Act I: The Hero Returns

Every story of transformation needs a return - that moment when the protagonist comes back, wiser and stronger, ready to reclaim their place. For the vCIO, this is that moment.

After years of firefighting, spreadsheets, and static QBR decks, they step back into the boardroom - not to present uptime, but to reveal understanding. They’re no longer the messenger of maintenance; they’re the messenger of meaning. And in an era where every executive asks for proof, the vCIO finally has it - in the form of living data, real patterns, and measurable impact.

Act II: From Guesswork to Governance

The MSP-client relationship has changed forever. The new expectation is clarity.

Executives don’t want to know if tickets were closed faster - they want to know why employees are struggling, where time is being lost, and how AI adoption is helping or hurting productivity.

The vCIO who can answer those questions doesn’t just survive - they lead.

With tools like Produce8, those insights aren’t buried in logs or locked in silos. They’re at your fingertips - real-time visibility into how teams actually work across apps, time zones, and tasks.

No more guesswork. No more “gut feel.” Just clarity that translates directly into governance, accountability, and confidence.

When your reports show the cause behind the metrics - the “why” behind the what - the boardroom listens. Because data-driven vCIOs don’t make claims; they deliver context.

Act III: The New Partnership Model

In this new world, the MSP isn’t a vendor - they’re a strategic partner. Instead of waiting to be invited into planning conversations, data-driven MSPs lead them.

They can walk into a meeting and say:

“We’ve seen collaboration time rise 30% this quarter, but project output hasn’t increased. Let’s dig into what’s blocking efficiency.”

That’s not IT support - that’s business strategy.

By showing what’s really happening across the digital workplace - app sprawl, AI adoption, meeting overload, shadow IT - Produce8 helps MSPs move from maintaining systems to managing intelligence.

This is how the vCIO earns permanent relevance: not through noise, but through narrative. Not by guessing, but by guiding.

Act IV: The MIP Era Begins

This isn’t the end of the MSP story - it’s the start of the next chapter. The Managed Intelligence Provider (MIP) isn’t a rebrand; it’s a rebirth.

It’s about shifting the focus from uptime to insight, from systems to strategy, and from transactions to transformation.

The vCIO’s job isn’t to talk about the network anymore - it’s to talk about the nature of work itself. Produce8 gives them the lens to see it, the language to explain it, and the evidence to prove it.

When you can show your clients how they’re working - not just that they’re working - you don’t just earn trust.

You own it.



The story doesn’t end here. Up next: “Behind the Screens: The Data Superpowers Fueling the Next-Gen MSP.” A look inside how Produce8 helps MSPs detect shadow IT, measure AI adoption, reclaim licenses, and deliver the kind of insights that make data the star of every boardroom conversation.

If you'd like to learn more about the vCIO & MSP's evolution, please register to join our Oct 29th webinar: From Guesswork to Clarity: Delivering vCIO Reports Powered by Real Data


The Data-Driven vCIO Part 4 - The Return to the Boardroom - How Data-Driven MSPs Win Client Trust

Act I: The Future Arrives - and It’s Already in Motion

Picture this: a vCIO standing before a wall of shifting data, swiping through dashboards as effortlessly as Tom Cruise scanning predictive screens in Minority Report. But instead of catching crimes before they happen, they’re predicting client pain points - productivity dips, app overload, or unmanaged AI usage - before they cost the business time or trust.

This isn’t science fiction. It’s the next stage of the MSP’s evolution: the Managed Intelligence Provider (MIP).

The MIP doesn’t just monitor infrastructure; they orchestrate insight. They use data not only to report on what’s happened but to anticipate what’s next - helping clients move from reactive IT to proactive strategy.

Act II: From Firefighting to Forecasting

For too long, MSPs have been trapped in reactive loops. The metrics that once defined success - tickets closed, uptime maintained - now confine it. The vCIO of tomorrow breaks that loop.

By leveraging enriched data from platforms like Produce8, MSPs can surface real signals about how people, apps, and systems actually work together. Imagine being able to say:

“We’ve noticed your collaboration app usage dropped 18% this month - that’s likely why project velocity fell by 10%.”

That’s not reactive. That’s orchestration. It’s connecting the dots between digital behavior and business outcomes - and it’s the clearest path from guesswork to governance.

Act III: The Data Conductor

Think of tomorrow’s MSP as a conductor, not a mechanic. Each app, workflow, and employee represents an instrument in a vast digital orchestra. When everything’s in tune - collaboration strong, workloads balanced, AI adoption healthy - the business performs beautifully.

But when one section drifts off tempo - when AI tools are underutilized or meetings multiply without purpose - the conductor feels it first. And unlike the reactive MSP of yesterday, the data-driven vCIO can intervene before the performance falters.

