MSP growth depends on execution, not more tools: Blackpoint's Andrew Pedroso. 12 Aug 2026 7 mins Calls for a return to community in the MSP channel. Managed service providers (MSP) should stop chasing every new tool and AI trend and focus on consolidating their stack, improving execution and sales discipline. This will help them to become trusted business advisers. Not because they can sell the most products, but because they combine technology with trust, empathy, and a genuine commitment to customer success, said Blackpoint Cyber Asia Pacific (APAC) regional director Andrew Pedroso. The ability to prove return on investment (ROI) to customers and boards was equally as important as developing trusted adviser relationships and supporting customer growth. At the same time, MSPs need to strengthen identity- and cloud-based security and deliver a genuinely local Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) customer experience, Pedroso said during the panel discussion Security as a growth engine - Why partners need to maximise their security practice at EDGE 2026. "The attackers aren't breaking in, they're actually logging in. Being vigilant with that is a starting point," he said. "The other part is around consolidation - that tool sprawl is exhausting." For Pedroso, the challenge with tool sprawl is that MSPs accumulate multiple products that often overlap in functionality. This is why they need to carefully evaluate how they prioritise tool consolidation. They also need to focus on the investment in technology that will deliver growth, improve margins, and support effective execution. What Pedroso outlined on the panel aligned with what he told ARN in an interview ahead of EDGE 2026. "The first thing I noticed coming back into the channel and MSP-first space is that there are a lot of incumbents," he said. "There are a lot of existing and legacy relationships, and naturally, when the market shifts with AI, there's a genuine need to explore what's out there and what improvements other vendors or competitors have made across products and services." Pedroso is now eight months in his role at Blackpoint but has spent more than a decade in the industry, with experience at AI platform provider Enable and research firm Forrester. Since coming back, owners, CEOs, general managers, and directors frequently ask him what has changed in the industry. "My response is always the same - whenever there's a leading-edge technology shift, it's not about whether the current provider can do the job," Pedroso said. "It's about whether you're future proofing yourself as an MSP. "Someone else is adopting that technology; someone else is offering a new or premium service to market. You don't want to be left behind." That concern extends beyond adopting new technologies to reassessing long-standing vendor relationships. "Going back to those legacy relationships, I've seen vendors with 10, 12, or 15 years of renewals behind them," observed Pedroso. "They've been incumbents for over a decade." As such, Pedroso said the first question from an MSP owner or general manager should often be, 'Is this still meeting the needs of our customers?' followed by an evaluation on tool consolidation, the benefits of a single platform, the best provider for that MSP, and the potential of a newer solution that combines what multiple vendors currently provide. "I think people are experiencing tech fatigue, tool sprawl, and complexity," Pedroso said. "They're asking whether they have multiple solutions doing the same thing and whether they can simplify everything into one place. "Organisations are reassessing the core technology stack that delivers outcomes for customers and determining whether it can be consolidated. "That's not just a cyber security issue. It's technology-agnostic and applies across industries, segments, and categories." Securing growth. Understanding that will help MSPs to future-proof their tech stack in an AI world so they don't fall behind competitors who adopt new capabilities and premium services faster. "My one liner always is whenever there's a bleeding edge or leading-edge change of technology, it's not about whether your current provider can do the job," observed Pedroso. "Are you future proofing yourself as a as an MSP to ensure your tech stack matches what your customers want [and] what your competitors are doing?" However, future proofing is about more than adopting new technologies like AI. According to Pedroso, many MSPs have invested in tools and AI but have not done the people and process work required to execute effectively and translate those investments into growth. "You can choose all the best tech in the world, but if you don't tangibly know how that fits as part of an operating model, you're missing the process; you're missing the execution... you're actually not going to grow with it," he said. That means owners and teams need to be educated and upskilled first, and only once they're clear on how they want the business to run and grow - the operating model, sales motions, and service delivery - should they start choosing tools or AI solutions. Otherwise, he said, even the "best tech in the world" won't translate into real execution or growth. "The gap that I'm noticing here is that execution part. Everyone's so caught up in assessing their vendors, assessing their partnerships, but who's actually executing to try and grow their business?" Pedroso said the genuine problem he is trying to solve is how to help MSPs grow. He noted that one of the most common topics he is asked about is sales organisations. Many business leaders seeking advice on how to take a company from zero to $15 million or $20 million in revenue and how to get their sales teams working towards sustainable growth. "Transactional sales aren't there anymore. It stopped," Pedroso noted. "Everyone's so fixated on AI fixing the process [and] fixing the people. "Whereas it's actually the opposite...it should be the people first. "Whether it's a delivery team, sales team, marketing, whatever it is in your business - could be just you and another person [or] you as an individual - what do you need to get educated on? What do you need to be upskilled on? That's a fundamental human learning educational experience that you need to undergo as part of modernisation." For Pedroso, if MSPs don't tangibly understand how a technology fits within their operating model, they are "missing the process" and "missing the execution" that growth won't be achieved. Once the technology provider understands how they want to grow, how they want to operate, and how they want to modernise their way of working, offering, and positioning, the direction becomes clearer. They can then determine whether they want to be a premium service provider, an advisory-plus-technology business, or pursue another modernisation strategy. Although this shouldn't be done in isolation, noted Pedroso. "We don't give enough of that upskilling, reskilling, and support that an enterprise customer has at their disposal if not 1000s of resourcing to complete that," he said. "How do we package that as an MSP community to say, 'Here are some associations,' or 'Here are some bodies that can come together to uplift your own MSP capability.'" "The community piece is something I believe that we've just lost. We need to go back to how do we level up as a group?" That philosophy aligns closely with Blackpoint's MSP-first strategy. Pedroso personally emphasises education, knowledge sharing, local support, and long-term partnerships designed to help providers strengthen their capabilities and grow together. "Being MSP first, built for MSPs for MSPs, and obviously with that single pane of glass solution, the way we operate is heavy in the discovery," he said. This echoes his thoughts on the EDGE 2026 panel which was, "If you're not localising your efforts and making it a true A/NZ experience, good luck, because there are another three or four vendors doing that better than you now." Don't miss a thing From its editors straight to your inbox. Get started by entering your email address below. Community Editor

Blackpoint Cyber has launched its AI SOC Agent for Identity Threat Detection and Response, an autonomous system that detects and contains credential-based attacks targeting Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace accounts. The system can respond to threats in as little as 21 seconds, with an average containment time of under two minutes. The AI agent was trained using years of SOC analyst decisions, forensic evidence from hundreds of breaches, and telemetry from nearly a million accounts. It operates under human oversight from Blackpoint's security operations centre. Microsoft reported a 32% increase in identity-based attacks during the first half of 2025, highlighting growing security challenges. The new capability is included with all Blackpoint ITDR service tiers at no additional cost. Blackpoint Cyber was founded by former NSA cybersecurity experts and provides managed detection and response services through its 24/7 SOC.