Episode Details

By Doug Green

“The future is about getting paid for the outcome, not just the seat or the hour.”

In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at MSP Summit, Tarik Faouzi of CloudBlue discusses how MSPs can move beyond simply reselling AI and build new business models around measurable customer outcomes.

CloudBlue provides an operating platform for channel businesses, including distributors, MSPs, resellers and ISVs, with capabilities spanning catalog management, marketplaces, provisioning and monetization.

Faouzi says AI is pushing MSPs toward what he calls the managed outcome provider model.

Instead of charging only by seat, hour or traditional service unit, MSPs may increasingly package and price services around specific results.

That could include an outcome such as threat detection, automated customer engagement or another measurable business result.

But Faouzi says monetizing those outcomes requires more than a new sales pitch.

MSPs first need the catalog capabilities to create and bundle the offer. Then they need to understand what it actually costs to deliver.

With AI, that means monitoring compute, tokens and other consumption in real time.

“If you don’t know what the outcome is costing you, you can lose your margin very quickly,” Faouzi says.

That makes FinOps and commercial guardrails essential.

MSPs need the ability to meter consumption, monitor profitability and react when customer usage begins exceeding expectations. In some cases, that may mean adjusting pricing, alerting the customer or even stopping an activity before costs spiral.

Customer visibility is equally important.

Faouzi says many businesses remain hesitant about AI because they do not understand what they are consuming or what the final bill will look like.

MSPs can help by making usage and costs transparent while packaging variable AI consumption into offers customers can understand and budget for.

That may mean buying AI services based on tokens or compute while selling them as a predictable monthly package.

For MSPs, Faouzi sees a major opportunity.

By tying AI directly to measurable business outcomes, partners can demonstrate value more clearly and potentially build deeper, stickier customer relationships.

But getting there will require changes in how services are packaged, metered, priced and managed.

Visit CloudBlue.com to learn more.