The magic lies in real-time visibility. Tools like Produce8 turn the noise of the digital workplace into readable rhythm - surfacing patterns that inform decisions, policies, and even culture. The vCIO becomes not just a translator of technology, but a composer of clarity.



Act IV: The Intelligence Era

This is the moment MSPs have been waiting for - the era when visibility itself becomes a service. The MIP model redefines what it means to deliver value:

From reports → to real-time insight.

From maintenance → to measurable impact.

From assumptions → to evidence.

This evolution doesn’t replace the human side of the MSP - it amplifies it. Because now, the vCIO isn’t just advising clients with experience; they’re empowering them with truth.

Coming in the Part 4 of our vCIO series is The Return to the Boardroom: How Data-Driven MSPs Win Client Trust. There we will explore how data clarity turns conversation into confidence - and MSPs take their rightful place as strategic partners once again.

If you'd like to learn more about the vCIO & MSP's evolution, please register to join our Oct 29th webinar: From Guesswork to Clarity: Delivering vCIO Reports Powered by Real Data

The Data-Driven vCIO Part 3 - 'Minority Report' for MSPs: Orchestrating the Future of Data-Driven Leadership

Act I: Once Upon a Boardroom

There was a time - not so long ago - when the vCIO sat at the head of the table. They were translators of technology, turning uptime into outcomes and servers into strategy. They didn’t just fix problems; they forecasted progress. The boardroom trusted them because they could explain why the blinking lights in the server room mattered.

This was the golden age of the vCIO. Quarterly Business Reviews were meaningful conversations. Clients leaned in, eager for updates about the health of their infrastructure. It was the era of trust through expertise - where relationships were built on credibility and continuity.

Act II: The World Shifted - and So Did the Seat

Then came the pandemic. The boardroom dissolved into pixels. QBRs turned into Zoom calls squeezed between other Zoom calls. That human connection - the handshake, the shared whiteboard moment, the visual story - disappeared.

Without presence, the vCIO’s story lost power. Slides replaced storytelling. The once-strategic dialogue became a checklist of metrics and maintenance. The boardroom stopped feeling like a boardroom - it felt like a ticket update.

And when the conversation becomes about tickets, the seat at the table gets smaller.

At the same time, the technology landscape exploded - SaaS everywhere, shadow IT running wild, and AI tools multiplying faster than policy could catch up. Executives found themselves overwhelmed and started looking elsewhere for insight - to consultants, to business analysts, to data teams. The vCIO, once the bridge between IT and business, became a toll booth on the way to somewhere else.

Act III: The Fragmentation Problem

The irony? MSPs were sitting on more data than ever. But it was trapped - buried in point tools, scattered across dashboards, and divorced from meaning. So when clients asked, “Where are we really investing our time?” or “What’s our digital ROI?” the vCIO could only shrug toward disconnected charts.

The story that once justified their value was now hidden behind systems that refused to speak the same language.

Act IV: The Way Back - Reclaiming Relevance

The return to the boardroom won’t happen through more slides or better uptime. It will happen through clarity.

vCIOs don’t need to reinvent themselves; they need to re-arm themselves - with evidence. They need data that tells stories, reveals trends, and proves value in ways executives understand intuitively. They need tools that pull everything into focus, showing not just what’s happening but why it matters.

That’s how they get their seat back - by becoming storytellers again. Not narrators of tickets, but interpreters of intelligence.

With platforms like Produce8, vCIOs are rediscovering their voice. They’re visualizing productivity, collaboration, and AI usage across clients. They’re connecting technical metrics to business outcomes - reclaiming their position as the strategic guides who help companies make smarter decisions, faster.

The vCIO isn’t gone. They were just waiting for the data to catch up.

Coming next in Part 3: “Minority Report for MSPs: Orchestrating the Future of Data-Driven Leadership” - a look into the future of the MSP as the Managed Intelligence Provider, where the vCIO evolves from advisor to conductor of real-time insights.

If you'd like to learn more about the vCIO & MSP's evolution, please  register to join our Oct 29th webinar: "From Guesswork to Clarity: Delivering vCIO Reports Powered by Real Data" 

The Data-Driven vCIO Part 2 - Exit the Boardroom: How the vCIO Lost Their Seat (and How They Get It Back)

The Social Network Effect: From Gut Feel to Pixel Proof

Once upon a time, intuition was enough. A confident pitch, a handshake, and a hunch could move mountains. But somewhere between The Social Network and the rise of TikTok, the world changed. Every idea, every product, every claim now needs to be shown - not told.


We’ve entered what sociologists call the Attention Economy. But more accurately, it’s a Proof Economy. The value of any statement is measured by how convincingly it can be visualized. In this new world, screenshots, dashboards, and charts have replaced instinct. “Trust me” doesn’t cut it anymore - not for consumers scrolling feeds, and definitely not for executives evaluating IT investments.


