Does Managed Services Still deliver 2023?

• MSP Service Goals should be in perfect alignment to IT Goals which in turn should be aligned to Business Goals

This is probably too obvious a starting point and may even sound bland as a stated requirement. But, time and again, we have been appalled at the absence of such an alignment, even in well-established organizations. When organizations grow in an unplanned and organic manner, most of the leadership team is way too busy driving sales, profitability or product quality or similar targets, that growth or streamlining of IT systems is probably last on their minds. With time, we find that IT systems including applications as well as underlying infrastructure are no longer serving the best interests of the business.

This is typically where the business decides to bring in an MSP who will “fix-it-all” as if with the swish of a magic wand. Sadly, this is far from the truth. The MSP would have to start from the very basics if they want to do a good job and provide sustainable results.

We have seen that in some cases, this alignment of goals from top to bottom can be achieved through a series of short-term projects of upgrades, updates or a few build or buy decisions. But in some other cases, it is a long-winding journey through the school of hard knocks.

However, unless this alignment is put in place no MSP can do a decent daily job, deliver any benefits, short-term or long-term or create a sustainable services model for the client.

• Ensuring that the IT Infrastructure Architecture has a deep relevance to Systems Architecture which must in turn be aligned to the Business Architecture

This is in fact a continuation of the previous point. Once the goals are aligned, the next logical downstream work is to align architecture and technology stacks and choices of tools and business applications. This is also, most surprisingly, done correctly in very few places. Yes, this is true. It sounds like a perfectly simple and obvious thing that architectural alignment would be present or technological interoperability would be taken into account, but it is not so. Especially in large organizations, where shadow IT has deployed systems over time and business processes are already baked solid around those heterogenous software, that they find it easier to live with these discrepancies than go through a systems and processes transplant surgery.

Yet again, if the MSP is called in manage a disintegrated IT Infrastructure environment and is expected to deliver, it can be a bull-uphill task. Therefore, ensuring this end-to-end alignment becomes a preliminary requirement for a good job done in day-today maintenance and services. Both MSPs as well as receiving organizations have the shared responsibility to make sure that this alignment is brought about first.

• The most appropriate technologies and toolsets are chosen

In the earlier part of this article, we spoke about many new technologies and their impact and contribution to today’s businesses. Here, I will take a step back and say that we must not choose latest technologies just because they are the latest. We have to assess their appropriateness in our specific context.

A good MSP would help in ensuring that the most suitable technologies and tools are chosen for the very specific needs of the client’s environment and requirement. The solution plan and run and maintenance plan should answer to the specific challenges faced by the client.

A Managed Services Contract should certainly include the basic aspects such as comprehensive coverage and equipment services to ensure the continued relevance of the contract. This coverage should include a comprehensive analysis of the user’s system, hardware and software capabilities, as well as the development of a detailed response and resolution process.

• The most appropriate processes are in place

There are many “best practices” guidelines available in the market. There are frameworks and standards and BoK (Bodies of Knowledge) of collective intelligence available in the market. But they are there for reference and education. The real guiding factors in developing the most appropriate policies, processes and procedures are the culture of the end-user organization, the risk-appetite, the resource constraints specific to that environment and finally the goals and milestones set by the client for themselves.

The MSP should think through these and suggest and most appropriate policies, processes and procedures.

The response and resolution process should be designed to enable the user to quickly address any issues or problems that may arise with their system and hardware. This process should be documented in the contract, and should include specific instructions on how to respond to the issue and how resolution should be achieved. Furthermore, the contract should also provide for periodic reviews of the user’s system and hardware to ensure the system is up-to-date, secure and functioning in an optimal fashion.

• KPIs chosen should reflect real-world needs and must not be theoretical

Continuing the same line of thought from above, though a lot has evolved out there in terms of technologies and standards, the real and on-the-ground needs of every client is different from the other. Therefore, the Key Performance Indicators for the services being delivered by the MSP should be chosen on the basis of this analysis. Of course, there are the usual ones, the regular ones and the most favourite ones. But please always ask the question, does it serve the purpose of real benefits.  

• Cost reduction and continuous service improvement will always remain necessary

Finally, in Managed Services contracts the fundamentals have remained the same. The fundamentals being cost reduction and continuous services improvement. Yes, the “how”  has changed a lot. The ways and means of achieving the end results have changed. But the end objective will remain the same for the foreseeable future.