Why More Kiosk Operators Are Partnering with MSPs

As businesses grow, the need for proactive outsourcing has become greater. This is because, in order to run a business efficiently, you have to know what you specialize in and what areas you don't have time to master. As a result, many operators are outsourcing their kiosk management to Managed Service Providers (MSPs).

Estimates vary, but the managed services market is growing by 9-13% a year. In fact, the Computing Technology Industry Association says that 64% of organizations are using some form of managed services and expect the industry to hit $193 billion by 2020. (Kiosk Marketplace)

So why are more and more kiosk operators partnering with MSPs? In the early days of managed services, companies chose to partner with MSPs to save money. Although that is still a popular reason for implementation, CompTIA reportscutting costs is taking a back seat to other objectives like improving security, increasing uptimes and generally getting smarter about leveraging new IT solutions.

MSPs can offer many functions for your kiosks, most notably MSPs provide:

• Reliable, consistent communication for your equipment
• Trusted and secure ways to process customer transactions and orders
• Proactive setup that is capable of remote management/remediation
• Routers that are capable of monitoring their own network connection and when needed, capable of providing their own self-healing protocols to restore connectivity to the equipment

When choosing an MSP for your kiosks, you’ll want to make sure you’re asking all the right questions to ensure that you’re getting the best connection possible. A truly great MSP will be able to take care of your needs from deployment to implementation, and everything in between.

Beyond the capabilities of regular MSPs, OptConnect offers exclusive carrier relationships, device portfolios, and 24/7 data monitoring in addition to the above functions. OptConnect provides wireless network connectivity for a variety of kiosk applications. The OptConnect solution provides a more flexible, more robust, lower-cost option for kiosk data connections and vending payment processing.

For more information on how partnering with OptConnect can benefit your kiosks, click here.