IT asset management and long-term technology planning are top priority services that many MSPs offer their clients. Depending on your MSP’s size and your clients’ maturity level, you likely offer some combination of solutions to one or both of these issues. But what services are most relevant to your clients’ needs? And which features are ideal for your specific offering? There’s more to it than you might think.
In this article, you will learn:
A key responsibility for MSPs is to plan for IT improvements and share those plans with their clients. These conversations can look very different depending on the client’s and MSPs maturity level. For emerging MSPs and less mature clients, IT asset management is the key focus — that involves compiling asset inventories, identifying purchase dates and warranty expirations, and helping them plan for replacements.
For growing MSPs with more mature clients, that conversation becomes more about long-term technology planning. Growing MSPs are more likely to run Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) and engage clients in the planning process, which requires more detailed reports, budgets, visual data, roadmaps, and goal-setting.
Lifecycle Manager is divided into multiple plans so you can choose the right MSP automation solution for your offering based on clients’ specific needs. This helps you provide your clients with more relevant services and ensures you only pay for the features you actually use.
So, let’s break down the similarities and differences between Lifecycle Manager Essentials and Lifecycle Manager Pro.
Lifecycle Manager Essentials is an IT asset management tool designed to help track your clients’ asset inventories. Essentials integrates with your PSM or RMM, allowing you to instantly identify asset purchase dates and warranty expirations. These integrations make it easier for MSPs to get the complete picture of a client’s asset inventory so you can determine which assets are approaching the end of their lifecycle. With this clarity, MSPs can mitigate the risk of asset failure, reduce downtime, and help clients proactively plan for replacements.
At a lower price point similar to ScalePad’s legacy service, Warranty Master, this MSP automation plan is ideal for smaller MSPs — those with fewer resources who want to spend less time on administrative tasks (such as manually looking up purchase dates and warranty details with OEMs) and more time with their clients. As a bonus, Essentials lets MSPs test out all of the Pro features on one client with the opportunity to upgrade later.
Lifecycle Manager Pro includes all of the features from Essentials, plus additional client engagement functions that help MSPs have better strategic conversations with clients. Lifecycle Manager Pro elevates your MSP’s strategic presence and helps position you as a true technology partner for your clients. That means more time spent on strategy, more insightful and impactful QBRs, and more focus on long-term planning.
Lifecycle Manager Pro comes with a higher price point, making it suitable for growing MSPs. Pro delivers visualized data directly from your client’s IT environment. This data (and clear, concise reporting) makes it significantly easier for MSPs to communicate the benefits of long-term technology planning in a way your clients can understand — even your least tech-savvy clients! This ease of communication leads to increased client engagement, which builds trust and helps reduce churn. That’s how you establish positive long-term partnerships with clients.
Lifecycle Manager Pro offers MSPs a 20% discount on all Marketplace purchases, including Infrastructure Protection and Workstation Assurance. These services let MSPs provide clients with extended warranty coverage for their assets and plan for replacements without the hassle of constant service requests or lengthy quoting and procurement times via OEMs. Not only does this save you time, but it generates new revenue for your MSP.
Here’s a quick reference guide for the features included with each Lifecycle Manager plan:
| Feature / Use Case | Essentials | Pro |
| Insights | ✅ | ✅ |
| Complete Hardware List | ✅ | ✅ |
| Warranty Expiry Dates | ✅ | ✅ |
| Asset Purchase Dates | ✅ | ✅ |
| Hardware Lifecycle Report | ✅ | ✅ |
| Scheduled Reports | ✅ | ✅ |
| Infrastructure Protection | ✅ | ✅ + 20% off |
| Workstation Assurance | ✅ | ✅ + 20% off |
| Software Management | 1 Client | ✅ |
| Vendor Management | 1 Client | ✅ |
| Roadmaps | 1 Client | ✅ |
| Scorecards | 1 Client | ✅ |
| IT Asset Disposal | 1 Client | ✅ |
And here’s a pricing breakdown based on asset count for each Lifecycle Manager plan:
| Asset Boundary (Max) | Essentials | Pro |
| 250 | $79 | $149 |
| 500 | $99 | $199 |
| 750 | $129 | $249 |
| 1,000 | $139 | $279 |
| 1,500 | $159 | $329 |
| 2,000 | $189 | $399 |
| 3,000 | $249 | $499 |
| 4,000 | $299 | $599 |
| 5,000 | $349 | $729 |
| 7,500 | $419 | $839 |
| 10,000 | $479 | $949 |
It’s important to recognize that each plan serves a different function for MSPs looking to engage with their clients.
If your main focus is asset management and tracking warranty dates to help clients plan for replacements or extended coverage, Lifecycle Manager Essentials includes all the MSP automation features you need to help clients mitigate the risk of failure and reduce downtime.
However, let’s say you run QBRs with your clients and want to position yourself as a true strategic technology partner. In that case, Lifecycle Manager Pro equips you with automated reporting features to elevate client conversations and get their buy-in for long-term asset planning. This proactive approach to asset management can include extended warranty coverage outside of OEMs, which drives new revenue for your MSP while being more convenient for clients.
So, how do you choose the right plan for your MSP?
First, identify your MSP’s current stage and where you plan to be in the next few years. Are you an emerging MSP with 1-3 employees? Or are you a growing MSP with a higher headcount and more resources to commit to client services?
Do you want to become a long-term strategic technology partner for your clients? Or do you simply need a better way to track their asset inventories and help mitigate the risk of asset failure?
If you need help identifying which Lifecycle Manager plan is the best fit for your MSP based on use cases and goals, we’re here to help! Book a demo with our team here, and we’ll point you in the right direction.
