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As a Managed Service Provider (MSP), we are constantly trying to figure out how to improve our business model to incorporate elements that set us apart from other providers in the MSP space.

Customer service is an obvious key element. Nobody wants to engage a “service” provider providing poor service. So being as responsive and competent as possible when it comes to providing services is an essential ingredient.

Furthermore, having a team of competent people that you pay well, while still keeping your prices affordable in the tech space can be a challenge. We have to get creative in our processes so we can establish an environment that is well engineered, fully documented, and expertly maintained. This helps lower operational costs so our competent team can handle more with less effort, ie., scale.

Offering a comprehensive set of related services and products is also something that has become an expectation in this market space and has come to define what a Managed Service Provider is supposed to provide. This is why you see many public cloud products and services targeting MSP’s as integrators of their solutions. This is where our philosophy diverges from the typical MSP.

We have always had a vision that IT should be simple to manage, affordable to utilize, and most important of all, maintain a high level of security, privacy, and control. Understanding the challenges of running a small organization, with limited budgets, and lack of in house technology skill sets to call upon when needed is what we love so much about the MSP model, we can help fill the gap and add real value for businesses and organizations.

In today’s world, many Managed Service Providers have lost that last component and have been putting their clients’ most important asset, their information, exclusively into the Public Cloud. Aside from the ever increasing costs and complexity of services, the real danger is the fact that (in reality) control of the data has been almost entirely delegated to those cloud services. It is now locked into a set of systems that is costly to escape from and can ultimately be turned off for any number of reasons.

The most egregious example of the danger is something called “Deplatforming.” Here’s a story from CNBC from 2021 that showcases a very public instance of this, but the fact is that this is happening more and more on a small scale by all sorts of institutions. And how did we get here? For us, it’s simply a feature built into the centralization trend of this digital age. When data and services are consolidated into a few large platform providers, it’s analogous to building the perfect regime of centralized control.

Stapel was founded to offer an alternative to giving up your digital sovereignty. It was clear the movement to centralized cloud services was more than what we were told by the people we trusted to be stewards of our important data. As the manager of a Managed Service Provider prior to starting Stapel, we were selling people on the virtues of the cloud, not realizing we were removing actual control from the very people who put their trust in us. And so we set out to build an alternative...Stapel!

We talk a bit more about this on the Stapel about page: https://stapel.io/about. There are a few components to this vision and we are slowly building towards the solution that we think will offer a viable alternative to this centralization problem.

It starts with People. Having someone you can go to for advice on technology solutions to your organization’s challenges that isn’t going to automatically push you into the Public Cloud, unless it’s the best (or only) solution for your specific needs and requirements.

Next is competent Service and Support to ensure that your current technology is working as it should. This team should be familiar with your environment and your needs so you and your team can stay productive.

Then you need a Secure Environment from which your team members can affect your mission and do it in a manner that protects your organization from the threats of this digital age.

To run your business, you need capable Software that provides the benefits the cloud offers, but maintains your digital sovereignty and control so you’re not locked into a specific platform or vendor.

Finally, having solid Infrastructure for your team to operate on, including machines, network, and internet connectivity.

These 5 layers represent the components that comprise what Stapel can offer an organization. But we didn’t feel this went far enough to set us apart from your run of the mill MSP. Sure, we’re not leading you like sheep to the public cloud slaughterhouse, but there is still something that always nagged at us about this Managed Services Space and that’s the whole pricing thing. How many meetings, network audits, phone calls, site visits, etc. does a client need to endure before getting an idea of what it’s going to cost just to do business with you? Enough already! Aside from a special project that has unique requirements, there’s literally no reason pricing shouldn’t be transparent.

So we’ve taken the approach we think all MSP’s should be taking, but very few (if any, please let us know if you know of any) take. Our pricing is online. In fact, you can actually purchase our services online. We are completely transparent when it comes to what it costs to do business with us and we think this is different. Not different for the “consumer” just different for the MSP.

Are we the cheapest? Nope. Are we the most expensive? Absolutely not. Do we value our clients time? Yep. Do we ever give discounts? Sure, but only if we like you! Okay, that last one is not entirely true. We do run specials from time to time. In fact, if you’re reading this portion of the article, it’s possible you may be interested in Stapel products and services. Since we are doing this online pricing thing for the first time, we really need feedback from our potential customers.

If you take a look and then give us your honest feedback, we will value your time with a special lifetime discount on any of our products and services. No special code or anything. We will put you in our special group and anytime you purchase anything from us, we will give you an additional 5% off on all of our services and physical products. All it requires is for you to fill out a short questionnaire with real honest feedback on what you think. What you like, what you don’t like, areas for improvement, etc.