Managed Services: Proven Success for Business and IT

With an ever-growing reliance on technology and the need for access 24/7, 365 days a year, an increasing number of businesses are turning to managed services to meet their IT needs. 

Because of their proven success, managed services are used by businesses of all sizes for the outsourcing of various operational duties.

Decision-makers have placed IT managed services high on their list of options largely due to escalating personnel costs, outside competitive pressures, growing business demands and the need to maintain service quality and security with limited budgets.

Small and midsize businesses also use IT managed services to gain access to skills and services that would otherwise be cost prohibitive to bring in-house.

IT managed services place the responsibility of your technology’s uptime, support and maintenance in the hands of a provider for the term of a prearranged agreement. All support, regardless of the effort, is included in a monthly fee that doesn’t change.

Managed service providers have gained market share over traditional break-fix firms during the last five or 10 years because the costs are comparable, while proactive managed services optimize system performance and significantly reduce the chances for unplanned outages.

Larger businesses with in-house IT support commonly use managed services to outsource the mundane daily support tasks that are often neglected because of more pressing issues. Outsourcing allows the in-house team to focus its attention on strategic and tactical business initiatives with the assurance that the routine is being handled.

The service provider also gives the business access to an outside set of technology resources to complement its own staff competencies.

A true managed services offering uses a levelized billing structure similar to that of a utility. This approach provides a predictable monthly fee for all support services, regardless of the provider’s efforts. 

1. This type of contract aligns the provider’s interest with the user’s interest, since downtime impacts both parties negatively.

Because downtime is the provider’s responsibility, regular maintenance, monitoring and prevention efforts are critical. Managed services are inherently proactive and address potential issues before they impact users.  These proactive measures also tend to improve the quality of system uptime over a reactive approach.

The issue decision-makers face when considering outsourcing is they must make sure they’re comfortable bringing in a third party for support services, while maintaining an appropriate level of control and security. This is why it’s important for them to carefully evaluate their outsourcing maturity level — defined as how well an organization is positioned with internal processes to take advantage of the benefits of outsourcing — and take the necessary steps to lay the groundwork for success.

Involving the key business stakeholders throughout the evaluation process to get their input regarding their goals, needs and expectations is crucial. Once the organization has the appropriate controls in place and is in a position to take advantage of outsourcing, evaluating potential providers and their service level agreements can begin.

The evaluation process is the first opportunity to begin developing trust between the client and provider. Once selected, both provider and client should make every effort to communicate effectively in order to reduce the chance for surprises.

A partnership with a managed services provider creates a proactive environment that will stabilize the technology infrastructure, reduce the impact of unscheduled downtime and establish access to a broad set of skills and services that will become increasingly important as the business’ technology needs evolve and grow over time. 

John Burgess is co-founder and president of Little Rock-based Mainstream Technologies Inc. He was responsible for designing, developing and implementing Supply Chain Management (SCM) solutions, which are currently used throughout the world by leading retailers to manage inventories and enhance reporting capabilities. He can be reached at 501-801-6700 or at [email protected].