Managed Service Providers - Not what they're cracked up to be

Ive written on this subject before in the recruiter but, here i go again. It still annoys me to see how more and more companies and organisations are signing up to these managed services thinking they will save them time and money and bring in the quality candidates.

Well, so far, in my experience it has done the opposite within the niche area of IT and Information Management. Not only do MSPs (Managed Service Providers) cut out the chance of working with a number of agencies due to the small mark ups Agencies have to sign up to, but they also cost the agency more in interest as payment takes longer to reach them.

We have had the great experience of a MSP forgetting to add a contractor of ours onto the system. This meant that payment was delayed initially by 2 months. It then took them a further month to clear the invoices for payments. This meant they had simply passed the invoices onto the client, who has a 30 day payment period. So 4 months down the road and we are still waiting for payment. What is even more annoying is that we worked with this client direct before the MSP, charged the same mark up and had absolutely no problems. Sometimes a middle man doesn't help!

Another common experience we have is the re-released job. On another MSP agreement we have jobs get released time and time again. Obviously delivering the quicker more efficient recruitment the MSP promises!

Before you ask, we have stopped actively chasing these MSPs unless they come in at a client where we have worked before. Then we try and make them work but, i have not seen one client benefit so far!

Right, must now go back to work. Im urgently looking for a Helpdesk Analyst, Database Analyst, E-Learning Developer and Systems Analyst. So if you fit one of these titles, please do send me your CV ASAP.