How MSPs are measuring automation success

Marc-Andre Tanguay, Head Automation Nerd at N-able & Callum Baker, Technical Director at Dufeu, dicuss all things automation and why MSPs need to measure their success.
Marc-Andre Tanguay, Head Automation Nerd at N-able & Callum Baker, Technical Director at Dufeu, dicuss all things automation and why MSPs need to measure their success.

Automation has often been thought of as a way to replace human labour, and as such, it has often taken human form. Talos was a giant bronze man who defended Crete. The Golem was made of clay but shaped like a human. Egyptian, Chinese, and Indian mythology all contain tales of mechanical or animated people. Frankenstein, arguably the first science fiction novel, was again about creating an automaton—albeit one with more humanity than expected—and you can barely move in future-set fiction for robots, from Metropolis to C3PO.

MSPs may not be creating actual robots, but they should be thinking along these lines when building automation into their business. If they were creating automatons, how many would there be?

Why automate?

It’s fairly self-evident why any business should automate, but it’s worth considering exactly why MSPs should do it. After all, many businesses have, from the luddites onwards, been plagued by fears that this is a way to replace staff. This is not our approach.

MSPs should be using automation to scale their business and dedicate more time to training. Staff with less experience are often those stuck performing rote tasks—by automating those tasks, staff is free to learn new skills and be more useful to the business—rather than hitting the same buttons day in and day out.

The more that staff move away from tasks that are necessary but rote, the more they can become more customer-oriented, increasing one-to-one conversations with clients instead of rushing to close as many tickets as possible. A client being locked out due to a forgotten password is a problem that cannot be ignored; it must be solved—but if it can be automated and that time used to solve more complex issues requiring human input, the result is a better relationship with that customer.

It’s not enough to just automate; however—MSPs need to measure their success. And that’s where thinking about automatons as well as automation comes in.

How to measure automation

At Dufeu, we’re confident in calling our automation programme a success. We’re saving at least 30 minutes per day per staff member. We haven’t aimed to revolutionize how we work, but instead have looked for quick, easy wins to build on.

What does this 30 minutes per staff member mean in practice? It means we’re saving at least 131 hours every year, roughly equivalent to one full-time staff member who doesn’t take holidays or weekends off. Dufeu is not a huge company—we are less than thirty people all told—so this is a huge, measurable benefit to the business.

Let’s face it, as nice as we are, people don’t really care about the human touch when it comes to basic IT tasks. I don’t want to speak to a someone, I just want a password reset. I don’t want someone to talk me through basic first-line IT support—an automated script can walk me through switching things on and off and similar basic fixes. They do, however, care about the human touch when things are seriously wrong—if there’s a major outage or a cyberattack, your customers will want to know you’re on it, and they’ll value being kept abreast of the situation.

Automation for MSPs is about taking care of the simple things so more complex tasks can be addressed. 

Where next for automation?

This is potentially only the start of our journey with automation. As we create more automated workflows, we will look to strike the right balance between where automation will benefit the customer, versus frustrate them. It’s important to remember the other parts of automation in our lives and how we feel about them to give us an idea of what makes for “good” automation. For example, most of us are happy a lot of our bills are automated, saving us time. But ask someone trying to navigate an arcane automated phone banking system if they like automation and they’ll give you a different answer.

READ MORE:

As we automate, there will be choices to make about what to do with the time that’s freed up. Do we do more for our existing customers, look to take on new business, or offer new services? Automation is a no-brainer—the real questions are how far do we go, and what we do with the results?

For more news from Top Business Tech, don’t forget to subscribe to our daily bulletin!

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter

Amber Donovan-Stevens

Amber is a Content Editor at Top Business Tech

Birmingham Unveils the UK’s Best Emerging HealthTech Advances

Kosta Mavroulakis • 03rd April 2025

The National HealthTech Series hosted its latest event in Birmingham this month, showcasing innovative startups driving advanced health technology, including AI-assisted diagnostics, wearable devices and revolutionary educational tools for healthcare professionals. Health stakeholders drawn from the NHS, universities, industry and front-line patient care met with new and emerging businesses to define the future trajectory of...

Why DEIB is Imperative to Tech’s Future

Hadas Almog from AppsFlyer • 17th March 2025

We’ve been seeing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) initiatives being cut time and time again throughout the tech industry. DEIB dedicated roles have been eliminated, employee resource groups have lost funding, and initiatives once considered crucial have been deprioritised in favour of “more immediate business needs.” The justification for these cuts is often the...

The need to eradicate platform dependence

Sue Azari • 10th March 2025

The advertising industry is undergoing a seismic shift. Connected TV (CTV), Retail Media Networks (RMNs), and omnichannel strategies are rapidly redefining how brands engage with consumers. As digital privacy regulations evolve and platform dynamics shift, advertisers must recognise a fundamental truth. You cannot build a sustainable business on borrowed ground. The recent uncertainty surrounding TikTok...

The need to clean data for effective insight

David Sheldrake • 05th March 2025

There is more data today than ever before. In fact, the total amount of data created, captured, copied, and consumed globally has now reached an incredible 149 zettabytes. The growth of the big mountain is not expected to slow down, either, with it expected to reach almost 400 zettabytes within the next three years. Whilst...

What can be done to democratize VDI?

Dennis Damen • 05th March 2025

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) offers businesses enhanced security, scalability, and compliance, yet it remains a niche technology. One of the biggest barriers to widespread adoption is a severe talent gap. Many IT professionals lack hands-on VDI experience, as their careers begin with physical machines and increasingly shift toward cloud-based services. This shortage has created a...

Tech and Business Outlook: US Confident, European Sentiment Mixed

Viva Technology • 11th February 2025

The VivaTech Confidence Barometer, now in its second edition, reveals strong confidence among tech executives regarding the impact of emerging technologies on business competitiveness, particularly AI, which is expected to have the most significant impact in the near future. Surveying tech leaders from Europe and North America, 81% recognize their companies as competitive internationally, with...