LinkedIn Live: Why Organizations are Rethinking Technology Partnerships in the AI Era

Welcome to LinkedIn Live. I’m Chuck Brooks, your host today, and I’m gonna be interviewing Brian. We’ll introduce him in a couple minutes. But our topic today is a trust gap, why organizations are rethinking technology partnerships in the AI era. It’s a very interesting topic in the era we’re in right now with AI sort of morphing every every week into something new and more capable. And, what we’re gonna really get down to discuss is really something called the MSP trust gap report that Brian just initiated, which is a very comprehensive report, and he’ll get me into more details. Before we start, I’ll I’ll tell you a little bit about my background. I’m I’m Chuck Brooks. I have a long career both in the private and and public sectors, including Department of Homeland Security, Voice of America, and and many executive roles in in companies. And and now I do what I, enjoy most, which is teach students for the last eight years at Georgetown University in cybersecurity risk management. And I have a distinguished guest, Brian, who I’d like to introduce himself because he has such a a deep background himself. So, Brian, take it away. Yeah. Thanks, Chuck. Great to talk to you today. I’m Brian Harmison, CEO at Corsica Technologies. I’ve spent the last fifteen years in the cyber and IT space assisting businesses, both large and small, and, really managing and planning and executing their technology plans for their business. And so, you know, as Chuck mentioned, we we ran this report and really excited to talk through that today. Great. Great. Well, let’s get right into it. The report, the research points to a clear shift where organizations are not simply asking whether their trust of the current provider is important, but they’re asking whether the provider can help them navigate what comes next. And and this is really the context of your your report, really, what comes next. And I’d like to discuss start this discussion with what the report says in its general findings and what you see the key aspects are. Yeah. What’s so interesting about this is that, you know, managed service providers are are not new by any means. We’ve been around a long time, and we continue to go through, you know, kind of these evolutions along with technology. And we see, just a real distinct shift in the way, our customers view success and what they’re looking for. And and what’s interesting about this report is that it shows that there’s a high level of trust in what a managed service provider is doing today. In in fact, over eighty five percent trust the work being done by their managed service provider, yet sixty five percent are open or at least silently shopping for maybe what’s next for them in technology. And and we really see this, you know, as a result of the AI and and cybersecurity is changing the expectations for, you know, what a partner or or a technology service provider does. And and these businesses are thinking about what do I do with AI? How do I handle increased cybersecurity needs? What does business transformation look like for me? And if they’re not hearing that from their current provider, there are a lot more eyes open to what else might be out there. Right. So it that’s clear then that organizations are evaluating technology partners, differently than they were five years ago. It’s a new era. Right? Yeah. For sure. For sure. And and, you know, they’re they’re less focused on, you know, the traditional break fix SLA based activities, those are the table stakes in in what we do. We all must do them. They’re they’re looking for the advice. They’re looking for someone who’s gonna come alongside them. Great. Have you seen this environment morphing and changing this year more than other years? It it it certainly has, Chuck. And, I I mean, AI is on on everyone’s mind. You you said it in in our intro, and we we hear it from every customer that that we talk to and and every prospect. Everyone is is talking about, you know, using, leveraging AI in in some part of their business. Yeah. No. I see that myself in in the cybersecurity world because, you know, first, it’s generative AI, and next, it’s agentic AI. And what do we do? What what processes should we take on? And and it’s very confusing for people, so it’s really interesting to see your perspective and and really how businesses are starting to think about technology partnerships. Is is it different than you think in in the technology waves of the past? Is AI really something that’s more transformative and more important? I I I think it is more transformative and more important in the stakes are higher. You know, I I I think the first the first few waves of of AI questioning that we got were very similar to to what we got in the the move to the cloud movement, which which was very much, we wanna move to the cloud. We don’t know why. We just wanna we just wanna do that. And and we saw that early in in, in AI where businesses were saying things like, our boards decided we need to implement AI. And they don’t really know why, what that meant, what what the implications were. Now fast forward to today, the businesses that didn’t start thinking about that a year ago now are are rapidly reaching this point where AI is outpacing their ability to adapt their business to what’s already happening within it. Does that mean that they’re they’re the the value of guidance has become more important? Because if they pursue something, they need to have several things. One is obviously operational resilience. But the