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How Leading MSPs Boost Technician Output to Scale Without Hiring

The managed services market is growing, but it’s getting harder to make money in it. An Omdia study commissioned by Kaseya projects that North American managed services revenue will reach $289 billion in 2026, up 10% year over year. Yet nearly 70,000 MSPs are competing for that growth as labor costs rise and skilled technicians remain hard to find. Adding to the pressure, customer IT budget constraints are the industry’s biggest concern, after cybersecurity.

The pressure shows in Kaseya’s 2026 State of the MSP report. The share of MSPs whose typical customer spends at least $25,000 a year fell from 75% to 41%. Profitability is also becoming increasingly uneven across the market.

With growth comes a critical question: what are some MSPs doing differently to scale profitably while others struggle? The answer lies in how they manage their tools, workflows and technicians.

Tool sprawl is the margin leak MSPs overlook

For MSPs seeking profitable growth, the traditional approach has been to hire more technicians or buy more tools. Both options cost more today with diminishing returns. Disconnected systems add to the problem, as technicians lose time switching between applications, searching for information and entering the same details multiple times. This slows ticket resolution and adds administrative work.

The Omdia study examines how integrated IT service delivery can help address these inefficiencies, with a particular focus on Kaseya’s combination of Datto RMM, Autotask PSA and the documentation solution IT Glue. Together, these solutions reduce manual work and streamline everyday workflows.

The study also identified a growing preference among MSPs for a more focused technology stack. About 85% of channel partners are concentrating their investments on fewer strategic vendors to streamline operations and support growth.

One MSP interviewed for the study illustrates the potential benefits. It runs just 11 tools, compared with 30, 36 or even 42 at peer organizations, and reports an average contract margin of 78%. The experience suggests that simplifying the technology stack can help MSPs manage operations more efficiently and improve profitability.

What winning MSPs are doing differently

The Omdia study found that the most efficient MSPs focus on three changes: simplifying their technology stacks, automating routine work and connecting tools so technicians can get more done with the same team.

Move 1: Standardize and consolidate the stack

Fewer tools can lower licensing and training costs while reducing time lost switching between systems. In the Omdia study, MSPs using the trio of Kaseya solutions reported average monthly savings of about $2,600 per technician across tools, labor and endpoint management. For a 10-technician MSP, that adds up to roughly $312,000 a year, equivalent to the cost of 3.4 full-time technicians at Omdia’s $90,000 annual salary benchmark. MSPs also reported about 33% lower IT operating costs and 12% higher contract margins.

Move 2: Use RMM visibility and automation to work proactively

Endpoint monitoring flags problems before users call, and automation absorbs repetitive tasks. After standardizing on the Kaseya solution, MSPs reported managing 27% more endpoints per technician, from an average of 217, handling 23% more tickets each week and supporting 15% more clients per technician. Ticket resolution times fell 32%. One MSP said resolution dropped from under eight hours to about three to three and a half, with automation accounting for 30 to 40% of that gain.

2026 State of the MSP report found that most MSPs have room to copy this. About 55% say they automated only up to a quarter of their workload over the past two years, and 35% list first-response time among the KPIs that automation improved most.

Move 3: Connect RMM, PSA, and documentation into one workflow

Context switching shrinks when endpoint data, tickets and documentation sit together. MSPs using the Kaseya IT service delivery solutions reported a 36% reduction in first-response time, from an average of 25 minutes. They also said 83% of tickets now resolve within SLA, a 17% improvement in SLA compliance. One MSP said it could not get response times under 30 minutes until it integrated AI chat into Autotask. That example shows open integrations matter as much as the core tool.

Capacity decides who grows next

When technicians can handle more work, MSPs can take on new opportunities without immediately expanding their teams. One MSP in the Omdia study added roughly $23,000 a month in new services without signing any new clients, showing how better use of existing capacity can create new revenue.

Efficiency also shapes the customer experience. Faster response times and stronger SLA performance help MSPs deliver more reliable service, which supports customer retention and gives a clearer edge when competing for new business.

The two go hand in hand. When MSPs reduce wasted effort and streamline workflows, technicians have more time to resolve issues and serve customers. That means MSPs can improve service quality while creating room to grow, rather than sacrificing one to achieve the other.

Where to start

Scaling profitably starts with a few practical steps: audit how many tools each ticket touches, benchmark endpoints and tickets per technician, first-response times and SLA compliance, and identify where manual work slows your team down. Then prioritize integration and automation when evaluating RMM solutions.

Ready to help your team do more with less? Explore next-gen RMM or read the full Omdia Kaseya IT Service Delivery Solution Study for more insights.