Is Your MSP Delivering Quarterly Value? How to Demand Constant Improvement

When was the last time your managed service provider (MSP) showed you something new—an idea, a benchmark, or a measurable improvement that made you think, this is why we work with them? Too often, MSP programs start strong, deliver quick wins in the first year, and then settle into maintenance mode. The question every business should ask is simple: is your MSP delivering quarterly value? If not, you may be missing out on significant gains. That’s what this article is about.

Why MSPs Peak Early

Let’s be honest, most MSPs impress during the first year of a program. That’s when they tackle the “low-hanging fruit” that’s easy to correct. Payment terms get standardised across suppliers. Staffing agency markups that were inconsistent or inflated are brought into line. Contract extensions are renegotiated to prevent price hikes. These efficiencies are real and often substantial. 

But the challenge is that these savings are one-time benefits. Once the program is tidied up, the real test begins: can the MSP keep adding new value every quarter? 

Without that push, clients may find their workforce program flatlines after year one.

According to McKinsey, procurement-led transformation programs often deliver 15–30% savings across two years, compared to a baseline of just 3–5% per year without active management. This underlines why early MSP gains are real—but also why it’s short-sighted to stop there.

The Risk of Complacency

Complacency is one of the most common criticisms of MSPs. Once the basics are in place, too many assume the client is “happy enough” – the client stops pushing and the vendor stops driving change. 

This leaves businesses with stalled results and creeping costs.

Complacency also affects clients themselves. 

Internal stakeholders are busy, firefighting daily needs, and don’t always have time to challenge the MSP. The result is a relationship that drifts, with no clear improvement agenda. This is why it’s vital to focus not only on outcomes, but on the MSP performance metrics that prove whether your partner is still delivering.

The cost of complacency is high. McKinsey’s 2023 research shows that external spend typically accounts for 50–80% of a company’s cost base . If your MSP is managing this level of spend, there is enormous potential to deliver savings and efficiencies quarter after quarter. An MSP that fails to keep pushing leaves large sums of money and opportunity untapped.

What Quarterly Value Really Means

To move beyond quick wins, you need to define what “quarterly value” should look like. 

A strong MSP must demonstrate improvement in three areas. By setting expectations across these three dimensions, you make it clear what “delivering quarterly value” really entails.

1. Program performance
   Are vacancies being filled more quickly? Is time-to-hire falling? Are rates competitive? Is diversity improving? These are the fundamental measures of program success. 
2. MSP performance
   An MSP should be judged on its own delivery as well. Are purchase-to-pay processes running smoothly? Is the MSP responsive to queries? Are invoices accurate and on time? These MSP performance metrics provide visibility into how effectively the MSP itself operates.
3. Innovation and continuous improvement
   This is the area most often neglected. A capable partner should bring ideas for new sourcing models, technology adoption, or workflow changes. They should suggest pilots or experiments, not just maintain the status quo. In other words, they must prove continuous MSP value, not simply preserve existing processes.

Using QBRs to Hold MSPs Accountable

The natural place to test progress is the quarterly business review (QBR). But in many organizations, QBRs have become box-ticking exercises filled with bland reporting and data dumps. To make them meaningful, each QBR must do more than look backward—it should set ambition for the quarter ahead.

Key elements of an effective MSP QBR include:

• Clear goals for improvement, not just status updates
• The right metrics: time to fill, cost per hire, diversity, supplier scorecards, and internal satisfaction
• Context and insight that explain the “why” behind the numbers
• Comparisons against benchmarks, not just internal history
• Action items that carry over from one quarter to the next

There is no excuse for an MSP to rely solely on internal data. Everest Group’s 2022 research evaluated more than 1,700 contingent workforce deals and assessed 24 MSP providers globally . If the industry can analyze at this scale, your provider should be able to benchmark your program meaningfully every quarter.

Why Benchmarking Matters

‘Clever dashboards’ are not enough on their own. To make sense of data you need access to all of it, and–when it comes to workforce and talent insights–that’s a problem in most organisations. Ideally, program leaders also need access to data across multiple clients and industries, giving a unique ability to compare performance to peers. This is where MSP performance benchmarking becomes critical.

Gartner’s 2024 forecast shows worldwide IT spending will rise 6.8% . With budgets growing, leadership teams are asking harder questions about value. Benchmarking ensures your MSP can prove results in line with what others are achieving.

How Workspend Approaches Continuous Value

If you want to get the most from your contingent workforce program, and your MSP provider, you need to KEEP PUSHING and insisting on more than a honeymoon period of value returns.  At Workspend, our approach is built around transparency, innovation, and ongoing improvement.

• Our data and analytics platform, WRAP, provides real-time visibility into program performance.
• Our MSP benchmarking insights allow clients to measure against industry peers and identify where more value can be unlocked.
• Our four-week contingent workforce assessment gives organizations a clear baseline across cost, quality, risk, and diversity, and sets out a roadmap for improvement.
• We adapt our solutions—LiteMSP, Full MSP, or modular models—to client needs, so that growth doesn’t stall after initial gains.

Gartner’s IT Key Metrics Data 2024 report provides cross-industry benchmarks for IT spending and staffing . Workspend uses these kinds of benchmarks alongside our own WRAP analytics platform to ensure every client program is measured not only against itself, but against external standards.

Most importantly, we believe every QBR should go beyond reporting to explore opportunities for ongoing MSP improvement. That’s what clients deserve, and that’s what keeps a program advancing year after year.

The Bottom Line

If your MSP is not showing you evidence of progress every quarter, it’s time to ask harder questions. 

• Are they still bringing new ideas? 
• Are they proving improvement against MSP performance metrics? 
• Are they benchmarking your program against others?

Ultimately, the test is simple: is your MSP delivering quarterly value? If not, you’re not getting the return you should. 

The good news is that the right partner can change that—and ensure that value doesn’t stop after the first year, but grows with every quarter.

Contact Workspend to learn how we can help your program deliver more, every quarter.