· revenue engine
An MSP ideal customer profile needs a commercial boundary. A company can look attractive by sector and headcount while creating travel, support and transition work that the proposed contract cannot carry.
Service economics gives the ICP a clear job. The ICP should identify accounts where the MSP can deliver the promised service, cover the expected workload and protect enough capacity for incidents and change.
Define the service unit
Choose the commercial unit used by the offer. The unit may be a supported user, device, site, service bundle or a combination. Then record what the unit includes:
- support window;
- remote and on-site work;
- monitoring and maintenance;
- account and device administration;
- supplier coordination;
- reporting;
- service review;
- transition work.
The unit needs exclusions too. Project work, out-of-hours response, unsupported technology and travel beyond the service area can change the economics quickly.
Separate five cost drivers
Users
User count can affect licensing, service-desk demand, onboarding and account administration. A public headcount estimate is only a research clue. Confirm the supported-user population during discovery.
Sites
Each site may add connectivity, network, travel, local supplier and resilience work. A registered office does not prove an operational site.
Travel
Use the MSP’s own travel policy, engineer cost and realistic journey assumptions. Keep routine coverage separate from exceptional visits.
Support complexity
Complexity can come from support hours, device variety, identity arrangements, inherited systems, compliance requirements and third-party boundaries. The NCSC small-organisation guide covers email, online accounts, devices, backups and recognising attacks. Those areas offer a useful prompt for discovery without implying that every account needs the same service.
Contract value and transition
Separate recurring service value from one-off discovery, migration and remediation work. A low recurring fee can hide a heavy transition. A healthy recurring contract can still fail if the MSP has no transition capacity.
Build the service-economics boundary
Use variables from the MSP’s own finance and service data:
Expected recurring service cost = support labour + tooling + routine travel + supplier management + service review
Contribution before central overhead = recurring contract revenue - expected recurring service cost
Transition contribution = transition revenue - transition labour - transition tools - exceptional travel
Keep the periods and currency consistent. Add VAT only where the internal decision requires it. Do not insert a market benchmark into missing fields.
The NCSC supply chain principles also support a proportionate review of supplier risk, controls and assurance. Add the expected work of managing customer suppliers or subcontractors where the service scope makes the MSP accountable for those boundaries.
Fictional example
A fictional example compares two accounts without invented prices. Account A has one site, a defined support window and a known device standard. Account B has several sites, mixed inherited systems and an unconfirmed out-of-hours requirement.
The worksheet uses the MSP’s actual labour rates, tooling costs, travel policy and proposed fees. Account B remains outside the qualified queue until support hours, transition work and site coverage are confirmed. The decision comes from the MSP’s inputs. No public benchmark fills the gaps.
Turn the boundary into research fields
Public research should collect only what helps decide whether an account deserves discovery. Site locations, operating hours, service footprint and relevant technology responsibilities may be visible. Supported-user count, ticket demand, incumbent scope and transition effort usually need confirmation. Mark those fields unknown.
Add a research stop when a visible condition sits outside the service model, such as unsupported geography or an excluded technical environment. Add a discovery gate where the answer can only come from the buyer. The distinction keeps researchers from inventing economics from weak proxies.
MSP service-economics boundary sheet
| Driver | Confirmed input | Cost source | Included in fee? | Unknown or exclusion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supported users | ||||
| Devices and platforms | ||||
| Operational sites | ||||
| Support window | ||||
| Routine on-site work | ||||
| Tooling and licences | ||||
| Supplier coordination | ||||
| Transition work | ||||
| Recurring fee | ||||
| One-off fee |
Add an account to the ICP only when:
- [ ] The service unit is defined.
- [ ] Users, sites and support hours use confirmed inputs or visible unknown labels.
- [ ] Travel follows the MSP’s real policy.
- [ ] Recurring and transition economics are separate.
- [ ] Supplier-management work is included where relevant.
- [ ] Delivery and transition capacity are available.
- [ ] Contract period and cost period match.
- [ ] A stop condition exists for uneconomic or unsupported work.
The worksheet will produce different answers for different MSPs. That is exactly what a useful ICP should do.
The MSP lead generation guide covers market signals and hand-off. To compare this economics-led ICP with Hyper’s MSP approach, visit the MSP growth page.
Sources and further reading
- Supply chain security guidance: The principles of supply chain security · National Cyber Security Centre
- Small organisations guide to cyber security · National Cyber Security Centre