"The major value we give clients is the ability to approach a situation in three different ways and help them on that path. We don’t realise how much we know." - Michael van Zoggel, ComputerCorp
TIM DICKINSON, KASEYA (TD): A lot of people refer to traditional IT outsourcing as taking jobs offshore and doing things cheaper by using a cheaper labour force. Whereas managed services is using that trusted advisordelivering IT services right now, and doing things in a more efficient way. Which means cost reduction, and delivering a better and higher quality of service. To me, IT outsourcing versus managed services is the change from overseas to local.
delivering IT services right now, and doing things in a more effi cient way. Which means cost reduction, and delivering a better and higher quality of service. To me, IT outsourcing versus managed services is the change from overseas to local.
DOMINIC WHITEHAND, WHITEGOLD SOLUTIONS (DW): You could add to that people versus technology. With the advances in technology, a lot of managed services is remote work – people can access systems, confi gure them and provide services remotely far more than they used to. IT outsourcing used to be either shifting more people in-house, if you were one of the big five, or offshoring the work. Now you can use systems and provide services that are easily manageable, and have better return on investment in terms of scalability and capability. From a distribution point of view, Craig [Barnett] hit it on the head when he said a customer will view this differently to a channel person. A channel representative instantly jumps in and talks about revenue, as it’s a fantastic mechanism for us to see forward revenue, guarantee it and get annuity. The fi nancing behind this is also very good, and that’s a key thing the vendor partners certainly need to help enable. From a customer’s point of view, it’s more about the service – take away my IT headache, give me some kind of guarantee/SLA that this is going to be taken care of for me, make sure I don’t have to pay upfront, and I will be willing to pay every month for that.
JASON SERDA, BLUEFIRE (JS): A lot of our clients don’t or won’t understand what goes on underneath the bonnet. At the end of the day, you’re selling them an SLA which guarantees the end result.
NC: Why is managed services the way to go in 2009?
ANDREW MILROY, FROST AND SULLIVAN (AM): It surprises me, because the term has been around for so long. Ten or 15 years ago, when people talked about managed services, they’d associate it with outsourcing. I first started hearing the term used a lot when referring to desktop management – so basically your PC was being looked after by a third party like HP or EDS. The term has re-emerged in the last few years and to me, it’s basically about cloud computing effectively, or the hosting model. I think there’s ambiguity around the term – I think we need to be more specifi c on what we’re talking about.
TD: The alternative, the break/fi x model, is not a good model. If you have something wrong with your computer network, and something breaks down, it’s not a good phone call you then have to have with your service provider.
CRAIG STONES, S CENTRAL (CS): That’s a negative industry to be in.
CB: Those break/fix operators are calling that a managed service as well though. CH: I think the terminology of managed services allows you to have a businessoriented conversation with the customer. If I sit down with the CFO of any organisation and talk about outsourcing, he’s thinking his existing staff and practices cost $10, and I’m now going to do it for $9. When I talk about managed services, it’s not about staff or locations, and potentially not even technology, although we may underpin it with cloud computing. The business owner wants to know about business outcomes, and I’m starting to have that conversation with him. In 2009, where money is becoming tight, it’s a managed services conversation.
AM: Wouldn’t you be better off talking about more specific services, such as managed security services for example?
JS: It’s the business problem, rather than the technology. Even managed services is confusing to businesses. They want reliable email, security – it’s the panacea you’re painting for commercial people as to what they want. How we market that product is a different exercise. But managed services is defi nitely a challenge because it means a lot of different things to different people. I know plenty of integrators that call onsite services a managed service.
MVZ: When you talk to a business person who isn’t technology-centric, they need to understand they out-task services throughout their business already – their businesses are underpinned by managed services, per se. So to give them the ability to relate that to the harder stuff we purport to do, is an important and tangible link. It could be a simple as saying ‘you don’t employ cleaners anymore, you outsource that to someone who comes in every Friday’.
