Six Ways Modern MSPs Accelerate Response Times With Duo
Customers expect their managed service providers to be knowledgeable, reliable — and fast.
When a business faces an IT issue and needs assistance, every minute lost means a hit to productivity and mounting frustration on the part of the customer. As time ticks on, the MSP responsible for fixing the problem bears the brunt of this frustration, especially when it takes too long to even acknowledge there’s a problem.
Angry clients are more likely to find a new MSP, which makes fast response times crucial to maintaining a healthy, long-lasting relationship. IT issues happen, but helping employees get back to work quickly reassures clients that they’re in safe hands for future issues. It avoids a “snowball effect” where one small mishap creates bigger problems elsewhere as delayed tasks cause work to grind to a halt.
Best Duo practices to drive faster response
Unlike other emergency services, MSPs can’t respond faster with a blue light and a siren. Instead, MSPs can do two things to improve their response time: first, take steps to make sure they can act quickly and second, prevent future issues — and tickets — from happening in the first place.
As security’s new first line of defense, the right identity solutions offer a lifecycle advantage that delivers on both fronts.
Know the right tools to respond and act quickly
1. Deploy strong security in minutes
Speed to security is critical for clients facing an active attack or meeting an audit deadline. Duo helps MSP deliver on MFA, SSO, and device trust quickly — starting with the initial rollout.
Duo’s user-friendly and guided interface makes onboarding easy and makes sure a client’s first contact with the MSP’s support team is a good one. Complete deployment in minutes and have users choose between different authentication options, selecting the one that works best for their needs
2. Streamline with a multi-tenant administrator dashboard
With many clients to manage, centralizing day-to-day operations delivers a valuable speed advantage. The Duo multi-tenant Admin Panel dashboard allows MSPs to monitor and manage all client accounts from one place, simplifying oversight and speeding up incident response. Managing access from a single platform reduces the time support teams spend switching between different screens and systems so they can find and resolve real issues faster.
From a support side, it’s easier for a help desk or MSP to manage the queries that come in. You don’t want to have to run around and look at a lot of different places, and with Duo you can find everything in one place. —Ian O’Connell, Security Operations Center Team Lead, CommSec
3. Verify caller identities as they come in
Sometimes the most critical security step is verifying the caller on the other end is who they say they are, which is not always an easy feat. With Duo’s built-in helpdesk verification tool, send a push notification to the person requesting assistance directly from the Admin Panel.
Read more: Defending Against Help Desk Attacks
Decrease tickets and save more time
The MSPs with the fastest response times aren’t necessarily going to be those with the largest support staff — although that doesn’t hurt. Rather, ensuring that support teams that aren’t buried in unnecessary requests can definitely contribute to a speedier reply and greater focus on improving security.
4. Set smarter access policies
Making authentication as simple as possible for trusted users means they are far less likely to need help. Duo lets MSPs reduce the need for repeated logins and manual intervention by setting security policies that automatically adjust based on the context of end-users’ access requests. A risk-based approach changes the level of authentication required based on factors such as location, device, and network connection.
Learn: Duo Risk-based Authentication
5. Turn on self-service remediation
Avoid having a user submit tickets in the first place with built-in self-remediation. When users do need help updating OS, Duo guides them through a remediation process can avoid the need for a support ticket altogether. Many people prefer to reset their passwords or update devices on their own, and self-service reduces the workload for the MSP at the same time.
Demo: Guided User Self-Remediation
6. Stay on top of security with automated alerts
Automated alerts and comprehensive reporting let the MSP team identify and address potential threats — before clients get in touch. Parsing through authentication logs can help reveal issues that can be fixed before the customer is even aware, especially for MSPs managing larger organizations.
With Cisco Identity Intelligence, get a level of visibility across a client’s Duo deployment and other identity storages. Set up email alerts for the security issues your clients care about, like dormant accounts, shared authenticators, and over-permissioned users. Or, MSPs can directly integrate findings with ticketing services to open new tickets and display existing tickets related to discovered users.
Stay on top of security and compliance concerns and show clients the value of identity threat detection and identity posture management.
Learn: Duo + Cisco Identity Intelligence
Deliver a win-win experience with Duo MSP
MFA is often the first step in a cybersecurity journey. Duo ignites those ‘what else are we doing?’ thoughts with our customers, and that’s been very positive for us as well.” — Michael Piekarski, Director of Cybersecurity at Arraya
The MSP business model relies on recurring revenues, and this depends on delivering fast, reliable service. Profitability also depends on resolving queries without having to make a site visit whenever possible.
Clients judge MSPs on how well they handle day-to-day support requests as much as they do IT infrastructure overhauls and new software rollouts. The more responsive and resilient the service an MSP provides, the happier customers will be — and the more profitable their own business will be – in the long run. Secure, simple identity workflows reduce response times in the right way to keep users and clients happy, reduce support teams’ workloads, and scale to drive future growth.
Duo’s “no-barriers-to-entry” MSP model allows products to be deployed with no downtime or lengthy sign-up and certification processes. Strong documentation and a simple, straightforward app and intuitive admin panel make it easy to roll out new services quickly.
Learn how to join the partner program today by visiting the Duo MSP page.