Strategy Overview isn't just an internal tool for your vCIO team. It can serve as your MSP's client portal, giving clients their own branded login to access their IT strategy, technology environment, tickets, budgets, and more. For many MSPs, Strategy Overview can replace a separate client portal entirely because of how much information you can bring into one place.
Why give clients portal access
Getting clients engaged in the strategic process is one of the most valuable things you can do as a vCIO, and a portal makes that possible between meetings, not just during them. When clients can log in and see their own data, it changes the relationship. They come to TSM conversations already familiar with where things stand, which means less time reviewing basics and more time on strategy.
It's also a win for your MSP. Every question a client can answer through the portal is one your team doesn't have to answer manually. Need to know how many workstations they have? It's in the portal. Want to check their Office 365 license count? It's there. Wondering about a ticket status? They can look it up themselves. Clients get faster answers, and your team gets more time for strategic work.
What clients can do in the portal
The portal gives clients self-service access to the information they care about most:
View their Reports and Assessments to see Health Scores, grades, and the strategic plan discussed during TSM meetings
Check their IT budget and roadmap to see what's planned, what's been approved, and where things stand
Look up their technology inventory including workstations, servers, network devices, and other assets, so they can pull their own asset reports when needed
Review their contacts and managed users synced from your integrations
Check Office 365 licenses to self-audit license usage and verify billing
View and track tickets synced from your PSA, reducing "what's the status?" calls
See their schedule of upcoming and past strategic engagements
Access their technology stack for a high-level view of the tools and platforms in their environment
The portal is flexible enough to replace other tools
You control exactly what each client sees. The portal uses the same module and permission system as the rest of Strategy Overview, so you can expose as much or as little as makes sense for each client. Every client can have a different configuration.
You can also customize module labels so they make sense to your clients (for example, renaming "Office365" to "M365" or "External Content" to "Knowledge Base"). And because Strategy Overview supports External Content, you can bring in dashboards, charts, or tools from other platforms right into the portal, even if those tools don't natively integrate. This means clients can access things like BrightGauge dashboards, custom reporting tools, or any web-based resource from the same place they go for everything else.
This flexibility is what makes it possible for Strategy Overview to serve as your MSP's primary client portal rather than needing a separate tool for that purpose.
When to set it up
We recommend setting up the portal once you have your branding configured and at least a few completed Reports. You don't need everything perfect. Start with a small group of clients, get their feedback, and expand from there.