risks to their own business, as well as client systems, MSPs need software solutions with strong security capabilities. For instance, the tools they use should offer separate accounts for different users, which makes it easier to implement the principle of least privilege by granting each employee the minimum rights necessary to fulfill a given role. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) features in MSP software also help to reduce cybersecurity risks.
Challenge 6: Software Budgeting
Overpaying for software can significantly reduce the profit margins of an MSP business. The more you pay for software tools, the less money your business retains (or the more it has to charge clients to maintain a decent level of profitability). And unfortunately, avoiding overpaying for software tools can be tough when pricing is non-transparent or unpredictable.
This is why MSP software with fixed, simple pricing terms is preferable. The better MSPs can anticipate their software costs, the more capable they are of running a successful business.
Conclusion
Software tools alone won’t guarantee MSP success. However, having the wrong software tools will guarantee MSP failure. That’s why it’s critical to ensure that your MSP business is powered by automated, feature-rich software tools with transparent pricing and the ability to support the needs of diverse clients and industries.
