What CIOs Should Demand in QBRs With Their MSP

Most QBRs still look in the rearview mirror. They focus on the performance and stability of the environment, including metrics like uptime, SLA compliance, and ticket closure rates. These are important, but they only tell one side of the story: what happened.

Today’s CIOs need more. They expect MSPs to bring forward market insights, thought leadership, and a clear view of what’s next. They want to know:

• How are you translating market insights and emerging trends into strategies that give us a competitive edge?
• What forward-looking improvements or innovations should we be exploring based on your thought leadership?
• Where are you helping us get ahead of the curve, leveraging lessons from your broader client base, evolving technologies, and best practices to shape our roadmap?

A truly valuable QBR should reflect on performance and outcomes while also exploring what’s possible further down the line. It should help CIOs see where they are today, the different paths forward, the opportunities ahead, and the outcomes those paths could create.

It’s time for MSPs to evolve QBRs from static performance reviews into strategic steering sessions: part reflection, part roadmap, and part innovation workshop. The best sessions balance accountability with inspiration, acknowledging the present while charting a course for future value.

Proper Metrics: Beyond the Basics and Looking Towards the Future

SLA and uptime stats are table stakes. They belong in the appendix, not the spotlight. Instead, the QBR should focus on elevating analysis and storytelling, highlighting why metrics moved, where trends are forming, and how the MSP is proactively improving outcomes.

CIOs should expect:

• Trend analysis that pinpoints recurring incident patterns and root causes.
• Evidence of proactive problem resolution and continuous improvement.
• Transparent cost reporting tied to contractual commitments, including actual vs. forecasted spend, automation ROI, and clarity on how spend aligns to agreed service levels and outcomes.
• Experience metrics, such as end-user satisfaction, ticket resolution times, and productivity impact.
• Clear visibility into what’s driving issues in the environment, the underlying causes, and the defined action plan to resolve them, demonstrating how the MSP is continually improving system health and stability.

And crucially, CIOs should ask: “What improvements should we be making?” Encourage your MSP to identify not only their optimization areas but also where internal IT processes, change adoption, or governance could evolve to support better outcomes. Together, you and your MSP should discuss the enablers and roadblocks to achieving these improvements, (whether resource constraints, process maturity, or organizational readiness), and establish a shared plan to overcome them.

The Innovation Agenda: Investing in Emerging Technologies to Drive Performance

A QBR should not only measure operational performance, but it should also fuel innovation performance.

Every session should reserve time to explore emerging technologies, lessons learned from other clients, and new opportunities that align with your priorities. CIOs should challenge their MSPs with direct questions like: “What investments are you making in us?”

That could mean dedicated innovation funding, co-developed pilots, or access to emerging technology expertise.

CIOs should expect MSPs to bring:

• Insights on market shifts, such as AI-driven operations, zero-trust architecture, or sustainable cloud optimization.
• Concrete, measurable innovation opportunities, like reducing ticket volume by 20% through self-service or cutting provisioning time by 30% via workflow automation.

• Examples of how you’re driving innovation across your client base: how you’re applying best practices and proven improvements from other engagements to deliver measurable benefits within our organization.

Reflection and Forward View:
Look back to assess how previous innovation ideas performed, then move forward by choosing the right ones to pursue next.

Innovation ideas alone don’t move the needle, but execution does. MSPs and CIOs must jointly decide which initiatives to pursue and define the commitments needed to make them real.

Business Alignment: Aligning Your MSP Partnership with Your Goals

QBRs should go beyond IT metrics to focus on business outcomes, like how technology enables transformation, growth, and resilience.

Ask your MSP: “How are you helping us to achieve business goals, not just meet IT targets?”

The discussion should include:

• Updates on strategic initiatives, from ERP modernization to compliance milestones to customer experience improvements.
• KPIs tied to business value: revenue enablement, speed-to-market, and competitive advantage.
• Recommendations that show industry awareness and alignment to your strategic roadmap.

And it’s fair to ask: “What have you done for me lately?” Not as criticism, but as an invitation for the MSP to demonstrate recent, tangible contributions to business success, whether cost savings, risk reduction, or improved agility.

Accountability and Governance: Action Over Ideas

Accountability is where ambition meets execution and where many QBRs fall short. CIOs should insist on clear accountability and robust governance to ensure ideas turn into outcomes.

Accountability means:

• Reviewing progress on commitments made in the previous QBR.
• Confirming ownership, timelines, and measurable deliverables.
• Expecting the MSP to proactively propose solutions and investments, not just report issues.

Governance means:

• Ensuring both sides act on agreed innovation initiatives.
• Establishing a cadence for follow-up, validation, and continuous improvement.
• Building mutual accountability: the MSP for service evolution and delivery, and IT for readiness and adoption.

Ideas don’t move the needle. Acting on them does.

The Bottom Line

QBRs should evolve from backward-looking vendor reports to forward-looking partnership dialogues.

Acknowledge the value of traditional QBRs as they provide necessary operational visibility but challenge your MSP to supercharge the value by focusing on more than the mirror.

CIOs who demand this higher standard will transform QBRs into engines of ingenuity and change.

You should walk away from every QBR with three clear answers:

1. Current Performance: Clarity through insight, not just reporting
2. Strategic Roadmap: Vision backed by innovation and opportunity
3. Innovation Delivery Governance: Execution with accountability and measurable value

It’s time to demand more from your MSP. Not just to keep the lights on, but to feed your organization’s ability to improve, innovate, and lead.

Your MSP should be more than a service provider; it should be a strategic partner driving transformation and innovation. Discover how UpperEdge helps CIOs build partnerships that deliver measurable business outcomes.