Complexities drive demand for Managed Services
As businesses become more and more specialised in their industry, the requirement on IT personnel becomes a greater challenge. Businesses within the same industry may no longer be as type-cast as historically has been the case and accordingly will have differing IT needs from those they are in competition with. For example, whilst several businesses may be operating within the commercial insurance market, business X may specialise in multi-dwelling units, whilst business Y specialises in retail premises, and business Z operates in rural and agricultural premises. Despite all operating within the same market, each company’s needs will be vastly different from a technological perspective, and those who are driving IT will need to be specialised in different areas.
IT customisation has helped solve individual business limitations, but at the cost of greater operational overhead in the need for a more diverse set of skills to support the various alterations. Keeping skills relevant is not only essential but can present issues particularly around personnel-based bottlenecks.
Businesses need IT to empower their organization rather than having to endure it. Having such high demand on IT, comes with its own dilemma of keeping labour costs low but maintaining specialisations.
The move to a managed IT service is a largely misconceived all-or-nothing solution. In reality, a managed service can most certainly be an exclusive IT resource for a business, but in many cases plays a more valuable role by working in line with an IT manager or dedicated IT resource at the client end.
A flexible managed service will work within a business either exclusively or alongside an established team. The best results are achieved when parts of IT operations are handled by a service provider whilst an internal team concentrate on their specialty, or overall IT strategy.
Relationships and genuine value are the new currency in business, and in the IT industry, the relationships we make and the service we receive are the difference between a frustrated existence and one dominated by confidence.