“The new born-in-cloud-and-AI guys will drive down the price”
Austen Clark, Chairman, Jera IT
How will the onset of AI tools that in theory make MSPs more efficient impact their pricing to customers?
There are two schools of thought. School number one is that, because we’ve got AI that can deliver so much more value to the client, we can drive the price up.
School number two is: don’t increase your price to your clients; become more efficient.
I personally think the ‘becoming-more-efficient’ argument is a more sensible and sustainable one. I was informed by a certain large group of MSPs that they aren’t hiring first-line engineers. All of a sudden, you can see there’s going to be a reduction in headcount. You can also see we’re going from say 250 endpoints to 400 endpoints. The toolsets we’re seeing are all leading us that way.
I think market forces are going to naturally drive it down. The new born-in-cloud-and-AI guys who are coming into this game will drive down the price, because they have none of the baggage we have.
The second thing is I think the skill sets will mean we’ll have far better conversations with clients, which will drive up the engagement, and which will lead into far more compelling work.
Why are you here?
I’m a community guy, and I was talking with Jay McBain of Omdia. The big thing he said, which I think is so true, is that this is an ecosystem, and we all have our parts to play. At one moment, I’ll have £100,000 on the table and you’ll have £1m on the table. But everybody has a place at the table, and that could change this time next year. Bringing people together to have conversations and engage will only do one thing: lift all ships. And the GTIA play a big part in that.
Is there anything special about this this event in particular?
I like the idea that it is vendor neutral. When we all come together and start to share, as GTIA have done here, that’s the secret. We work better when we’re all together.
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