Strategic Imperatives’ Wail Sabbagh speaks exclusively with Comms Dealer about how MSPs are riding the digital transformation wave by innovating their billing strategies.

MSPs aiming to ride the digital transformation wave, address new markets and expand through mergers and acquisitions have reached a watershed moment, claims Strategic Imperatives Managing Director Wail Sabbagh, who says innovations in billing platforms will be key to ensuring their success.

MSPs entering scale-up mode can be significantly held back by friction from legacy billing platforms, according to Sabbagh, who says Strategic Imperatives has prioritised the removal of operational complexities for growthfocused MSPs using its Elevate billing solution. “Now is the right time to double down on MSPs because they have reached a pivotal moment,” he said. “Through conversations with our growing customer base we’ve identified several MSP-specific enhancements that we will be heavily investing in.” 

One investment area will be the creation of automated recurring billing for complex service bundles. “We aim to ensure Elevate adapts to evolving business models, from subscriptionbased services to usagebased pricing,” explained Sabbagh. “Legacy billing systems are impeding billing transformations due to their rigid nature, inflexibility and integration challenges.” 

He also highlights the need for innovation and flexibility as emerging technologies generate hybrid billing preferences. “We’ve positioned Elevate to help MSPs monetise IoT, 5G and AI,” added Sabbagh. “It’s built to handle the complexity and flexibility that these innovations demand.” 

He explained that each of these technologies is afforded different billing options within Elevate. Across IoT, Elevate supports subscriptions, pay-as-yougo pricing and tiered usage plans. For 5G, it enables dynamic pricing and instant invoicing, and for AI, options include charging per API call, subscription tiers based on model complexity and outcome-based pricing. “These capabilities empower MSPs to be truly creative with their bundling, pricing, and service propositions,” added Sabbagh.

Now is the right time to double down on MSPs because they have reached a pivotal moment

Key insights

A second investment area is delivering actionable insights through enhanced analytics. “By turning the vast amounts of data within billing systems into actionable, automated insights, we’re empowering our customers to make smarter, faster decisions,” commented Sabbagh. “In a market where agility and intelligence are key, this will give them a significant competitive edge.” 

He noted that the solution is aimed at boosting pricing strategies and improving customer retention. The third priority Sabbagh highlighted was a focus on smarter integration and automation. He said: “We’re focused on enabling smoother integrations with third party systems and popular MSP tools, reducing operational friction and enabling service providers to effortlessly scale.” 

He also highlighted that automating complex processes and reducing manual work lowers costs, minimises errors and frees up resources for strategic initiatives. “We see billing as not just a back-office function but a strategic tool, and the financial heartbeat that impacts customer satisfaction, cash flow and scalability,” he said. This supports growth for customers looking to expand through acquisitions, pointed out Sabbagh. “A common scenario for our customers pursuing growth through mergers and acquisitions is the resulting fragmented IT estate,” he said. “Maintaining acquired brands for strategic reasons often leads to disparate systems.” 

This challenge will be overcome by Elevate’s multibrand capabilities which provide a unified platform enabling streamlined operations across all brands. Strategic Imperatives’ priorities have also been informed by customer demand, which continues to inform its consultative approach and heritage within the MSP sector. “Having worked closely with MSPs for many years we’ve developed a deep understanding of their business models and the unique challenges they face. This insight has shaped Elevate,” commented Sabbagh. 

Strategic Imperatives launched Elevate for ISPs in September last year to create a bespoke experience for wholesale and retail ISPs looking to scale. The company is planning to announce several new integrations that will connect Elevate to CRM systems, providing a more unified view of customer relationships

You can read Wail’s insights and more in Comms Dealer’s March edition here.