Managed Service - The term is currently on everyone's lips, but what does it really mean? For whom is it worthwhile, what is possible, and what is not? Whether it is only worthwhile for corporations or also for medium-sized and small companies is also a frequent question.
Since "managed service" is not a protected term, every provider can offer and implement his own definition of it. Basically, however, a "Managed Service" is always a service where the provider takes over the service, in this case the maintenance, support, adjustments, help with problems, etc. (or, depending on the provider and the contract, only parts of it).
If all points are taken over, one speaks sometimes also of a "Full Managed Service". In almost all cases, a hotline is always available, with high requirements for availability (i.e. no long waiting loops) and competence of the operators (1st level) and technicians (2nd level).
In the case of IT services, for example, maintenance, i.e. keeping solutions such as antivirus, firewall, proxy etc. up to date, is offered here. In this case, a considerable part of the work that would otherwise have to be carried out by internal employees falls to the external service provider. The same applies when adjustments are (or have to be) made to existing systems. These are often referred to as change or change requests. Especially in environments in which adjustments in the productive environment (i.e. the environment in which employees actually work) can only be changed by means of such changes, a considerable amount of documentation is required, which can also be largely taken over by the provider.
Even in case of "incidents", i.e. when something does not work as it should, the managed service provider is ready to assist you in finding a solution (depending on the case, even around the clock).
No one at home, but someone always available?
But why are more and more companies opting for managed service instead of salaried IT staff? The reasons are many and varied. First of all, you will only be truly happy with a good managed service provider.
Employees of managed service providers (at least those in the 2nd level) are usually specialized in certain topics. The number of employees at the provider with many different specializations therefore gives you the comfort of always having a choice of the right specialist instead of a single generalist (which is often the case with internal employees, because even large companies do not have a specialist in their own ranks for every task and knowledge area. The best known example is probably the SAP consultants who are almost never internal employees).
Especially when it comes to rarely dealt with topics or subject areas, often only this specialist can help, whom you must first look for in case of doubt and then buy for a certain (often difficult to define exactly in advance) period of time. This is therefore not necessary. And if the specialized knowledge of the managed service provider is not sufficient, then he must take care of remedying the situation.
They also only have to formulate what they want to see as a result. Everything else has to be taken care of by someone else.
Let's compare this with a craftsman's service: If you want to have your rooms repainted every few years, you don't let someone do it who works in your company anyway (unless you happen to have a painter in your ranks whom you can assign to do it), but you give the job to a painting company. It's the same for plumbers, drywallers, architects, etc.
You could also have your janitor do it all. But even if he is very talented and hardworking, the work would hardly be as good as that of the specialist in the best case.
Whenever you need help there should be some.
Another clear advantage is the high possible availability. To ensure 24/7 coverage, they usually need at least 4 employees, not counting vacations and sick days. It is relatively easy to calculate the sum that comes together here in the year. And then again, you have "only" the generalists available.
You never have to worry about vacation planning, shifts, etc. again. You will also no longer have to worry about employee acquisition, fluctuation, etc. Everyone who has ever had to deal with this knows what a relief this is.
Especially for companies whose core business is not IT, Managed Service Solutions are the simpler, better performing, more reliable and (and this is the surprising thing) in most cases also the more cost-effective solution. Of course, all this is only true if you have chosen a "good" provider.
Rather the best than just good
When selecting and contracting a managed service and the corresponding provider, it is the details that are most important. From supposedly simple considerations such as "Do I only need support during normal business hours?" i.e. the so-called 8/5 (8 hours and 5 working days) or do you need full coverage (called 24/7), to the definition of the so-called Service Level Agreements (SLA), which define how quickly a change (change request) or an incident (incident) is responded to and how quickly it is resolved, to the agreed key figures, a lot can go wrong here.
You will also only be happy with a provider that reliably delivers the services you need. Nobody needs a managed service that does not deserve the name, and this will not satisfy you in terms of the goals of simplifying your processes and outsourcing "taking care".
The availability should be guaranteed and the cooperation should feel as if you suddenly have your own, large and powerful IT department and not as if you would necessarily hand over something you would rather have under your own control.
If you find the right partner here, then - at least with regard to the increasingly important aspect of IT in companies - a completely new feeling of freedom will arise for you in the future.
In all these topics, our management team speaks from their own experience. Especially from projects in which we had to work with less or hardly performant providers within the scope of projects. This was one of the reasons to launch SourcingBlox and to make exactly these important things (and not only them) better.
Managed Service is one of the two main components of SourcingBlox' work. With extensive experience in managed service, a strong service desk and technical team, we stand for the good service our customers expect from us and are happy to be measured against this claim.
Together with our experience and competence in project management and solution deployment, we offer our customers a complete package of transition, transformation and takeover of business as usual.
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