The MSP's Role in Business Communications: Where UCaaS Fits Into the IT Conversation
Updated: 6 days ago
For Managed Service Providers (MSPs), business phone systems and Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) can represent both an opportunity and a challenge. While voice communications are essential technology to support daily operations, not every MSP has the expertise, resources, or desire to offer and manage these solutions.
Some MSPs deliberately stay away from voice services, choosing to focus on their core IT, help desk, cloud, and cybersecurity offerings. Others have invested in dedicated in-house teams to design, implement, and support business communications solutions. Many fall somewhere in between, reselling third-party platforms or establishing strategic partnerships with specialized UCaaS providers.
How MSPs approach UCaaS goes well beyond the technology stack. If and how these solutions are offered can directly impact client satisfaction, operational efficiency, recurring revenue opportunities, and even an MSP's ability to protect existing client relationships and revenue that follows.
Understanding the different UCaaS delivery models, advantages and limitations, and the role of a strategic communications partner can help MSPs decide what's best for their business and their clients.
Our Managing Partner, Charlotte Conroy, had the privilege of joining Marvin Bee, Owner of MB Systems and creator of Uncle Marv's IT Business Podcast, to talk about all things UCaaS, shifts from legacy technology, value and pricing, UCaaS delivery options, and the power of successful MSP and Communications Provider partnerships.
MSPs Don't Have to Do It All
MSPs offer, design, and manage a wide range of technology for their clients. Networks, cybersecurity, cloud services, hardware, software, infrastructure, AI, and automation can all fall under the MSP umbrella.
Business communications and UCaaS can be another piece of the tech stack especially with Microsoft Teams integration opportunities. But that does not necessarily mean the MSP needs to manage every aspect internally.
Instead of trying to become UCaaS experts, MSPs can work alongside a provider that specializes in solution design, hands-on implementation, tailored training, and expert support after the solutions are in place. The key is finding a partner that compliments and collaborates with the MSP to ensure offering UCaaS to clients is the right experience resulting in client happiness and retention.
Aligning with a like-minded strategic UCaaS partner allows the MSP to remain the trusted technology advisor while bringing in specialized expertise when a client's communications needs require it. A strong communications partner can complement an MSP's existing expertise and may add more value in the long run.
Why Business Communications Can't Be Ignored
Business communications are closely connected to the technologies most MSPs already manage. The phone system relies on a well-designed network. Remote employees depend on secure and high functioning devices and cloud applications to work efficiently. Building security, access control, and overhead paging systems may connect to the phone system to streamline communications.
When these systems are treated separately, issues can become harder to diagnose and responsibilities can become unclear.
Communications also remain an important part of the customer experience. Businesses and nonprofits depend on their phone systems to route callers to the right person/department, support employees working remotely and across multiple office locations, and enable consistent conversations with colleagues, customers and partners.
MSPs don't need to become phone system experts, rather talking about UCaaS and business communications opens the door to ensure client’s needs are met, all while keeping competitors out of the conversation.
Real-World Examples: When UCaaS Impacts More Than Just Phone Calls
For MSPs, the decision to offer, recommend, or stay out of business communications can have consequences that extend far beyond the phone system. Here are four real-world situations our team has encountered over the years that demonstrates how voice communications can impact client relationships, recurring revenue, and an MSP's reputation.
1.) When a Phone System Opens the Door to a Competitor
An MSP lost a long-standing client after a competing technology provider initiated a conversation about VoIP. What started as a discussion about business phone services eventually became an opportunity for the competitor to take over the client's entire IT environment.
💡The Lesson: Every technology provider working with your clients has the potential to influence future technology decisions. Being part of the communications conversation helps MSPs protect valuable relationships and recurring revenue.
2.) When Your Client's VoIP Provider Is Also Your Competitor
An MSP discovered that one of its clients was receiving VoIP services from a fellow local MSP. Until that conversation, the MSP hadn't realized a competing IT provider already had an established relationship with their client.
💡The Lesson: Understanding who provides and supports your clients' communications can help uncover competitive risks, strengthen relationships, and identify opportunities to provide greater value.
3.) When an Unresponsive VoIP Provider Puts Client Relationships and Revenue at Risk
An MSP had a client generating more than $30K in monthly recurring revenue. When persistent call quality issues began affecting daily operations and client conversations, the VoIP provider the MSP had introduced was nowhere to be found. The MSP was left attempting to manage the situation despite not being directly responsible for delivering the phone services.
💡The Lesson: A poorly supported communications solution can put far more than the phone system at risk. Choosing the right partner is essential to protecting client trust and the MSP's existing business.
4.) When Offering UCaaS In-House Becomes a Liability
An MSP expanded their services to include business phone solutions. However, when call quality issues emerged, the challenges began affecting the client's perception of the MSP's overall reliability and ability to support them. What was intended to create additional value and revenue put the MSP's reputation and core IT relationship at risk.