second thing is they have to understand what what the value it is to their return on investment, what it means for the the the the future of their companies, and and how their customers see their interactions. Can Can you elaborate a little bit about that? Yeah. Yeah. The the conversations that that we’re having now are much more strategic about the business and not about the life cycle of their IT equipment or, you know, the the nuts and bolts of a of a managed detection response platform. It’s about here’s where we’re going with our business, and and here’s the way we view technology AI fitting into that. The the gap for them is then, well, how do we get from where we are today and either get caught up or stay on pace with with the the rate of change? And and that’s where a partner can really help with that because a a partner can bring so much more into, that conversation. And I believe that’s put our market in a place where, you know, as as our report indicates, you know, there’s there’s really a high percentage of people that trust their their provider, their partner, but sixty percent of those are at least silently shopping, and looking for what else is out there. Yeah. So that that brings me another point here. After reading the report, you know, it it it sort of elaborated that there’s a difference between trust and confidence, that they’re no longer the same thing. And so this is a a really sort of a pivot, I think, for a lot of organizations. And, you know, that how they how they determine whether they’re satisfied with their providers, whether they should change. What are these findings, really what what do they lead you to to, to interpret? Yeah. The the the takeaway I had is that from a table stakes managed service provider perspective, trust is is pretty universally strong. Most most of the the companies that work with a a partner or a managed service provider view the the work being done today as generally good, trustworthy. They have confidence. The the challenge really is around, you know, the the future readiness piece of that, and it’s shifting these conversations, you know, into AI readiness, really how AI impacts cybersecurity, which is is an area where most businesses are falling behind, and then that strategic guidance, that business guidance and and path forward. And so, you know, while we see the the high confidence that that openness to a conversation with another provider that that offers more of the the forward looking piece of where we go in is is stronger than ever. Is there a significant amount of organizations that are actually then, for your findings and report, considering switching providers? Yeah. I I mean, certainly, that that are open to you. I I mean, I’d I’d point out that, yeah, less than thirty percent say they’re definitely going to change. I think this is much more of a willingness to say, maybe we’ve had a long partnership with someone, but we don’t we we don’t believe or we wanna see what else is out there. And and that really positions providers that have invested themselves in these technologies as as the thought leaders in that space. Do you think then they’re really looking towards evaluating future capabilities of their provider and looking at the landscape as it’s changing and how they’re gonna, pursue their own strategies? Yeah. Yeah. Hundred percent. It’s this is a, I firmly believe from the the conversations I’m having with executives that more and more pressure is being put on them to have technology answers than ever before. They are being expected to be, you know, the AI experts, when they talk to a board. This is especially true of of those responsible for IT. And then, you know, they’re they’re being asked the really scary questions, which are then, you know, how safe are we in this this age of AI as well? And so those those questions are driving them to ask those questions of their providers and and teams, which which is provided in in openness when they don’t get answers. And and I’d say there’s a lot of AI talk, not a lot of AI substance within these businesses. And and that’s the you know, the proof is in the the case studies that go along with it. Yeah. I I’m seeing that too. And I think there’s there’s a lot and it it really sort of mirrors cybersecurity. You have this automatically you you have all these changes in the in the ecosystem, and and companies are getting breached left and right, and they have no expertise in the c suite. And they looked at it as a cost item. And and now with AI, it’s a little bit different, but, they still don’t have the expertise in the c suite for most of them. And they’re not realizing the importance, of where AI is going and how it’s gonna really shape every aspect of their businesses for the future. And they and then the way they approach it really needs to be systematic and and very you know, done in a very confident way. And I think that’s where a lot of the gaps, in this report are, is that is that they’re not necessarily sure to where to go or whether, you know, that’s needed. And so are you seeing that, there is an openness to change in this? Is is there enough, you know, movement now with with all the all the the talk and the hype on AI that that they have to really say, okay. We’re we’re not gonna be static. We’re gonna look forward to adapt into the future and maybe, redo things that not not do business as usual? I I I certainly see that. And and, you know, I I don’t know how much you see that that, Chuck, is is you work with businesses. But, you know, I I certainly see a willingness to to talk. The challenge that