Business operations:

When asked what the most inefficient area in their business is, MSPs responded overwhelmingly with one answer: project management and delivery. These project management issues may be why only 34% of MSPs sell Project Management and Delivery as a stand-alone service. 

Concerns around project management efficiency were true for MSPs regardless of their size or performance. In fact, high performers across a number of areas (including APRU, recurring revenue, total revenue, CSAT scores, and staff utilization) are more likely to feel that project management is their least efficient area. This suggests that being concerned about project management may positively influence client success, staff efficiency, and, ultimately, revenue. 

The next most common weakness was sales and marketing efforts, at 34%. Mid-to-large size MSPs are more likely to place sales and marketing inefficiencies as their top concern—meaning maturing these operations is vital for scaling for larger MSPs. Those with high client retention rates are also more likely to feel sales and marketing are inefficient. Perhaps they don’t feel supported by sales and marketing when it comes to driving customer retention—which should be a cross-company initiative.

The vast majority of MSPs (85%) have developed a business plan. 40% of respondents have a strategic business plan for at least the next 6 months, while the next biggest group (33%) have one for the year ahead. Small MSPs are more likely to have no formal plan, while larger MSPs are more likely to have year-long or multi-year plans.

Compared to ScalePad’s 2024 Trends report, more MSPs are engaging in formal business planning for 2025. In 2024, 11% said they had no strategic plan, while this year only 9% don’t. Those with sixth-month plans increased by 5% in 2025. Interestingly, year-long planning stayed flat while multi-year planning decreased 7% this year—suggesting that MSPs may be worried about longer-term planning due to economic or regulatory uncertainty.

Regardless of size, it’s worth noting that high performers across a number of categories (including CSAT, retention rates, and staff utilization rates) are more likely to have a business plan for the next year or few years—proving that creating concrete, long-term plans can drive better business outcomes.

Account Managers and Customer Success Manager roles are less likely to say their business has a long-term plan—which may suggest they’re either unaware of the bigger picture or don’t see the growth or development of their department reflected in these plans.

The most common non-technical solutions MSPs use to help run their business are customer relationship management tools, help desk and ticketing software, and project management software. Clearly, MSPs see the value of having solutions for tracking customer relationships, managing support effectively, and confidently leading client projects.

Even though 41% of participants have project management software, MSPs overwhelmingly rate project management and delivery as one of the most inefficient areas of their business—which may suggest solutions aren’t meeting their needs or that software alone isn’t enough to execute projects effectively.

About a third use time tracking, quoting/invoicing, documentation, internal collaboration and marketing automation tools. MSPs who want to improve both staff productivity and the customer experience may want to consider increasing their use of these efficiency and client communication tools.

Over half of MSPs (64%) say their utilization rate is between 26% and 75%. Close to a quarter (18%) are high performers with rates of 76% or more.

Small MSPs are slightly more likely to have lower utilization rates than their larger peers—but they’re also less likely to be tracking it compared to their peers, meaning it may not be a priority to them. However, when we look at utilization rates by MSP size across those with the highest revenue, rates are fairly consistent, regardless of size—suggesting that small MSPs focused on this metric may perform better financially than their similarly sized peers.

Those with higher ARPU, CSAT, and retention rates are more likely to also have higher utilization rates (above 75%). This suggests that businesses who maximize their staff’s productivity can impact both the customer experience and the bottom line. It also helps MSPs judge workloads and when they may need to hire new employees.

The majority of MSPs (67%) develop their staff’s skills by offering technical training, and about half offer higher education support and conference attendance. Formal mentoring and career planning fall in the middle at 43% and 42%, respectively, while personal learning stipends and memberships in professional communities fall in the bottom third.

Overall, most MSPs seem to offer a few different learning opportunities to their staff—suggesting that if they’re having trouble growing or retaining highly skilled staff, they may need to revisit their professional development programs and think outside the box to improve outcomes.

Large MSPs are more likely to offer higher education support, event or conference travel, and formal mentoring programs to train employees than smaller MSPs. Small MSPs may have to find creative ways to compete with these perks on a tighter budget. It should be noted that MSPs with the highest revenue, regardless of size, are much more likely to offer technical training and higher education support than the average. However, small MSPs with high revenue are more likely to lean into formal mentorship programs, while large revenue leaders focus on educational events, learning stipends, and long-term career planning.

Customer Success Managers and Account Managers are less likely to say they get technical training or formal mentorship, and slightly less likely to say they receive support for conferences or higher education. If MSPs want these vital, customer-facing roles to perform better, they may need to explore different programs and training than they’re used to for more technical roles.

The majority of MSPs are focused on using competitive pay and bonuses to retain staff, with flexible work arrangements, and career growth planning and promotions rounding out the top three tactics. Paying for travel to work-related events and generous time off policies are the least likely to be used.

Small MSPs are less likely to offer career planning and comprehensive benefits to employees, while large MSPs are slightly more likely to offer competitive pay, career planning and promotions, and team bonding events. Large MSPs that are high-revenue earners are more likely to offer nearly all of the retention initiatives in the survey—while smaller high-revenue earners are more likely to lean into team bonding events. This means smaller firms may want to focus on pay, career growth, and, perhaps most importantly, company culture to retain top talent.

Those with high client satisfaction and retention rates are more likely to offer generous time-off policies—suggesting well-rested staff may stick around longer and serve clients better.

Sales and marketing roles are the most in-demand new hires for MSPs 2025, followed closely by customer success managers and security specialists. Overall, the most common roles MSPs want to hire for are non-technical, customer-focused roles, implying the need for a holistic approach to acquiring new clients and improving the customer journey (not just technical delivery).

vCIO/vCISO roles trail the bottom of the list at 13%. This advisory role can be a strategic boon for client satisfaction since MSPs with higher CSAT scores are more likely to already have this role. If MSPs want to prioritize growing existing accounts through a more consultative approach, they should prioritize this role.

Small MSPs are less likely to be hiring for HR roles. Since we saw in the previous two sections that smaller businesses may struggle to offer the same perks and training opportunities as larger MSPs, investing in HR could help improve the employee experience and offer small MSPs an advantage in a competitive talent market. 

Those in non-management technical roles are more likely to say they’re hiring help desk support or general technicians, while senior technical managers are more likely to prioritize security specialists and HR support. It may be important for technical delivery teams to align on the resources their whole team truly needs to excel—and not just the roles that will immediately benefit them the most.