Managed Service Provider (MSP)

A managed service provider (MSP) takes responsibility for running a vendor's product as a continuous service for its own clients, handling setup, monitoring, support, and day-to-day operation under a recurring contract. Unlike a one-time reseller, an MSP owns the ongoing customer relationship, which makes the partnership recurring-revenue by nature. MSPs are a familiar shape within channel sales and overlap with the value-added reseller model when they also bundle in their own services.

Because an MSP keeps clients on a product month after month, it tends to generate high customer lifetime value and is a strong fit for recurring revenue share compensation rather than a one-off margin. Vendors usually onboard MSPs through partner relationship management workflows, give them operational dashboards, and may co-fund their growth with marketing development funds. An MSP sits on the indirect channel, abstracting the vendor away from the end client.

For commercial tracking, an MSP can be enrolled as a commissioned partner so that every account it brings onto the platform is attributed and paid on a recurring basis. This treats the relationship like performance marketing: the MSP earns a revenue share on the accounts it sources and operates, with attribution handled automatically rather than reconciled by hand.