Predictive maintenance provides benefits for customers and MSPs and is becoming increasingly popular. As the technology continues to advance and becomes more accessible, it is easier than ever for MSPs to get involved with it.
For managed service providers (MSPs), service is everything and ensuring customers have as little downtime as possible is imperative. This means that service times need to be as short as possible – and is where predictive maintenance comes in.
Berend Booms, head of enterprise asset management insights at Ultimo, says predictive maintenance is gaining real traction in the channel. “MSPs are under pressure to deliver higher service levels without increasing operational cost,” he explains.
“We’re seeing strong adoption across IT and operational environments. On the IT side, it’s network infrastructure, servers and power systems. But increasingly, MSPs are extending into operational assets: production equipment, HVAC, energy systems, the type of assets where condition-based data such as vibration, temperature or load can indicate early-stage failure. When you can spot anomalies weeks before they become outages, you transform the customer experience.”
Greg Jones, SVP of MSP success – EMEA & North America at Kaseya, says that for years, he has been saying that MSPs should allocate time for true root cause analysis. “Done properly, it frees up a huge amount of time longer-term,” he says. “Too often, technical teams will happily work the same ticket week after week and feel like they are doing a good job. The reality is that we need to identify patterns and stop issues from ever reaching the service desk. That is where predictive maintenance comes in. The most common use cases are around endpoint health, server performance and network stability. By using monitoring tools and data, MSPs can identify trends early and resolve issues before users are impacted.”
Benefits
The reasons for this growth are clear as there are many benefits of predictive maintenance for MSPs and customers. Rick Dove, pre-sales technical specialist at Epson UK, agrees that predictive maintenance allows MSPs to anticipate failures before they can disrupt the end user. “Common scenarios include consumables management, which is particularly important in areas such as print,” he says.
“Printer fleet managers can use specific tools such as Epson Device Admin (EDA) and Epson Remote Services (ERS), which allows you to monitor printer ink levels and maintenance box capacity in real-time. Instead of waiting for a ‘low ink’ call, the MSP receives an automated alert when a threshold is hit, allowing for ‘just-in-time’ proactive shipping.
“It also includes component lifespan tracking, monitoring mechanical parts like rollers or print heads. EDA and ERS can track page counts and hardware cycles, flagging unit parts that are approaching their duty cycle limits and allowing swift replacement to reduce or entirely mitigate down time. Device health is another key area. By having visibility into print volumes and identifying unusually high usage on certain machines as a predictor of potential points of failure, MSPs can proactively monitor, predict and mitigate future issues.”
David Strain, technical director at Technidrive, agrees, saying the main benefit is the shift from reactive to proactive service delivery. “For MSPs, this means fewer emergency callouts, more efficient use of engineering resource and the ability to deliver higher-value, insight-led services,” he says. “For customers, it reduces unplanned downtime, extends asset life and improves overall operational reliability.
“This is becoming increasingly important as the financial impact of downtime continues to rise, particularly in industries where supply chain disruption can quickly cascade into production delays, contractual penalties and reputational damage. As a result, investment in predictive maintenance is accelerating, supported by broader digital transformation across industrial sectors.
“There is also a commercial advantage on both sides. Predictive maintenance enables more predictable service models, long-term cost reduction and improved operational continuity in increasingly complex and unpredictable environments.”
Setting up
With the benefits of predictive maintenance becoming ever clearer, MSPs should look to offer it – and doing so is easier than ever, thanks to modern IoT sensors and AI enabled maintenance platforms, according to Berend. “Predictive maintenance success depends on structuring the data correctly, understanding asset behaviour and embedding it into service workflows,” he says. “The key is to begin with one asset class and one clear use case, prove the value quickly and scale from there.”
David agrees that predictive maintenance is more accessible than many businesses assume. “The core technologies, including sensors and remote monitoring platforms, are well established,” he says. “The main challenge is not installation, but integration and interpretation of data. MSPs must ensure they are capturing the right signals and, critically, converting them into actionable insight. Without this, there is a risk of generating data without delivering meaningful value.”