The Cultural Shift: When Business Became a Visual Medium

The modern workplace mirrors our culture at large - fast, fragmented, and visual-first. Think about it: people now skim dashboards the same way they scroll Instagram. We process images 60,000 times faster than text. And after years of remote meetings, we’ve trained ourselves to read screens, not rooms.

This shift has permanently changed how decisions are made. A colorful chart is no longer decoration - it’s currency.

It’s why clients now expect their MSPs and vCIOs to arrive not with opinions, but with evidence: data visualizations, trend reports, and context-rich metrics that look and feel like clarity.


The Collapse of Intuition in the Boardroom

Gut instincts still matter - but they’ve been demoted. In an age of AI-generated content and instant analytics, every executive is subconsciously asking: “Can you prove it?”

That’s not cynicism. It’s survival. Businesses are being flooded with information, automation, and abstraction. The only way to cut through it all is to anchor conversations in something visible, measurable, and verifiable.

This is why traditional vCIO reports - filled with uptime percentages and ticket counts - no longer resonate. They’re static relics of a world where words still had weight. Today, data is the story, and visualization is the language.


What This Means for vCIOs and MSPs

For MSPs and vCIOs, this cultural shift isn’t just aesthetic - it’s existential. The boardroom is no longer a place for technical translation; it’s a stage for visual persuasion. Clients want to see the value you’re providing. They want to see the ROI of their technology stack.

And those who can show it - clearly, confidently, and consistently - are reclaiming their strategic influence.

This is where the data-enriched lens of Produce8 comes into play: enabling MSPs to turn workday data into stories that stick, and vCIO reports into strategic performances that captivate instead of confuse.

Stay tuned for Part 2 in the Data-Driven vCIO series:
“Exit the Boardroom: How the vCIO Lost Their Seat (and How They Get It Back)” - tracing how the vCIO role evolved, why traditional reporting fell flat, and how data visualization is restoring its relevance.  

If you'd like to learn more about the vCIO & MSP's evolution, please  register to join our Oct 29th webinar: "From Guesswork to Clarity: Delivering vCIO Reports Powered by Real Data" 

The Data-Driven vCIO Part 1 – The Age of Seeing Is Believing: Modern Leaders Now Trust What They Can Measure

Over the past decade, MSPs have stepped in to play a bigger role in IT security. As cybersecurity threats grew more complex, MSPs evolved. Building security practices, running audits, and, in many cases, operating as MSSPs. It’s been the main way they’ve retained strategic influence as technology evolved.

But here’s the irony: while MSPs are in the business of managing technology, most have fallen behind when it comes to innovation. In a world charging ahead with AI, automation, and ongoing SaaS expansion, many MSPs are still focused on backing up systems, reporting on phishing attempts and resetting passwords.

The tech world is not static. That statement should be self-evident, and we should have already learned this lesson that if MSPs don’t adapt, they risk looking more like custodians than strategic partners.

The rise of SaaS and cloud apps have already shifted control of software decisions away from IT. Most people remember very well what happened in the enterprise when cloud business applications showed up. IT leaders screamed about ‘corporate standards’, ‘security’, and ‘data loss in the cloud’, and the world just passed them by. A similar story played out for MSPs that clung to physical infrastructure for five to ten years after their customers (and the opportunity) moved on.

Whether it was internal IT or the MSP that replaced them, both ended up sidelined.

Business units brought in their own tools, often without involvement from internal IT or MSPs. And while MSPs continued to manage infrastructure and endpoints, they were largely cut out of conversations about software spend, tool adoption, or employee digital experience.

Now, another transformation is underway with AI. And without a shift in how they position themselves, MSPs could once again find themselves watching from the sidelines.

Out of the shadows - rethinking the ‘shadow’ part of IT

The term "shadow IT" has always implied something risky or out of bounds. But the truth is, it’s often just a reflection of where innovation is happening fastest.

For MSPs, how you think about (and communicate) that concept says a lot about the kind of partner you want to be. If your first instinct is to shut it down, you’re reinforcing the very dynamics that pushed internal IT departments to the margins 15 years ago. But if you view it as a signal, an indicator of unmet needs or emerging preferences, you have an opportunity to help clients navigate it intelligently.

Teams adopt tools for a reason. Usually to help them work better. When you bring visibility to what’s actually being used and help evaluate it on merit, you stop being the roadblock and start being the guide.

AI Is already inside the building

From ChatGPT to Microsoft CoPilot, AI tools are becoming part of the daily workflow often without a formal rollout plan or clear measurement of effectiveness. They’re being licensed, trialed, and adopted on a department-by-department basis. Most clients don’t know what’s being used, where it’s helping, or what it’s costing.

