5 Insights from Service Leadership’s 2022 Industry Profitability Report

The last two years have been filled with surprises. Some of them were even good.

“If you would’ve asked us at the beginning of March 2020 what the industry would look like at the end of 2021, I don’t think too many of us would’ve predicted the all-time high profitability overall as an industry, record growth rates as an industry, incredible optimism as an industry, and all-time high multiples for M&A,” says Peter Kujawa (pictured). “Yet at the end of 2021, that’s definitely what we saw.”

Kujawa is both vice president of Service Leadership, the managed services consultancy bought by ConnectWise last year, and a technology service provider (TSP) evangelist for ConnectWise. Based on Service Leadership’s 2022 Annual IT Solution Provider Industry Profitability Report, which hit the streets today, he notes, last year was an “extraordinary” one for channel pros in which revenue climbed 8.8% and adjusted EBITDA grew 13.5%. The numbers were even better for MSPs, who saw revenue soar 16% and adjusted EBITDA climb 15.5%.

“The industry coming out of 2021 is an extremely healthy industry, and it held up extremely well to the challenges of the pandemic,” Kujawa observes.

But not equally well for everyone. A deeper dive into Service Leadership’s latest findings, which are based on input from thousands of channel pros in 102 countries, reveals five key facts about who really prospered last year, why they did so well, and what the future might hold for everyone in the channel going forward.