Our MSP has been researching outsourced support solutions and we’ve narrowed down our options to a few providers. We’re specifically looking at companies that offer both helpdesk and network operations center services under our brand.
The main requirements we have are solid service level agreements, good integration capabilities with existing tools, and a mix of domestic and international staff for phone support.
Has anyone here worked with similar outsourced support providers? I’m particularly interested in hearing about real-world experiences with service quality and whether these companies actually meet their promised SLAs.
We’ve already done our research and selected our final candidates, so we’re not looking for new vendor suggestions right now. Just want to get some honest feedback from other MSPs who might have gone down this path.
We switched two years ago and the biggest surprise? Cultural fit mattered way more than we thought. All three finalists looked identical on paper tech-wise, but their working styles were night and day different. Invoice reconciliation blindsided us - make sure you know exactly how they track and bill time, especially for anything beyond basic helpdesk stuff. We got confused early on when project work started blurring those lines. The domestic/international staff mix actually worked great. Their offshore team nails the initial triage and documentation, then escalates when needed. But you’ve got to nail down solid handoff procedures from day one. I’d push for a shorter contract - 12 months instead of their usual 24-36 month pitch. Good providers will say yes if they’re confident in what they’re selling. Also ask about their staff turnover. We lost three trained techs in year one because of their internal reshuffling, which killed our knowledge transfer progress.
Made this jump 18 months ago. Biggest learning curve? Managing client expectations during the switch. Clients notice different voices and new ticket patterns, even when things go smoothly. What caught us off guard was how much our internal stuff had to change. We figured we’d just hand off tickets and be done. Instead, we spent months coaching the outsourced team on client quirks and preferences that weren’t documented anywhere. The SLA thing is tricky - their promised metrics don’t match what clients actually care about. We learned to negotiate custom KPIs that fit our client expectations instead of accepting their standard measurements. For international staff, communication training made all the difference. Not just accents or language, but getting them to explain technical stuff to non-technical clients the way we normally would. Worth the extra time upfront. Pro tip: start with your least demanding clients first. Let the new provider get comfortable with your systems before giving them your critical accounts.
Honestly, the tech wasn’t the hard part - it was getting my team to actually let go. Our senior guys second-guessed every escalation for months, which totally defeated the point. Also, budget extra for monitoring tools. You’ll need way more visibility into what they’re doing than you expect.
Been through this exact transition about 3 years ago when our internal team couldn’t keep up with growth.
SLAs are tricky. Most providers hit response times, but resolution times show the real differences. We had one provider respond to tickets in 5 minutes just to say “we’re looking into it” then take forever to actually fix anything.
What made the difference for us was doing a trial with actual customer tickets. Not their demo scenarios, but real messy problems from your existing queue. That’s when you see how they handle escalations and complex issues.
Integration was smoother than expected once we picked a provider with connectors for our PSA. But make sure they can actually use your knowledge base. Our first attempt failed because their team kept asking questions we’d already documented.
Phone support quality varies wildly by shift. Day shift was great, but night and weekend coverage had gaps. Test all time zones if that matters for your clients.
Found this discussion really helpful when we were evaluating:
Overall it worked out well, but the transition took about 6 months to get smooth. Client satisfaction actually improved once we got past the initial bumps.