This is a major strategic blind spot. And if MSPs don’t help their clients close it, someone else will.

Executives are already asking questions. Questions MSPs should be prepared to answer:

Are we spending on tools that no one’s using?

Are the AI platforms we’ve deployed actually improving productivity?

Do we know what tools employees are adopting without approval?

The answers require data, and that’s where MSPs can step in with a new kind of solution.

Application visibility as a strategic lever

This is where Produce8 makes a difference. It gives MSPs the ability to bring real data into these conversations. With detailed insights into application usage across SaaS and desktop tools, you can help clients see:

Which tools are gaining traction—and which aren’t

Where licenses are underused or could be reclaimed

How teams are adopting tools outside IT’s visibility

Trends across departments that reveal broader opportunities

This is more than just reporting. You should be thinking about it as the path to re-engagement of the MSP. Strategic relevance. When you can quantify usage, surface inefficiencies, and highlight emerging trends, you shift the conversation from reactive support to proactive planning. You become the partner your clients need.

A practical path to higher-value services

So here is the self-serving, shameless vendor plug - and our simple playbook for MSPs:

Deploy Produce8 to give your clients visibility into the entirety of the digital workplace (not just the stuff you manage).

Use those insights to guide QBRs and executive conversations. One topic at a time.

Recommend changes, license adjustments, tool rationalization, and training support

Support change initiatives using Produce8 to measure the impact

Build on early wins to expand your role over time

The MSP space is no stranger to reinvention. As security demands grew, MSPs stepped up. The next reinvention is already underway, and it centers on how work is getting done, what tools are enabling it, and whether those investments are delivering value.

With AI adoption accelerating and app ecosystems growing more fragmented, your clients need clarity. They need partners who can help them understand what’s working and what’s not.

Not every MSP will make this shift (just like the last time)

There will be a clear divide between those who continue to focus solely on tickets and endpoints and those who evolve to help their clients lead through change. One path leads to greater relevance, new revenue streams, and more strategic relationships. The other leads to being quietly replaced.

The opportunity is real for increased wallet share, stronger client retention, and net-new business from companies looking for forward-thinking partners.

We’re both excited and a little terrified about what’s coming next with AI. Your clients probably are too. But we’re here to help you do more than just hang on. We want to help you lead. We can partner on this one. We’ll bring you the data and insights. You deliver the strategy.

You can be an innovator again. You can get excited about “new” again. And isn’t that why you got into tech in the first place?



Stepping off the Sidelines: How MSPs Can Regain Relevance in the Age of AI and App Sprawl

There’s a silent drain on your clients’ productivity - and it’s happening in their calendars.

While meetings are intended to drive alignment and collaboration, new research shows they’re one of the biggest culprits behind employee fatigue, lost time, and disengagement. But because meeting culture is such a normal part of work, most companies don’t know how bad the problem really is—or how to measure it.

That’s where Managed Service Providers (MSPs) can help. And no, you don’t need to become a productivity coach to make a difference. You already support the tech stack that throws off the data that can illustrate the problem. You just need to help your clients see it.

The Meetings Problem

A wave of research has confirmed what employees have felt for years:

Professionals spend over 11 hours per week in meetings, often exceeding 30% of their workweek (Fast Company, 2024).

71% of meetings are considered unproductive, costing U.S. companies $37 billion annually (Harvard Business Review, 2024).

Microsoft’s Work Trend Index found that inefficient meetings are the #1 barrier to productivity in hybrid environments (HBR, June 2024).

A 2025 New York Post article dubbed the lingering cognitive drain from back-to-back meetings “meeting hangovers”—where the fatigue lasts hours after the calls end.

A ScienceDirect meta-analysis (2025) identified “feeling trapped” in meetings as a key psychological cause of Zoom fatigue.

These aren’t isolated studies—they paint a consistent picture: meeting overload is real, it's widespread, and it's measurable.

Why Should MSPs Get Involved?

Because your clients can’t fix what they can’t see—and the data that reveals the problem is flowing through the platforms you already manage.

You support Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Teams, Zoom, and Slack. These tools generate logs of every calendar invite, every recurring meeting, and every video call. With the right visualization tools, you can help your clients:

Quantify average time in meetings (internal and external) per employee, team, or department

Identify departments or roles experiencing the highest meeting density

Track trends over time to support reinforcing changes like reducing recurring calls

You're not stepping outside your lane—you're helping clients optimize what they already use. Your job is to provide the data points.

How to Start the Conversation

We get it—talking about productivity might feel like unfamiliar territory. But the pitch here isn’t “let’s fix your culture”—it’s:

“We can show you how meetings are actually impacting your employee’s workdays using the data you already own in the systems we manage.”

