Some 90% of MSPs “completely get” the need for a live evidence trustmark, Assurix’s founder claimed after it verified its first MSP.
Launched in October, Assurix’s accreditation is designed to hand customers “continuous, externally verified proof that what an MSP says it does is what it actually does, day to day”.
Seven months on, it has unveiled London-based Little Big Tech as the first UK MSP to earn the status.
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen, Assurix founder and CEO Mit Patel reiterated plans to have 1,500 UK MSPs on board within five years.
He worked in MSP land himself for 20 years, selling his £8m-revenue MSP Netstar to Air IT in 2020.
“90% of the MSPs we speak to completely get it and understand why it’s needed,” he said.
“There’s been a bit of education we’ve needed to do in the marketplace around why continuous assurance matters.
“In the insurance market, it’s something that really lowers their risk, knowing that people are doing the things they say they’re going to be doing.”
“Quite strange and funny”
The Assurix assessment requires an MSP to pass 64 controls covering security maturity and operational maturity, with the status suspended publicly if standards slip.
A further 84 UK MSPs are now committed to the standard, 54 in active assessment and 30 on the paid waitlist, with the next trustmark awards expected over “the coming months”, the company claims.
“In five years’ time, we want to get to 1,500 MSPs. We’re on track so far, but we’re very early days,” Patel said.
“I think we’ve had two out of 100 conversations where people were like, ‘oh, you’re against MSPs’. We’re like, ‘no, I’m from this space; we’re actually making sure the good MSPs win.”
In a “quite strange and funny” twist, Assurix has seen “a lot” of SMEs reach out and declare their support for its objectives, Patel said.
“Our reputation is really MSP reputation, not SME reputation,” he said.
“But at the MSP Show we had ten separate SMEs come to our stand who were unhappy with their MSPs. They were like, ‘what you guys are doing really gives us a whole new way to understand how to choose an MSP’.
“That was pretty refreshing, and really reinforced the thesis of what we’re doing.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
