The standard business terminology defines managed services as
managing information technology for other companies via the Internet. And,
managed services includes remote network, desktop and security monitoring, patch
management, and remote data back-up as well as technical assistance. Most of
these services are provided on a monthly basis. Managed services have gained
importance over the last few years owing to increased reliance on IT, and focus
on uptime of IT assets and assurance. More and more organizations are looking at
outsourcing IT to managed services providers, the extent of outsourcing varying
between organizations. Market players predict large scale outsourcing over the
next five years.
In India, there has been a gradual acceptance of these services,
and not because of cost alone. The benefits of dealing with a specialist
organization with a skeletal IT staff, maintaining service level agreements with
the business, and also improving overall service levels are genuine reasons why
companies going in for this.
CIOs can expect a smooth transition of services to an MSP. The
balance sheets can be made cleaner by moving IT assets to the MSP. People can be
transferred from the IT division to the MSP, which would enhance the morale of
the team, besides reducing the overall cost of IT operations. There will be
transformational initiatives to take care of new projects and requirements. The
most important expectation of a CIO will be a predetermined accountability for
SLA management.
An MSP brings in the required focus, depth and breadth of
technical skills, best practices, and the scale required to support the business
expansion. MSPs help move the context from "people dependent support"
to a more robust and scalable "process driven support". As the Indian
enterprises scale their business to address the domestic opportunities and the
global challenges, MSPs allow the enterprises to focus on their core business.
A Big Opportunity
With most enterprises increasingly looking toward service providers to
manage connectivity, voice, security, and other Internet protocol services, the
managed services market is expected to reach $41.5 bn by 2009, according to a
study by Ovum, an analyst and consulting company.
Technology resellers and solution providers hoping to profit
from the trend should shift their focus on specialized solutions targeted at
existing customers, and specific industries and markets. Most agree that
customers are not necessarily interested in the cheapest offering, instead they
are keen on the quality of service, and whether its a service that takes care
of customers business needs.
For Indian enterprises, the bigger challenge will be to get the
alignment right between business and IT. Latest reports from analysts like IDC
and Forrester clearly point out the importance of ensuring that IT and business
strategy have to be very closely aligned.
Market players believe that 2007-08 will see a lot more momentum
in the managed services segment, particularly in the Remote Infrastructure
Management space, as more and more enterprises are looking to outsourcing IT
operations based on clear SLAs, and not just on a resource based model.
Stuti Das
stutid@cybermedia.co.in