Do you own the client relationship?
You should already control the client contract, retail offer, and advisory context.
Should you use a delivery partner at all?
This page answers a strategic question: whether external recurring delivery suits the way you sell and govern client service. The readiness guide comes later and asks what information a suitable client group needs.
Can you state the promise your client bought?
The delivery lane needs an intelligible promise, not only a list of tools.
Is the pressure concentrated in a repeatable lane?
Service desk, Microsoft 365 administration, or a managed cadence can be scoped. “Everything IT” cannot.
Will someone own exceptions and change decisions?
Delivery needs a named return point when authority, relationship risk, or scope is unclear.
Delivery partnership is not the answer to every capacity problem.
- You want to exit the client relationship: a transparent referral may be cleaner.
- You need a finite specialist result: use a project subcontract with a defined deliverable.
- You want to direct individuals day to day: staff augmentation may match the management model.
- You have not defined the managed offer: establish the client promise before adding an operating team.
Different businesses can use the same discipline.
| MSP | Add a defined delivery lane behind an established managed-services offer. |
|---|---|
| IT consultancy | Keep advisory ownership while adding repeatable operational capacity. |
| VAR or service firm | Support an existing client book where the managed promise is explicit. |
| Weak fit | No client owner, undefined coverage, one-off emergency rescue, or assumed unlimited scope. |
Continue the decision in the right order.
Define the model, compare it with building internally, then inspect a candidate partner and the use case that most closely matches your firm.
If the model fits, prepare one real client group.
The readiness guide collects the client profile, work mix, contacts, access assumptions, and constraints needed for a useful evaluation.
Prepare the client group