What The Average Fire Department Can Teach MSPs

By Peter Briden, business coach and former MSP

My good friend and managed services provider (MSP) CEO Michael Halperin once asked me, “What does the average fire department spend 2 to 5 percent of their time doing?” Being a former volunteer fireman, I knew the answer was fighting fires, but hadn’t given much thought as to why and the parallels to the managed services world of today.

What Has Changed?

One hundred years ago, whole towns and cities burned down from a single event. Today, fire departments spend very little time actually fighting fires but the damage caused by a fire is far less dramatic.

• Building codes and materials. Today we have learned how to build and maintain infrastructure so it minimizes the risk of fire as well as the amount of damage a fire causes. In the MSP world, we call these best practices and the consistent implementation of them creates reliable and predictable IT infrastructure.
   
• Standards management. One of the roles of fire departments is to make sure infrastructure is up to the latest codes. The successful MSP has a regular disciplined process for making sure all supported infrastructure is updated to the latest MSP standards and that routine maintenance is methodically performed.
   
• Monitoring and awareness. Current fire alarm monitoring technologies and communication systems (think alarm systems and cell phones) generate warnings of impending incidents before situations get out of control leading to less damage and more avoidance. For the MSP, this leads to ticket avoidance, shorter disruptions, and higher customer satisfaction.
   
• Education. Everyone benefits from shared knowledge — from the kindergartner (think “stop, drop, and roll”) to the firefighting professional. The tools, skills, and techniques help avoid troublesome situations and bring them to a much quicker resolution when they do occur. The IT services industry changes fast, so organizations must be committed to constant employee and client education to be able to keep their skills and service offerings relevant.

There are many parallels between the maturity of fire departments and the IT services industry. Over the 25 years I ran my IT services company, we needed to constantly change our skills, service offerings, and business model to adapt to this ever-changing industry. Our ability to anticipate the industry changes plus our commitment to disciplined and meaningful change helped us build an industry-leading organization.

How does the current fire department spend their time? What about your MSP?