💡The Lesson: Adding UCaaS to your portfolio can create opportunities, but only when the expertise, resources, and support structure are in place to deliver a consistently positive client experience.
5 Communications Questions Every MSP Should Consider:
Do you know who provides business phone and UCaaS services to your clients?
Could another technology provider use voice services as an entry point into your client relationships?
Are you confident the communications providers you recommend will be responsive when issues arise?
Do you have the expertise or strategic partnerships needed to support clients' evolving communications requirements?
Could a stronger UCaaS strategy help protect existing revenue while creating new opportunities?
The right communications strategy isn't necessarily about doing more. It's about protecting what you've built, strengthening client relationships, and ensuring the right expertise is available when clients need it.
Value & Price: What Businesses Are Really Paying For
Price will always be part of the conversation when a business or nonprofit is evaluating a phone system or UCaaS solution. But the lowest price does not necessarily align with the best value.
Aside from the technology itself, businesses and nonprofits are paying for reliability, expertise, and quality support. Most UCaaS platforms offer the exact same features, but if the system is not designed to support how an organization needs to operate, there will be frustration and eagerness to make a change as soon as the contract ends.
When it comes to the UCaaS provider, service-impacting intangibles like reliability, expertise, and support can make or break an MSPs reputation and future with a client, especially if they recommended a poor performing provider.
A communications solution that looks inexpensive on paper may become much more costly if it creates support issues, isn't designed to support operations, or leaves the client without expertise it needs when something goes wrong.
And let's face it, when it comes to technology, there will always be issues.
The goal should not simply be finding the cheapest phone system or UCaaS platform. It should be finding a communications solution that aligns with the organization's operational, technological, and financial goals, and is supported by people who can provide top-notch service.
UCaaS Is More Than VoIP
VoIP (voice over internet protocol) is an important part of modern business communications, but UCaaS goes beyond simply making phone calls over the internet. Unified communications brings together phone calls, SMS, chat, fax, and other collaboration tools in a more connected environment.
For businesses and nonprofits, this can result in employees have more flexibility in how and where they communicate. A person may be able to answer a business call from a desk phone, computer or mobile device, depending on the system and the organization's needs.
UCaaS should be considered a part of an organization's broader technology environment, rather than just the phone system. The right solution depends on how the organization operates, how employees communicate, and what other systems need to work alongside it.
The Details Matter: Overhead Paging, Door Access, and Other Integrations
One of the easiest ways to underestimate a communications solution is to focus only on the phones. Many businesses, nonprofits, and schools have other systems connected to their communications environment.
Overhead Paging
Door Access
Loud Ringers
Alarms
Fax Machines
These details can become especially important in environments such as schools, healthcare, warehouses, manufacturing facilities and other organizations where communications extend beyond individual employees sitting at desks.
This is where specialized communications expertise can be particularly valuable.
Before recommending a UCaaS solution, it's important to understand the full environment currently in place and identify the integrations that matter to the organization.
A system can look great on paper and still fall short if an important piece of the client's existing infrastructure was overlooked.
What a Successful MSP + Communications Partnership Can Look Like
The strongest MSP and Communications Provider relationships are not built around handing off a client, hoping everything works out, and collecting a commissions check. They are collaborative, strategic, and provide overall value to the client, MSP, and Communications Provider.
This means coming to the table together, understanding the client's challenges and goals, designing and optimizing the network, and clearly defining who is responsible for each part of the environment.
When responsibilities are clear and there are experts collaborating on behalf of the client, there's no finger pointing, rather conversations to ensure the solutions are designed right from the start. And when technical issues arise, they are resolved as quickly as possible.
The MSP and Communications Provider should have a shared understanding of the client's environment and a clear process for troubleshooting issues together. The goal is to solve the client's problem, not determine who can avoid responsibility for it.
Instead of managing multiple technology providers that operate independently, the client has a team of experts working together toward the same outcome. When an MSP and Communications Provider can partner and perform for the client, this typically results in added trust, happiness, and long term relationships.
Listen to the Full Podcast
To hear more about UCaaS and the evolving relationship between MSPs and Communications Providers, listen to Charlotte Conroy's conversation with Marvin Bee on Uncle Marv's IT Business Podcast.
About Recent Communications, Inc.
Trusted for over 25 years, Recent Communications, Inc. is a regionally-based, 2nd generation business communications company dedicated to designing and supporting reliable, secure, and flexible business phone solutions.
Our client-focused and consultative approach pairs industry expertise with white-glove service offering custom solutions, expert implementation, and tailored training programs. Our responsive, expert support and a partnership-first mindset is key to client loyalty and lasting relationships.
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