Here are a few ways to ease into the conversation during your next QBR or sync:

“We’re seeing a lot of teams lose hours each week to unproductive meetings—would you be open to looking at your organization’s calendar data to identify inefficiencies?”

“Your platforms can show you where time is going across Teams, Zoom, and Outlook. We can help you surface that.”

“This isn’t about cutting meetings—it’s about making them count. Let’s start by seeing how much time meetings actually take so you have a data set that you can use to track how much progress your teams are making.”

And if they need MORE convincing? Just point to the research:

“A 2025 study found that time in meetings is one of the strongest predictors of burnout—stronger than workload itself.”

What the Data Reveals (and Why It Matters)

Here’s what your clients can track in Produce8 as part of the really inexpensive Essentials package:

Average meetings per day/week per employee (anonymous)

Time in internal vs external meetings

Time spent in meetings vs. time blocked on calendars

Time in virtual calling systems (potentially ad-hoc meetings)

Trends in meeting time by role or department or companywide

Once clients see this data, they can begin experimenting with the vast number of initiatives that can help tackle the problem - reducing redundant calls, switching to async check-ins, and protecting focus time. With your help they can measure the impact of those changes at a high level and in a really simple way.

From Tech Partner to Strategic Advisor

As an MSP, you already help clients modernize and manage the platforms where digital work happens. Now, you can also help them optimize how that work gets done.

By helping clients understand their meeting overload problem you become more than a support provider. You become a strategic ally in solving a problem that affects every knowledge worker on their payroll.

And the best part? You don’t have to fix the problem yourself. You just have to help them see it. You can stay in your lane on technology conversations, but now you can talk about the impact of tech on the workday.

Reach Out

If you are interested in what Produce8 can do to position your MSP as an advisor to companies that wish to transform digital workplaces, please reach out to our team for a quick demo.

MSPs, Your Clients Have a Meeting Problem - Now You Have the Fix.

AI is rapidly reshaping how businesses operate—from internal workflows to customer-facing experiences. For small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), this transformation brings both opportunity and uncertainty. They’re looking to their MSPs not just for technical support, but for strategic guidance on how to navigate this shift. That’s where a new model is emerging - one that reframes what it means to deliver value in the age of intelligent automation.

Channel Leader Pax8's Vision for Agentic AI and MSP Transformation

At the recent 2025 Pax8 Beyond conference, CEO Scott Chasin emphasized the rapid evolution of AI, noting that "AI capabilities are doubling every four to six months." He highlighted the transformative potential of AI, stating, "We’re on the cusp of AI reaching human-level intelligence and beyond." This acceleration is not just about technological advancement but also about redefining the role of MSPs in the AI era.

Pax8's research report, The Agentic Inflection Point, introduces the concept of the Managed Intelligence Provider (MIP), positioning MSPs as strategic partners who curate, orchestrate, and govern intelligent agents to drive business outcomes for SMBs. This shift underscores the need for MSPs to evolve from traditional service providers to proactive enablers of AI-driven transformation.

What’s an ‘MIP’ in Practice?

The hypothetical ‘Managed Intelligence Provider’ is about more than just managing tools—it’s about providing visibility, strategy, and structure as AI becomes embedded in daily work. According to Pax8, MIPs will:

Help clients orchestrate AI solutions across workflows

Monitor and optimize AI usage and adoption

Deliver business results, not just uptime or ticket resolution

Their upcoming Managed Intelligence Toolkit will support this shift, offering a framework for managing AI at scale across SMB clients.

How MSPs Can Start the Shift to Intelligence Providers

You don’t need to wait for new tools to start becoming more strategic. Here are four ways to help clients adopt and manage AI—right now.

1. Measure Adoption of GenAI Tools using Work Analytics from Produce8

Whether it’s ChatGPT, Jasper, or other emerging tools, most organizations are experimenting with GenAI. But without visibility, it’s hard to know what’s sticking.

Use analytics tools to track:

Frequency of use across departments

Drop-offs or signs of abandonment

Team-level engagement patterns

A dataset that illuminates the adoption curve of new tech that helps companies support (without stamping out) employee innovation efforts.

This helps shift the conversation from anecdotal to structured and measurable insights.

2. Measure the Impact of Embedded AI on People

Tools like Microsoft Copilot or embedded AI features in apps are harder to track. But their impact shows up in employee work patterns:

Are focus hours increasing?

Is the related app’s (i.e. Microsoft Word) usage changing?

Are employees spending more time in different applications indicating that time has freed up?

Is the digital workday becoming more efficient?

Pre- and post-rollout comparisons with Digital Work Analytics can reveal whether embedded AI is helping or just adding more tools and inefficiencies in the way work gets completed.

