With the increasing importance of information technology for all company areas, the IT departments are overwhelmed by the growing demands to keep up with the latest topics. Let alone find time to proactively focus on strategic solutions that could lead to a more profitable future.
Therefore, more and more companies are deciding to relieve some or all of their IT resources with a Managed Services Providers (MSP) who has the necessary skills and know-how.
Whether you are in the process of considering IT outsourcing or if you are dissatisfied with your current provider, it is important to understand that MSPs come in many shapes and sizes and come with a wide range of skills, methodologies, deployment approaches, and cost models Offer. Before making your decision, you can consider the following key areas.
What to look for when choosing a managed services provider:
1. BUSINESS IT ORIENTATION
One of the most valuable benefits of a managed services partnership is to bridge the gap between business and IT and provide strategic direction for better business results. Therefore, before beginning a relationship with a new MSP or terminating a contract with your existing one, make sure you have clearly defined your business goals for the years to come.
This will help you determine which candidates can “speak your language” and provide you with the strategic support you need to be successful. 2. DEPTH AND BREADTH OF SUPPORT
As the pace of innovation accelerates, you may find that your needs are less for hardware maintenance and support than business analysis and realizing the real value of IT strategy. A modern IT partner goes beyond the basic support requests of the help desk by proactively evaluating new opportunities, mapping these opportunities to the value relevant to your company and ultimately delivering measurable results.
3. CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Outsourced IT service providers are often used for short-term, project-related initiatives to develop and implement new technology solutions once launched. Then, however, the teams break up into other projects and end-users have to figure out how to use the new solution.
Today’s in-house IT teams rarely have the capacity and the network to support end-users in this transition. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to realize the full potential of yo investment. Technology is what makes innovation possible, but it is people who make it successful. Without change management and usability strategy, your IT investment and your business will suffer from the consequences of inadequate customization, use, and support of the solution.
It is important to find a partner who can develop and implement an effective operational change management strategy for exceptional usability, higher adoption, and higher ROI.
4. AGILITY AND FUTURE SECURITY
As the pace of innovation accelerates, you may find that your company’s needs are constantly changing. The right MSP should be able to grow and develop with your needs. How do you deal with breakthrough areas like cloud, security and analytics? Do they currently have these skills or are they innovating in-house to meet the future needs of your business? How did you help others? How do you measure success?
In an age of great upheaval, where the competitive landscape is constantly changing, these are important questions that need to be asked.
