Back to basics

A managed service today has to be an extension of its clients, a bridge to the vast world of technology

For a long time now, managed services (MSP) have stopped being merely an outsourcing of technology operation services to support and keep a given IT services infrastructure running. With the widespread trial and adoption of this type of service over the past 20 years, the relevance of five pillars in this area has grown, and these are fundamental for CPCECHO. They relate not only to technical or procedural factors, but also to human values. One of these is closeness.

What organisations are earnestly looking for today is an MSP that lives and properly understands their context as a client, including their people, their internal and external services and their business. They also need to feel that they can speak directly with those who know them and that the attention given is not divided among 20 or 50 other clients. This implies the existence of a close human relationship, in which the parties know and respect each other, meet frequently, talk, discuss and continuously challenge one another. It is about being present.

Another pillar is trust, something that takes a long time to earn and can be lost quickly. It is based on transparency and means, for an MSP, that the client can do things as simple as directly contacting the resources operating their services, that they know them and know that their qualifications are clear, and that monitoring and reporting are easily accessible to them. Beyond that, they also have the certainty that service level agreements are clear and that compliance with them is continuously visible, that no performance information is hidden, and that, above all, communication between the parties always takes place from a standpoint of collaboration. Then we have knowledge.

We all know that it is increasingly difficult to be an expert in any technical area, because the pace at which technology is changing is so high that we all struggle to keep up to date. That is why it is essential for the MSP to hold specific knowledge about the client's reality, their environment, the technology they use and, above all, to know how to adapt to it. Without specific knowledge, the relationship is not close, but merely the result of contractual obligations. That is why knowledge of technology must be combined with knowledge of the client's organisation. As speed is crucial in the business world and timing has to be immediate, the capacity for innovation, the fourth pillar, is an increasingly differentiating factor. Consequently, it cannot be merely a contractual obligation on the part of an MSP, to take place every six months or on request. It must be a continuous act between two parties, the service provider and the service buyer, and must be able to filter all the constant technological innovations and communicate the added value of those that can empower the client. It should also create specific lines of technical innovation capacity, even separate from its operational lines, to allow greater delivery speed and avoid the potentially negative influence of the lines that operate IT services on a daily basis.

As it is hard for anyone to produce or build something alone, an MSP should build strong alliances, based on knowledge and trust, capable of adding value, innovation, expertise and agility to clients. Above all, clients want to have trusted partners by their side who meet their needs in a simplified way and solve their problems, but also free them from all the complexity arising from managing multiple partners and interests.

An MSP today has to be much more than a specialist. It has to be an extension of its clients, a bridge to the vast world of technology, flexible and capable of adapting quickly to their needs. It should also ensure that the values and feelings of trust and closeness are maintained in the services provided daily.

Opinion article | Digital Transformation Special, published in Exame