3. Guide AI Policy Creation

Many clients lack AI policies altogether. MSPs can support policy efforts by:

Identifying which AI tools are in use (even unapproved ones)

Helping draft clear guidelines for usage and access

Flagging Shadow AI that could pose a risk

This Writer.com article offers a great starting point.

4. Use Work Analytics to Demonstrate ROI

Tools like Produce8 help MSPs give clients measurable, privacy-respecting insights into digital work patterns:

Understand usage of collaboration and productivity tools

Detect inefficiencies like meeting or messaging overload

Measure whether AI is improving productivity or creating distractions

These insights can kickstart better QBRs, spark license audits, and help teams improve how they work.

Why This Matters

Clients aren’t just asking “What AI tools should we try?” They’re asking:

Are we wasting money on apps?

Are we using AI safely?

Is it helping us get more done?

What should we stop or start doing?

These are questions the proposed MIP concept could answer with data, structure, and strategy. This isn’t about reinventing your business. It’s about extending your current value into a new era of work.

At Produce8, we are here to help MSPs lead these conversations. For some concrete examples of our tools at work on AI-related use cases, check out our recent partner webinar or reach out for a demo or info on our MSP (or maybe I should say ‘MIP’ :P) partner program.

The Dawn of the ‘Managed Intelligence Provider’: Helping Your Clients Manage Transformation in the Digital Workplace

Vancouver, BC – Produce8, a leader in digital work analytics, today announced the launch of Essential Insights, an innovative reporting system designed to empower businesses with real-time data on employee digital workflows while enabling Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to deliver unprecedented value to their clients.


In today’s fast-paced digital workplace, organizations struggle to understand how employees interact with technology, manage their time, and collaborate efficiently. Essential Insights simplifies this challenge by providing real-time, anonymized analytics that drive data-driven decisions, improve productivity, and support overall workforce well-being.


“Essential Insights was designed to seamlessly provide organizations with real-time business data,” said Marco LaVecchia - CRO of Produce8 “With its ability to reveal patterns in productivity, collaboration, and technology usage, businesses can create better workdays for employees, while MSPs can elevate their role as trusted strategic partners in driving digital efficiency.”


Unlocking Workforce Productivity with Essential Insights

Essential Insights delivers four key reporting dimensions that provide organizations with an in-depth understanding of their digital work environments:

Quality of Work Life – Tracks digital working hours, focus scores, and employee sentiment, helping businesses balance productivity with well-being.

Collaboration Time – Analyzes time spent in meetings and calls, identifying opportunities to improve communication efficiency.

Application Discovery & Usage – Provides insights into app usage, interaction patterns, and shadow IT risks, ensuring businesses maintain secure and efficient digital environments.

Team Benchmarking – Enables comparative analysis of departments and teams, identifying trends and disparities to optimize resource allocation and collaboration.


A Game-Changer for Managed Service Providers (MSPs)

Essential Insights is not only a powerful tool for businesses—it also presents a transformative opportunity for MSPs looking to expand their value proposition and service offerings.

Deepen Client Relationships – MSPs can move beyond traditional IT support by delivering actionable insights that make them indispensable business advisors.

Drive Growth & Revenue – By offering DWA-powered insights, MSPs can expand into HR and operational analytics, opening new revenue streams.

Differentiate Services – Essential Insights helps MSPs stand out in a crowded market, delivering next-generation analytics that drive business success.


MSPs have traditionally provided IT expertise, evolving from network management to cloud adoption and cybersecurity. The next logical step in their evolution is Digital Work Analytics (DWA)—a fast-growing sector that helps businesses optimize workflows and retain top talent.


“Organizations invest 8-10% of their OPEX budget on IT, but up to 75% on human resources,” Janice Siddons - President of Produce 8 added “Essential Insights enables MSPs to bridge the gap by showing clients exactly how their technology investment impacts their most valuable asset: their people.”

Seamless Integration and Adoption

Produce8 has made integrating Essential Insights into MSP service offerings effortless. The tool can be deployed in just three simple steps:

Show Clients the Report – Demonstrate how DWA analytics uncover productivity patterns and inefficiencies.

Easily Deploy Essential Insights to Client Base – No complex integration is required—Essential Insights works seamlessly with existing IT infrastructure.

Incorporate Reports into QBR Meetings – Use insights to fuel quarterly business reviews (QBRs) and strengthen strategic conversations with clients.


To support MSPs, Produce8 offers an MSP Partner Program with dedicated resources and training, helping them scale Essential Insights as a core business offering.

Unlock the Power of Digital Work Analytics


Essential Insights is available now for businesses and MSPs looking to enhance workplace efficiency, illuminate new growth opportunities, and drive data-backed decision-making.


