James Davis creates basic assessment tool for partners

To give channel partners clearer insight into how their business runs, The TSP Advisory, has developed a free assessment tool.

The tool gives provides partners with a look into the different stages of operational maturity and helps them select where they operate currently.

This enables them to not only know where they are but see what good looks like and give a clear target on what to develop in that area next, said The TSP Advisory chief strategic officer James Davis.

“The assessment is completely free, and I created it because there are limited opportunities for partners to get this kind of visibility,” Davis told ARN. “I thought it was time to help in a different way than I have been.

“I thought deeply about the best way to get it to market and make it more useful wholistically then just a one and done assessment.”

The assessment features 20 questions with each question featuring six defined answers against scored on the maturity stage scale in the framework.

“This enables partners to know where they are, but what ‘good’ looks like and give a clear target on what to develop next in that area,” he explained.

The assessment tool was available through subscription-based platform Channel Guru, run by former Microsoft SMB channel lead A/NZ Brad Clarke.

One of the reasons Davis has partnered with Clarke and Channel Guru, was to help provide value to partners and the industry. 

“I hope partners jump in, get some light bulb moments and then execute a focus area, then keep progressing,” he said. “We will learn, improve and refine things as we get more partners completing the assessment and get feedback. 

In previous interviews Davis felt smaller MSPs need a “mindset shift” and start seeing the industry as a place for transformation and innovation, not just maintenance and support.

The evolution of MSPs “started in as break-fix shops” then moved to infrastructure management, but now basic infrastructure and desktops are self-servicing, he said.

He is vocal about a huge mindset shift partners need, from being reactive to slowing down and being more focused.

Davis will join the ARN team and guests at EDGE – The A/NZ Channel FutureScape event, held from 27 to 30 July on the Gold Coast, Queensland, if partners want further understanding about their results.