As managed service providers try to differentiate themselves and their offerings, they need to think strategically. One MSP has taken the unusual step of hiring a full-time strategy manager.

Fort Meyers, Fla.-based Entech created the position to be the company's entire strategy arm, and the effort has been a huge success.

Since the company created the position, its client base has grown 55 percent, and nearly 50 percent more clients are using the strategy manager program. Entech executives say the program allows the company to spend more time on individual client strategies and less time reacting to problems.

"We look at the landscape at how managed services is evolving in our area and we really look at it and say, anyone can do managed services. Anyone can say they do anything," Kyle Cebull, former Strategy Manager and current CMO at Entech, said. "On a surface level to clients, it's hard to differentiate. The major differentiator is the strategy piece. That's why we put so much resources behind it."

The strategy manager is in charge of advising, advocating and coordinating with clients, Cebull said, acting as "feet on the street," and digging deep into their business needs. "At the end of the day, we want that strategy fundamental and that role within our service department to be the differentiator," he said.

But to make the program work, the strategy manager needs intimate knowledge of company processes and workflow, inefficiencies in hardware and software, technology plans, IT budgets and more. Cebull says not all clients are willing to get into such detail, but clients that do see much greater benefits.

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