Join the Essential Insights Launch Webinar


Date: January 30, 2025 | Time: 2 PM ET
Register Here: Produce8 Essential Insights Launch Webinar
For more information, book a live demo or learn about our MSP Partner Program


Produce8 Launches Essential Insights, a Breakthrough Digital Work Analytics Reporting Tool for Businesses and MSPs

Produce8 is proud to announce the launch of Essential Insights, our new Digital Work Analytics (DWA) Report System designed to empower knowledge workers, enhance business efficiency, and support Managed Service Providers (MSPs) in driving growth.

The modern workplace is increasingly digital, making it essential for businesses to understand how employees interact with technology, manage their time, and collaborate. Essential Insights brings clarity to these areas, offering detailed, anonymized reports that enable data-driven decisions to optimize productivity, foster well-being, and scale operations.

Transforming the Workplace with Essential Insights

Essential Insights Reporting leverages real-time analytics to deliver a comprehensive view of the employee digital experience across four critical dimensions:

Quality of Work Life: Tracks digital working hours, focus scores, and employee sentiment to balance productivity and well-being.

Collaboration Time: Analyzes time spent in meetings and calls, highlighting areas for communication efficiency.

Application Discovery & Usage: Provides insights into app usage, interaction patterns, and shadow IT risks.

Team Benchmarking: Enables comparative analysis of teams, identifying trends and disparities to align resources effectively.

“Essential Insights was designed to easily offer organizations real-time business data” said Janice Siddons, President, Produce8. “With its ability to reveal patterns in productivity and collaboration, businesses can create better workdays for their teams, while MSPs can elevate their role as trusted strategic partners.”

A Game-Changer for Managed Service Providers

For MSPs, Essential Insights represents a transformative opportunity to expand their value proposition:

Deepen Client Relationships: By offering actionable insights, MSPs can transition from being IT providers to indispensable business advisors.

Drive Growth: The tool opens doors to new services, enabling MSPs to tap into HR and operational challenges.

Differentiate Services: Essential Insights helps MSPs stand out in a competitive market with next-generation analytics capabilities.

Key industries such as technology, professional services, healthcare, and financial services are poised to benefit significantly from these insights, making Essential Insights a versatile solution across sectors.

Seamless Integration and Adoption

Produce8 has made adopting Essential Insights Reporting easy for MSPs, requiring just three simple steps: introduce the tool to clients, deploy it easily, and incorporate insights into regular business reviews. The platform also offers a Partner Program to provide MSPs with the resources and training needed to maximize their impact.

Unlock the Power of Digital Work Analytics

Produce8’s Essential Insights is now available to help businesses and MSPs illuminate opportunities, improve efficiency, and foster sustainable growth. To learn more, book a live demo at Produce8’s website.

For additional information, contact Produce8 at info@produce8.com and join our launch webinar on January 30th (2pm ET): Essential Insights - Introducing Digital Work Analytics Reporting for MSPs.

Find out more about Essential Insights reporting

Produce8 Launches Essential Insights: Revolutionizing Digital Work Analytics for Businesses and MSPs

Produce8 Introduces Partner Program for Managed Service Providers 

This whitepaper will show you how to cross the chasm from providing technology products and services to becoming business productivity experts and supporting the employee's digital experience.  

Productivity and Work Analytics: The Next Managed Service Practice

Employee Monitoring Tools Aren’t Made For Productivity or Teamwork 

MSPs - Your Clients Have a Meeting Problem - Now You Have the Fix.

MSPs - Is AI Helping or Hurting Your Client's Business?

The Future of MSP Work: 5 Reasons the IT Services Market Can Re-accelerate in 2025

Challenges to help you build better habits and get things done

Time blocking is a time management method that involves dividing your day into blocks of time, with each block dedicated to accomplishing a specific task or group of tasks. This technique helps in organizing your day more efficiently, ensuring that you allocate time to important activities without the day slipping away into less productive tasks.

Effective time blocking will manifest as a well-structured timeline, fewer distractions from low-priority apps, and a higher focus score, demonstrating better productivity and focused work. These KPIs are crucial for assessing the effectiveness of your time management approach.

Time Blocking Challenge Outcome 

Want to have better workdays? We can help!

Time Blocking Challenge

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. It breaks work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. These intervals are known as "pomodoros," the Italian word for tomatoes, named after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer Cirillo used as a university student.


Your timeline will distinctly show each Pomodoro work block and break. Engagement with distracting apps should decrease, and when used, it should be more purposeful. Enhanced focus from dedicated work sessions should result in a higher focus score.


Pomodoro Technique Challenge Outcome 

Want to have better workdays? We can help! 

