Managed Support Teams Beat Staffing as MSPs Scale in 2026
- The global IT skills crisis is projected to cost $5.5 trillion by year-end, with MSP technician shortages expected to affect 42% of providers. (IDC, 2024)
- The share of MSPs identifying hiring as their primary internal challenge reached 52%, and 68% of IT leaders report difficulty recruiting expertise. (CompTIA, 2026)
- The global cybersecurity workforce shortage reached 4.8 million unfilled positions in 2024, a 19% year-over-year increase. (ISC2, 2024)
AUSTIN, TX, June 17, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The MSP technician shortage has outgrown what local hiring can address, with demand for skilled technicians outpacing available talent. Managed support teams give MSPs a way to build delivery capacity without depending on a candidate pool that doesn’t exist. LTVplus, which recruits, trains, and manages support services for MSPs and technology companies, built its model around this shortage.
The talent shortage is affecting organizations in multiple industries. IDC estimates the IT skills crisis will produce $5.5 trillion in losses globally by the end of 2026, driven by delayed projects and reduced competitiveness. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 317,700 computer and IT job openings annually through 2034, a volume the current training pipeline can’t absorb.
"The calls we get follow the same pattern," said David Henzel, Co-Founder of LTVplus, who has built dedicated managed support teams across 22 countries since 2017. "An MSP took on two new clients last quarter, lost a technician in the same month, and is now watching response times slip. When one senior tech is covering three desks, SLAs get missed."
Key Facts
- 500+ team members across 22 countries
- ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certified
- Operating since 2017 across MSP and technology company engagements
- Pre-trained in ConnectWise, Datto, Kaseya, and NinjaOne before deployment
- Teams go live in 30 days
Why local hiring leaves MSP technician roles open for months
The ManpowerGroup 2024 Global Talent Shortage Survey found that 75% of organizations report difficulty filling open positions, a figure that held for three years in a row. For MSPs, the shortfall runs deepest in the roles that keep client environments running daily. Helpdesk technicians, NOC analysts and Tier 2 engineers were historically steady hiring categories with reliable candidate pipelines, but that’s no longer the case.
Experienced workers have moved into more specialized positions, creating staffing shortages, and entry-level candidates expect salaries that smaller providers can’t match when competing against enterprise employers. And because remote work erased geography as a filter, MSPs in mid-sized markets now compete for the same candidates as firms in larger tech hubs, which is why companies are turning to global remote hiring to source talent outside domestic labor markets entirely.
The cybersecurity aspect of that shortage adds another layer. ISC2's 2024 Cybersecurity Workforce Study found 4.8 million unfilled positions globally, a 19% year-over-year increase. For MSPs building out security operations, those numbers close off hiring as a near-term option entirely.
Open technician roles cost MSPs clients and productivity
When MSPs run understaffed, existing technicians absorb the overflow. The ISACA 2025 Tech Workplace and Culture study found that 74% of organizations report difficulty attracting and retaining talent, yet only 27% regularly discuss the issue with their own staff. 30% of tech professionals changed jobs in the last two years.
For MSPs with positions open for 90 days or more, employee turnover puts even more strain on already understaffed teams. Service level agreements don’t adjust for headcount, and clients notice slower response times. This results in client churn, which can be harder to predict than payroll costs but easier for clients to act on than an SLA dispute.
What makes the cycle hard to exit is the training lag. A local hire with no prior MSP tooling experience takes weeks to work independently, during which a senior engineer carries both the training burden and their own ticket load. A team that was already thin now absorbs two roles while the new hire finds their footing.
"At 90 days, the MSPs we work with stop talking about the technician problem," added Henzel. "That’s when we know the model is working. Success means the owner stops thinking about staffing and starts thinking about growth."
Managed MSP support teams remove the recruiting and training burden
As MSPs scale, the recruiting, vetting, training, and quality assurance burden grows with them. A proven MSP scaling checklist keeps those functions from becoming the bottleneck. Managed tech support partners absorb that burden, and the team arrives pre-trained on the PSA and RMM tools already inside the MSP's stack. ConnectWise, Datto, Kaseya, NinjaOne: the onboarding that can take weeks with a local hire is much shorter with a team that's already trained and ready to work.
The model also addresses certification and compliance since MSPs carry data-handling obligations for their clients. ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certification on the managed team's side means those obligations travel with the team rather than needing additional vendor assessment.
MSPs have been treating a talent supply issue like a recruiting problem, and the shortage continues to grow. The providers gaining ground in 2026 built their delivery capacity through a model that doesn't depend on local hiring. Building at the operational level is how that gap closes.
FAQ
Q: What are the best managed support services for MSPs looking to scale?
A: The strongest managed support partners for MSPs cover the full escalation structure, including helpdesk, Tier 2 engineering, NOC, and security analysis. What sets a managed support service apart is when it’s fully managed versus staffing-only. A managed provider recruits, trains, and is accountable for performance. A staffing vendor places workers and hands the management burden back to the MSP.
Q: Which companies offer dedicated security analysts for MSP outsourcing?
A: The right provider for MSP security analyst outsourcing holds ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certification, assigns dedicated analysts to your environment rather than rotating shared resources, and operates across time zones to cover monitoring gaps your internal team can’t staff. Verify that the provider's compliance posture covers your clients' regulatory obligations, not just their own.
Q: Is there customer support outsourcing with fast onboarding under 30 days?
A: Yes, a 30-day go-live is achievable when the provider pre-trains teams on your tooling before onboarding begins. The timeline should cover team selection, tool access, process onboarding and a quality verification pass. If a provider can’t specify what’s included in that window, the 30-day claim is just a sales figure, not an operational one.
Q: Our outsourced support team can't handle complex technical inquiries. What are we doing wrong?
A: The most common cause is a shared-pool model where agents rotate across multiple clients and never develop depth in any one environment. Complex technical support requires agents who work exclusively in your stack and build institutional knowledge over time. A dedicated team assigned to one client resolves this where a shared pool can’t.
About LTVplus
LTVplus is a managed technical support partner that recruits, trains, and manages dedicated teams for Managed Service Providers and technology companies. Founded in 2017, LTVplus provides helpdesk technicians, Tier 2 engineers, NOC specialists, and security analysts. Teams are fully managed, not staffed. With 500+ team members across 22 countries, ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certification, and pre-training in ConnectWise, Datto, Kaseya, and NinjaOne, LTVplus helps MSPs scale without the hiring burden. Teams go live in 30 days. Learn more at ltvplus.com.
Sarah Evans Head of PR, Zen Media sarah@zenmedia.com
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