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Hot Technologies: Managed Services: Let Us Help You!

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DQI Bureau
New Update

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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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