Pomodoro Technique Challenge

Monk Mode is a productivity approach where you deeply focus on your work by minimizing distractions, akin to the focused and minimalistic lifestyle of a monk. This mode involves dedicating extended periods to work intensely on a single task or project, often in isolation, to maximize productivity and quality of output.

With successful Monk Mode application, anticipate extended periods of focused app usage, minimal distractions from irrelevant apps, and better digital intensity and focus scores, all signaling increased productivity.


Monk Mode Challenge Outcome

Monk Mode Challenge

Want to learn more about improving your focus, teamwork and digital wellness?

Wether you are collaborating with your team or solo tackling your day we can help you recover the most valuable asset, time.

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Register for the our next webinar 'From Guesswork to Clarity: Delivering vCIO Reports Powered by Real Data'

Great Workdays Kickoff for Organizations

Monotasking, also known as single-tasking, is the practice of focusing all your attention and effort on one task at a time, rather than trying to accomplish multiple tasks simultaneously. This approach stands in contrast to multitasking, where individuals attempt to manage several tasks at once, often leading to decreased productivity and increased chances of errors. Monotasking is about deepening focus, enhancing the quality of work, and improving mental engagement with the task at hand.

You should observe longer durations in productive apps, fewer interruptions from non-essential apps in your timeline, and an enhanced focus score, reflecting improved monotasking efficiency.

Monotasking Challenge Outcome

Monotasking Challenge

The "Eat the Frog" technique is a time management strategy that encourages tackling the most challenging or crucial task of your day first thing in the morning. The concept is derived from a quote often attributed to Mark Twain, suggesting that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that's probably the worst thing that's going to happen to you all day.

Successfully adopting the Eat the Frog habit will be evident through early and focused engagement in productive apps, reflected in your heatmap, timeline, and top apps report within Produce8.

Eat the Frog Challenge Outcome 

Eat the Frog Challenge

MSPs give your clients more.  Want to instantly show your clients how many unused software licenses they can recoup?  Join the webinar.

MSPs - Show Your Clients How Many Unused Software Licenses They Can Recoup

Episode 4: Is a 4-Day Work Week for MSPs a Fever Dream?  The Future of MSP Work is a monthly thought-leadership series discussing strategies for growth and what's coming next in the Managed Services industry. This month we are talking with Joe O'Connor, CEO and Co-founder of Work Time Reduction, a consulting and research organization that specializes in reduced-hour, outcomes-focused work models. We will be discussing the possible fever-dream of a 4-day work-week for MSPs and touching on:  How would a 4-day-work-week even work for MSPs?  Are your clients adopting it?  What would need to happen to enable it?

The Future of MSP Work: Is a 4-Day Work Week for MSPs a Fever Dream?

Introducing Essential Insights: Unlocking the Power of Digital Work Analytics (for MSPs & their Clients)

Why Produce8 for MSPs?

Engage Your Entire Business in Productivity Initiatives 

Types of Meetings Affecting Focus Time

Are you ready to supercharge your productivity and unlock your full potential?

It doesn’t have to be all synchronous or all asynchronous. Find the balance for your team. Measure what is or isn’t working.

It’s also worth repeating that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You can blend asynchronous work with synchronous work.

Digital Work Analytics reporting

Produce8 Launches Essential Insights: Revolutionizing Digital Work Analytics for Businesses and MSPs

Engage Your Entire Business in Productivity Initiatives

Types of Meetings Affecting Focus Time

How to Set up an Asynchronous Work Environment for a More Productive Remote Team

Reduce Slack Distractions in 3 Easy Steps

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Managed Intelligence Provider

The Data-Driven vCIO Part 4 - The Return to the Boardroom - How Data-Driven MSPs Win Client Trust

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The Data-Driven vCIO Part 3 - 'Minority Report' for MSPs: Orchestrating the Future of Data-Driven Leadership

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The Data-Driven vCIO Part 2 - Exit the Boardroom: How the vCIO Lost Their Seat (and How They Get It Back)

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The Data-Driven vCIO Part 1 – The Age of Seeing Is Believing: Modern Leaders Now Trust What They Can Measure

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Managed Intelligence Provider

Stepping off the Sidelines: How MSPs Can Regain Relevance in the Age of AI and App Sprawl

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MSPs, Your Clients Have a Meeting Problem - Now You Have the Fix.

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The Dawn of the ‘Managed Intelligence Provider’: Helping Your Clients Manage Transformation in the Digital Workplace

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Digital Work Analytics reporting

Produce8 Launches Essential Insights, a Breakthrough Digital Work Analytics Reporting Tool for Businesses and MSPs

3 min read

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Productivity and Work Analytics: The Next Managed Service Practice

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Want to learn more about improving your focus, teamwork and digital wellness?

Unlock great workdays

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