that I that I see in in technology, especially now, is that, you know, AI is too readily available to help come up with an AI plan. And so we see so much content that is guided by, you know, the the tools or some free tools that that isn’t isn’t really rooted in a practical exercise around a couple areas. One is is where does my data live? The other is how do I govern my data? And then the the last one, which you touched on earlier, is is really around then practically, you know, what’s this return on investment? I I don’t wanna just do these things. Am I looking for, you know, reduced labor costs? Am I looking for higher quality output? What what is the goal in my business, and and what KPIs am I gonna drive? So that sort of brings us to the point is how should these organizations actually evaluate their long term technology partnerships? What what they should they use to base this on? What metrics? Where should they work? Yeah. So so, you know, some of these metrics haven’t changed. We we, as technology providers, need to be really good at the blocking and tackling. You know, when it comes to, keeping environment stable, protecting the the you you know, what I consider kind of the traditional cybersecurity, posture of of a business. Those things are really important. But what what businesses need to be thinking about is is really where where can I go, and who should I be talking to that are gonna actually provide me answers, practical steps, and a path forward? And and that doesn’t look like a path on just on paper. But but when we we talk about this, you know, data integration, where what does that look like? How do I take all this data I have in my business and put it in a usable format? Then how do I start to to layer business intelligence on top of that, whether whether it be automation or AI? And so those are the the questions that people should be asking their providers. And if they don’t have an answer, that’s that’s kind their clear signal to to go out. There’s a lot of MSPs out in, you know, tens of thousands. And there is a technology partner out there who will help guide you along the way. And and so many MSPs are are stuck in the rut. They still wanna talk about, you know, more of a castle and moat style security. They they’re not thinking through what what needs to happen now in in this AI age. And so that’s that’s where I would encourage, you know, CFOs, IT managers, CIOs, find partners who can bring that wealth of knowledge from their combined customer base and really bring those practical steps that can be taken along the way. Yeah. So you mentioned that the sort of the interaction between the the c suite elements, CFOs, CIOs. How can you, improve the cross functional collaboration, particularly when when you’re looking at the new era of governance where there’s a lot of shifting goalposts and and the visibility now too is is which is another thing we stress in cybersecurity, but AI is making visibility even more important. It it it is. And and the the foundation really matters here, and and that’s, you know, I mentioned earlier that AI, adoption within most businesses that we see is far outpacing leadership’s ability to keep control and understanding of of what’s happening. I mean, ShadowAI is hundred percent real. We see it all the time. And getting an an AI, strategy in place around the governance, acceptable use, how it’s going to be used, and then starting to to corporately roll out those tools and those systems so that there’s there’s a a business umbrella around the activities that are happening. That that’s that’s where, this gotta be led from the c suite just like I firmly believe a firm cybersecurity policy. And and, you know, any show me a business with strong cybersecurity, and and I’ll show you a c suite that understands cybersecurity and has invested in knowing, what good cybersecurity means in their industry and in their business. And and this is the same way. And and for most small to midsize businesses that that we would work with, they just don’t have the capital, the human capital to do that internally. And so a partner like us is is gonna be a really key part of that strategy. Now what key elements should a small or medium business actually be aware of when they’re trying to formulate a strategy, when they build a framework? I know this is something you you help them with, but, I mean, there are general areas that they should be aware of to help, you know, get Lisa prepared before you could come in in the system. Yeah. I I mean, the the the first step that that we take is, you you know, looking at, you know, what governance do you have in place today, what data and systems do you have, and then how does your current cybersecurity, you know, posture environment partner, how do they help manage and and contain those things? And and that’s really just foundational. Let’s set set some standards for what the business looks like. The the next is is connecting then, you know, where we use technology with what our business growth plan is. That’s something we do as a business. It’s something every business needs to to look at. We’re all technology businesses now. There I can’t think of hardly any industries where you can’t say they’re a technology business. Back when I used to do custom software, you know, we would tell any business that that wanted to implement custom software, get ready. You’re about to become a software company. Well, this is the the same thing. We are all technology companies. And so we need to start restructuring our, way of operating around being a technology centric company.