Greg adds that platforms that bring together monitoring, automation and service management make it much easier to move towards predictive models. “When everything is integrated, MSPs can automate responses, streamline workflows and act on data insights in timely manner,” he says.
To implement effectively, MSPs should follow a clear roadmap, notes Rick. “Deployment by installing the device management tool on a central server or IT team computers to monitor the device fleet across that client’s site – including remote sites if VPN connectivity is in place,” he says. “This is followed by threshold definition, setting custom alert triggers such as alerting the helpdesk if a service issue arises or messaging facilities to replenish consumables such as paper or ink.
“Integration is also key, connecting your alerts to a Professional Services Automation tool or ticketing system via email or SNMP for rapid responses from first line IT technicians, which improves customer confidence in the long-term.”
Pitfalls
But there are pitfalls that MSPs should be aware of. “The biggest pitfalls are not technical, but operational: starting too broad, lacking structured asset data and failing to integrate insights into existing workflows,” says Berend. “Predictive maintenance only works when the underlying data is clean and when engineers trust the insights enough to act on them. Technology should simplify decision making, not complicate it.”
A sensible starting point is identifying critical assets where failure would have the greatest operational or financial impact, says David. “From there, MSPs can deploy sensors and connect them to monitoring platforms that provide real-time visibility,” he adds.
“One of the most common pitfalls is overengineering the solution at an early stage. It is more effective to start small, demonstrate measurable value, and scale gradually. Another challenge is a lack of in-house expertise to interpret data, which can lead to missed insights or false alarms. Finally, integration with existing systems is essential — if predictive maintenance operates in isolation, it becomes significantly harder to act on the information effectively.”
Greg agrees, saying a big potential pitfall is trying to do too much too quickly. “Predictive maintenance does not need to be perfect from day one,” he notes. “MSPs should start with their critical systems, then build confidence and expand. The other challenge is ensuring the data is accurate and actionable so you can create real value.”
Rick warns that alert fatigue, where setting too many alerts leads to a flood of emails that staff will eventually ignore and firmware neglect, is another pitfall. “Predictive data insights are only as reliable as the hardware’s communication, so all devices should be kept on the latest firmware update,” he says.
Continued growth
All commentators agreed that predictive maintenance will continue to grow in popularity. “Predictive maintenance is not a trend, but a structural shift,” says Berend. “With experienced technicians retiring and asset complexity increasing, MSPs will rely more heavily on AI driven insights to maintain service quality. Those who embrace predictive maintenance now will strengthen margins, deepen customer relationships and stay competitive in a channel that’s evolving fast.”
David adds that predictive maintenance is transitioning from a ‘nice-to-have’ to a core operational capability. “Advances in cloud computing and the industrial internet of things are accelerating this shift, enabling real-time data collection, remote monitoring and improved asset intelligence,” he says.
“For MSPs, this represents a clear opportunity to move up the value chain, evolving from reactive maintenance providers into performance optimisation partners. As expectations around uptime, efficiency and resilience continue to rise, predictive maintenance is set to become a standard component of service delivery rather than an optional extra.”
Rick agrees that predictive maintenance is becoming the industry standard. “As AI and machine learning become more integrated into our everyday lives, networks will become even more ‘aware’ and provide deeper insights into all connected devices, improving response times for service teams and ultimately increasing uptimes and reliability for customers,” he says. “In the coming years, there will be a shift toward predictive maintenance, where the software doesn’t just give warning signs but tells you something is going to break, automatically suggests the exact part number, and provides a video walkthrough for the technician.
“For an MSP, staying ahead of this curve is no longer a strategic choice; it is the only way to protect margins in a market where service is being redefined by data. This is not a passing trend but a fundamental shift, where the reactive ‘break-fix’ model cannot survive in an era of intelligent, self-aware hardware. AI is weaving itself into every fibre of our personal and professional lives, and in the world of print it will transform the humble service contract into a sophisticated, invisible engine of uptime and reliability. In this landscape, those who bury their heads in the sand will find the market moving forward without them.”
