How to Get the Best from IT Managed Services Companies?
IT managed services companies are, or should be, fundamentally value-added services. Getting actual value out of them, on the other hand, necessitates a willingness and ability to collaborate with them in a productive collaboration. Here are some pointers on how to make that happen.
Obtain the support of the C-suite.
This may seem self-evident, yet partnerships can only flourish when both parties are committed. From the client’s perspective, this commitment must begin with complete C-suite support. Failure to demonstrate this can lead to a variety of undesirable consequences.
For starters, the C-attitude suite’s may cause others in the organisation to believe that if the C-suite doesn’t care, they have no need to either. Second, anyone who genuinely cares is certain to grow dissatisfied and discouraged. Third, it will almost likely have an impact on the ability of the IT managed services firm to do its work efficiently, which may have ramifications for the client’s efficiency (and productiveness).
Managed IT Services Providers
Encourage employees to collaborate with the IT managed services provider.
The concept behind utilising IT managed services businesses is that they work in tandem with your internal team, not in competition with them. This truth, however, can get “lost in translation,” and without clear direction and guidance (and commitment from the top down), internal personnel may conclude that it is in their best interests to provide as little support as possible to the IT managed services firm. Internal personnel may, on the other hand, really distrust the new IT managed services provider and prefer to complete tasks themselves to ensure that they are completed correctly.
To summarise, adding an IT managed services business is a change, and like all changes, it must be well managed to achieve the greatest results.
Make it a top priority to get the managed service up and running.
If you’re dealing with one of the greatest IT managed service providers, they’ll have conducted a full analysis of your needs, wants, and resources before recommending their services to you. As a result, you’ll have a decent chance of getting up and running quickly.
It may, however, take some time for both parties to adjust to one another and find their stride. Making improvements to technology, processing the service contract, and/or the people engaged in making everything happen could all be part of this learning curve. These will mostly be modest adjustments, but even minor adjustments can make a significant difference.
Prepare to put in some effort to get the service up and running. Give yourself a chance to see what your spouse is capable of before deciding whether or not the arrangement is long-term viable.
Make sure you have a clear succession strategy in place.
On the one hand, having particular, designated personnel “advocate” the managed service relationship can be extremely beneficial. This is especially true in the early phases, but it is true for the duration of the partnership. On the other hand, no one stays at a company for the rest of their lives, and workers can quit with little or no notice at any time (perhaps due to circumstances beyond their control). As a result, having a clear succession plan in place is highly advised (even if the relevant people have no plans to leave).
You’ll need a clear and effective overview of all the factual facts that someone would need to know to take over the liaison function as a bare minimum (something easier to read than the legal documentation). A second person inside the organization should ideally shadow the main contact and be able to fill in for them if needed.
Keep an eye on the budget.
Although cost optimization has distinct consequences when dealing with managed services IT firms than when working in the public cloud, it is often critical to keeping everyone happy. While some businesses will have full-service contracts, the vast majority will likely have a contract that covers the services they know they’ll need, with the opportunity to tack on other services if they need or want them (and as budget allows).
Although this is normally a very logical arrangement, you must still keep track of who is spending what, where, when, and, most importantly, why. You’ll want to see what money is spent on genuinely extending the value of the managed IT service for the benefit of the client business, what money is spent plugging holes in the original agreement that need to be addressed, and what money is spent because people don’t care about what they’re spending and why.
