MSP Strategy, Security & AI Consulting
Strategic consulting for growing MSPs: standardize security baselines, productize AI services, and lift client retention. Houston-based, U.S. remote.
From firefighting to a productized, defensible service stack — built by someone who's run an MSP.
I'm Scott McAuley, and I help MSPs and their SMB clients turn scattered IT into a defensible, productized service stack. As a fractional CTO, I standardize security baselines across every client environment, structure co-managed IT so your team and mine share the load cleanly, and productize AI services you can actually sell. I run a Houston MSP myself, so this is lived experience — Houston-based and available U.S. remote.
Common challenges
- No standardized security baseline across clients
- Inconsistent service quality between technicians
- Pricing pressure with no clear differentiation
- Clients asking about AI and you don't have an answer yet
- Owner stuck in the technician seat instead of leading the business
Why work with me
- I run Texas Management Group, a Houston MSP — I live this every day
- I've productized security baselines and AI services for SMB MSPs
- Practical playbooks for QBRs, security scorecards, and client retention
- Vendor-neutral perspective on RMM, PSA, EDR, and email security stacks
How I help
- Cybersecurity Foundations — Standardize a tiered security baseline you can deploy across every client.
- AI & Automation Strategy — Productize AI services for your client base and automate internal ops.
- Fractional CTO / vCIO — Strategic guidance for MSP owners ready to step out of the tech seat.
- Cloud & IT Advisory — Reference architectures and migration playbooks for your client base.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between co-managed IT and fully outsourced IT?
Fully outsourced means the MSP owns everything; co-managed means your internal IT staff and my team split the work by strength. Typically your people handle day-to-day and relationships while I bring security standardization, tooling, and strategic depth. It scales your existing team instead of replacing it.
Can you run or support our help desk?
I focus on the strategy and systems layer rather than staffing a tier-1 queue. I help you structure the help desk — triage tiers, SLAs, escalation paths, PSA workflows, and the metrics that flag problems early — so whether you run it in-house or through a partner, it's measurable, consistent, and doesn't depend on one hero technician.
How do you standardize security across dozens of client environments?
I build a tiered security baseline — EDR, MFA, email security, patching, backup, and hardening standards — that you deploy uniformly across every client. Each tier maps to a price point and a scorecard, so security becomes a repeatable product you sell and audit, not a custom project you rebuild for each account.
Do you offer a vCIO or fractional CTO overlay for our clients?
Yes. I can sit above your delivery team as a fractional CTO or vCIO, running quarterly business reviews, technology roadmaps, and budget planning for your key accounts. That strategic overlay lifts retention and average revenue per client while freeing you and your senior techs from being pulled into every planning conversation.
How do you help an MSP scale without the owner stuck in the tech seat?
I document and productize your delivery — standardized stacks, runbooks, onboarding, and QBR playbooks — so quality no longer depends on the owner. Combined with AI-assisted automation of internal ops, that lets you add clients without proportionally adding chaos, and lets you lead the business instead of working every ticket.