As telecom providers race to build AI-powered digital marketplaces and partner ecosystems, many are overlooking one of the most influential midmarket players: managed service providers.
That’s according to Angus Ward, CEO of Beyond Now, which develops digital marketplace software that helps telcos build partner ecosystems and deliver bundled digital services.
Ward said telcos have traditionally focused their ecosystem strategies on hyperscalers, software vendors and platform providers while underestimating the role MSPs play in shaping customer technology decisions.
“A lot of telcos assume they already have access to the SMB customer through their existing base, so the focus naturally shifts to big partners,” he told Channel Dive. “That’s where the ‘ecosystem’ conversation has traditionally sat.”
That strategy misses how many SMB purchasing decisions are made.
“What has been missed is that access doesn’t equal influence,” Ward said. “MSPs are often the ones closest to the customer, shaping key technology decisions day to day. For many SMBs, support and advice are often more important than price when choosing a solution, especially when technology becomes critical to how they run their businesses.”
The telco industry has largely viewed MSPs as a distribution channel rather than strategic ecosystem partners.
“There just hasn’t been enough thinking around how to enable them, grow them and make them successful as partners in their own right.”
Solving the ‘last mile’
As tech portfolios expand, the MSP’s role expands.
Customers want help solving business problems when they make purchases. Most SMBs, Ward said, prefer to adopt technology incrementally, validating value before expanding deployments.
“Most SMBs think in terms of outcomes as they’re simply trying to run a business,” he said. “They’re also highly cost sensitive, so they tend to start small, test something, and only invest further if it delivers value.”
MSPs bridge that gap by translating business requirements into deployable solutions.
“MSPs understand the customer problem and context, translate that into a solution, and then assemble the right combination of services to deliver it,” said Ward. “That ‘last mile’ is really about interpretation and trust, taking something complex and making it workable for the customer.”
Digital marketplaces increase, rather than diminish, demand for that expertise. As customers are confronted with an expanding menu of tech options, the advice from a trusted MSP takes on more value, Ward said.
From reseller to orchestrator
The MSP business model is evolving beyond traditional product resale to orchestrating outcomes, according to Ward.
Rather than reselling connectivity or software licenses, service providers are expected to combine services from multiple vendors into complete customer solutions.
“That means less focus on transactions and more focus on design, integration and lifecycle management,” Ward said. “They’re effectively stitching together the ecosystem into something usable for the customer.”.
The same shift applies to AI, which is typically not a standalone technology in a business context.
“AI capabilities can be quite abstract,” Ward said. “MSPs are the ones who turn that into something practical, packaging it into services and making sure it actually works in the customer’s environment.”
Task-oriented agentic automation adds to the AI opportunity for partners
“We’ll see AI being sold less as a standalone capability and more as part of bundled solutions,” Ward said. “The opportunity is significant, but it will favor MSPs who can move beyond basic resale and into solution design and service delivery.”
A paradigm shift
Building a stronger MSP ecosystem isn’t easy. If telcos want stronger relationships with service providers, they need to rethink more than just their commercial models.
“It starts with mindset,” Ward said. “Culturally, MSPs need to be seen as a core part of the value chain.”
Partners expect a frictionless experience, from onboarding and incentive structures through to customer ownership and platform capabilities.
“The common thread is moving from ‘selling through partners’ to genuinely ‘building with partners’,” Ward said. “The market is moving toward outcomes, not products. The MSPs that can embrace B2B2X business models via digital marketplaces to deliver those outcomes will be the ones that win.”
