Guest blog courtesy of D3 Security.
You'd think the biggest challenge for MSSPs is battling cyber threats and managing complex security operations, right? Think again. Our recent 2024 MSSP Survey revealed a surprising fact: MSSP professionals find client collaboration far more challenging and time-consuming than delivering actual security operations.
Our survey gathered responses from nearly 2,000 MSSP professionals between May and July 2024, and uncovered some eye-opening statistics:
- 60% of respondents said that "effective communication and collaboration with clients" posed the biggest challenge for their organization.
- 53% reported that reporting takes up an excessive amount of their time.
- 51% identified client onboarding as a task that consumes too much time.
- 40% stated that client communication is a significant time sink.
These numbers paint a clear picture: while MSSPs excel at security operations, the business and administrative side of managing client relationships presents unexpected hurdles that often overshadow the technical aspects of their work.
Why is Client Collaboration So Challenging?
Complex Onboarding Processes
Client onboarding is the critical first step in establishing a successful MSSP-client relationship. However, it's often a complex and time-consuming process. Each client has unique security needs, existing infrastructure, and compliance requirements. Standardizing this process while maintaining flexibility is a delicate balance.
Onboarding challenges often include:
- Integrating with diverse client environments
- Configuring tools and processes to meet specific client needs
- Ensuring compliance with various regulatory requirements
- Training client staff on new systems and procedures
The Reporting Conundrum
In the MSSP space, comprehensive and clear reporting is not just a nice-to-have—it's a crucial component of the service. Clients expect regular updates on their security posture, threat landscapes, and the value they're getting from the MSSP's services. However, generating these reports can be time-consuming and challenging, especially when dealing with multiple clients with diverse needs.
Effective reporting requires:
- Granular, tenant-specific data
- Clear visualizations of trends and metrics
- Contextualization of data within broader security trends
- Customization to meet each client's specific requirements
MSSPs often struggle with:
- Aggregating data from multiple sources and tools
- Creating reports that are both comprehensive and easy to understand
- Tailoring reports to different stakeholders within client organizations
- Providing actionable insights rather than just raw data
Ongoing Communication Challenges
Beyond onboarding and reporting, day-to-day communication with clients presents its own set of challenges. MSSPs must strike a balance between keeping clients informed and not overwhelming them with technical details. They need to be responsive to client inquiries, provide updates on open tickets, and alert clients to potential threats—all while managing their core security operations.
Common communication challenges include:
- Maintaining consistent communication across multiple channels
- Translating technical information into business language
- Responding promptly to client inquiries while managing other tasks
- Keeping track of all client interactions and ensuring follow-up
The Competitive MSSP Landscape
The MSSP market is highly competitive, with 64% of our survey respondents indicating they plan to drive customer growth in the enterprise sector over the next few years. In this environment, service quality and responsiveness are key differentiators. Clients expect not just top-notch security services, but also:
- Transparency about service delivery
- Regular updates on open tickets and potential threats
- Clear communication about any issues or incidents
- Proactive advice on improving their security posture
MSSPs that can meet these expectations are better positioned to retain clients and grow their business. In fact, 67% of our survey respondents said that automation has helped them increase revenue, highlighting the potential for technology to address these challenges.
Turning Challenges into Competitive Advantages
While these collaboration challenges are significant, they also present opportunities for MSSPs to differentiate themselves. With the right tools and strategies, MSSPs can turn these pain points into strengths. Our Smart SOAR platform, for example, has been specifically designed to help MSSPs overcome these challenges and gain a competitive edge.
Streamlined Onboarding
Implementing a robust, automated onboarding workflow can significantly reduce the time and effort required to bring new clients on board. Smart SOAR offers customizable onboarding workflows that can be tailored to each client's needs while maintaining consistency and efficiency. A prime example is our implementation for a global MDR customer servicing thousands of clients. Their legacy SOAR tool couldn't handle complex onboarding workflows, with manual processes taking 10+ minutes per client. D3's Smart SOAR automated the entire process, integrating with their ticketing system to extract customer information and set up environments automatically. The result: onboarding time reduced to minutes, requiring just 10 mouse clicks. Our superior architecture provided the hyperscalability needed to support their growth across multiple regions, dramatically improving efficiency and service delivery.
Enhanced Reporting Capabilities
D3's Smart SOAR platform, with its advanced multi-tenancy capabilities, enables MSSPs to generate automated, granular, tenant-specific reports and dashboards without manual information gathering. Key features include:
- Scheduled recurring reports to keep stakeholders informed
- Customizable report generation with MSSP's own branding
- Trend analyses across individual tenants and the entire client base
- MITRE ATT&CK mappings for comprehensive threat coverage
- Custom visualizations providing clear, actionable insights into security posture
This automated reporting system allows MSSPs to keep stakeholders engaged and informed without diverting time from critical security tasks. By providing detailed, branded reports on a regular schedule, MSSPs can demonstrate their value, maintain transparency, and position themselves as strategic partners in their clients' security efforts.
Improved Client Communication
D3's Smart SOAR streamlines client interactions through a native client portal, enabling direct client collaboration within SOAR playbooks. MSSPs can assign tasks to clients, who can then provide input that automatically feeds back into the workflow, streamlining the collaboration process without the need for separate ticketing systems. For MSSPs using platforms like Microsoft Teams or Slack, D3 enables automated message delivery to specific channels. Clients can respond directly within their preferred messaging app, triggering automated actions in SOAR workflows. D3 can also trigger email communications with interactive response forms.
The Power of Automation
Automation plays a crucial role in addressing these challenges. Our survey found that 82% of respondents use a high or medium amount of automation, and 87% said automation had a positive effect on their job satisfaction. Smart SOAR uses automation to:
- Streamline routine tasks and workflows
- Ensure consistent service delivery across all clients
- Free up time for more meaningful client interactions and strategic work
- Reduce the risk of human error in repetitive tasks
About D3 Smart SOAR for MSSPs
D3 supports MSSPs around the world with our Smart SOAR platform. We recently announced Ace AI, a collection of upcoming features for Smart SOAR, including automated summaries, natural language search, and prompt-generated playbooks. Smart SOAR supports full multi-tenancy, so you can keep client sites, data, and playbooks completely segregated. Importantly, we’re vendor-agnostic and independent, so no matter what tools your clients use, our unlimited integrations will meet their needs.
D3’s Event Pipeline can automate the alert-handling capacity of dozens of analysts, while reducing alert volume by 90% or more. Watch our case study video with High Wire Networks to see how a master MSSP uses Smart SOAR.
Is your SOAR up for renewal? We just launched a new Legacy SOAR replacement program that helps you migrate to D3 for free.
Read more D3 Security guest blogs and news here. Regularly contributed guest blogs are part of MSSP Alert’s sponsorship program.
