Beyond SLAs: Practical MSP Lessons with Scott Atkinson

Ctrl-Alt-Deliver

Welcome to Ctrl-Alt-Deliver: MSP Service Delivery Mastery.
I’m Jeni Clift, joined by my husband and longtime business partner, Nick. Together, we’ve spent nearly 30 years building, scaling, and eventually exiting our own MSP business.

Over the years, we learned that real success in the MSP world isn’t just about the technology you deliver — it’s about how you deliver it. Building accountable teams, creating consistent client experiences, and knowing when to adapt your model are what keep clients loyal and your business sustainable.

In this episode, we sit down with Scott Atkinson, CEO of TribeTech — a modern MSP he co-founded in 2018 after decades of experience across IBM, Netforce, Dimension Data, and BigAir. Scott’s career has been shaped by building, selling, and reinventing IT businesses — and today he leads TribeTech with a bold, outcome-focused approach.

Here’s what we covered together:
✅ Why TribeTech ditched traditional SLAs — and how measuring urgency by business impact creates stronger client relationships
✅ The onboarding approach that standardises client infrastructure and reduces support noise from day one
✅ The disaster recovery story of TribeTech’s Sydney office literally collapsing — and how the team kept operating the very next day thanks to a cloud-first design
✅ Why the hardest (but most profitable) decision is learning to say no to work that doesn’t fit your model
✅ Scott’s perspective on automation, AI, and the one task he wishes technology would finally solve

We created this podcast to share the conversations we wish we’d had more of while running our own MSP — real, practical advice from people who’ve lived the challenges and come out stronger.

Whether you’re in the office, in the field, or stuck waiting for that one “quick” Windows update, this episode’s the perfect companion.