Business Technology is evolving with Managed Services
Business Technology and the strategies to manage it are evolving. Every day, more businesses are turning to IT automation to streamline their operational efficiency. We have come to a paradigm shift in the Professional IT Services industry. Businesses should not have to pay for downtime but should pay for uptime. Traditionally, the IT Consulting and Professional services industry have been running with a “Reactive” service model. This means that when the customer has a problem with their machine they make a service call. This increases downtime because a technician now must be scheduled to visit the customer on-site to fix the issue while the productivity of the user(s) is compromised until the problem is resolved. Now the business must pay on both fronts. Paying for IT to fix the issue and take a hit on the loss of productivity for its employee’s.
Enter the Managed Services strategy, or the “Proactive” service model. All servers and workstations now automatically report in to a centrally managed console to give their real time status for maintenance, critical software patches and updates, backups, equipment failures, performance monitoring, antivirus/spam, and a complete asset inventory of all equipment connected to your network. All of this is done behind the scenes with alerting and reporting of any failures or issues that may arise to potential downtime. This strategy cuts downtime by at least 75% over the traditional break/fix service model.
Once upon a time only the enterprise class companies with healthy cash flows could afford such efficient automated systems. But now with so many managed service companies the competition has driven the prices down to more affordable levels for the SMB class. Not to mention the technology itself has matured and is much easier to implement with less overhead. This spins dollars signs for executive management because the savings on IT is felt immediately with a shorter time frame for ROI.
Not everyone is going to accept the managed service model. Some executives like the way their current IT operations are flowing and are susceptible to change, the “if it’s not broken then don’t fix it” mentality. Which is a tried and proven method, but when something does break, then what?
Additionally, Managed Service Providers may endure a push back from internal IT personnel as they may feel threatened because it eliminates a big chunk of their job roles. Since executives trust the recommendations of their internal IT, they will have a big influence on this type of decision. But this is a big misconception. Here’s why:
- Now with all of the common tasks and maintenance automated, internal IT can focus more on managing projects which allows them to be much more efficient.
- If the company outsources IT project management, then the internal IT staff can focus on critical break/fix issues or smaller projects.
- MSP’s can be used to leverage risk management when internal IT becomes over-utilized.
- MSP’s typically have a more predictable recurring revenue stream which makes it easier to track IT expenditures.
- Some MSP’s offer Hardware as a Service, which is an all-in-one inclusive monthly payment for the entire IT expense of a company, this is a new service in this industry which is slowly becoming adopted.
In conclusion, here are the facts: The economy has weakened, the unemployment rate is flirting with double digits, credit has dried up, real estate value is still falling, manufacturing has contracted, inventories are bulging at the seams, and now more than ever, bottom lines are cut throat. Many still believe that IT is just the cost of doing business. But when companies are leveraging IT to “one up” their competitors, streamline customer service, optimize work flows, conserve energy, and innovate new products, where do the IT costs end and the business strategy begin? How does one create a benchmark to analyze the transparency to find out? What’s the ROI? Essentially you’re already invested in your IT, so consider this a return on your reinvestment.
Previously posted on on-sitetechnology.com