The Managed Service Provider

The Evolution of Technology

The role of an outsourced IT Partner has changed.

A decade ago, these businesses thrived on their core competency; IT Support, and on their ability to deliver through values that made that model a success - excellence through communication, responsiveness, and proficiency.

At the time, wrap around services included hardware installations (desktop, server and storage), backup technologies and infrastructure, connectivity and networking, collaboration tools, and security services such as antivirus and antispam.

The revenue was in IT infrastructure refreshes every 3-5 years, for IT Hardware and Software licensing, and labour costs to carry out the installation work including the safe migration of the organisations digital assets whilst maintaining business operations. The consultancy required for the company was the design and planning, including the accurate positioning of the correct software and services to meet the businesses requirements. The implementation was putting it all together, the Support was keeping it all together; a successful IT Support partner was invaluable to the running of the infrastructure and the operation of its users.

Since this time, the role and expectations of a successful IT Support company has evolved considerably. IT is no longer the platform on which the business can run, it facilitates the operations and workings of the business down to its core components. IT is the keystone which supports effective communication and collaboration, records and stores customer and employee records, financial data and transactions, operational data and HR information. Business owners and executives are now, more than ever, realising that IT is an integral part of their businesses and, in many cases, are elevating in house IT staff to decision making or influencing positions.

As businesses come to this realisation and begin to make changes to facilitate it, they look to their IT Support company to help them make informed decisions on how the technology on offer can enable their business processes.

For a successful IT Support organisation, this presents a massive opportunity. But there is a second and more pressing element to consider for IT Support organisations, which when realised, couples with the opportunity for growth.

Cloud Adoption

The adoption of Cloud technology is one of the fastest growing in its sector. Gartner, an American research and advisory firm providing IT related insight for business leaders across the world, has published it's predictions on the adoption of Cloud services worldwide from 2016 - 2020, almost doubling in revenue from $219 billion to $411 billion in that time (source: Gartner, October 2017). Cloud services such as SaaS (Software as a Service) which delivers software over the internet, and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), which provides infrastructure to run services on top of, are where a significant portion of this adoption lies.

Benefits to these types of services include a shift from large, unpredictable capital expenditure, to significantly lower recurring operational spend. The massive reduction in service or product Time To Market is also a huge benefit; a new solution can be deployed and utilized in the business in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost. Finally, and perhaps the most salient point for the IT Support provider, is the attractiveness for a business to offload the running of its own onsite datacentre to the Cloud providers.

Take the email portion of Office 365, known as Exchange Online, as a case in point. Utilizing Exchange Online meant Server hardware, running costs, including cooling and physical capacity, the business cost of server outages for updates and failures, and the skills required to administer, were all but removed as a burden, at the cost of a single, low, monthly subscription.

So if a business can offload these services in place of a single monthly fee, where does that place the IT Support provider of yesterday?

The MSP

It's important to realise, at this point, there will always be a requirement for IT Support wherever you have people mixing with technology, but there is certainly significantly less to think about with the services mentioned above removed from the remit of support.

As more and more businesses open to the idea of going 'all Cloud', creating a Serverless IT infrastructure, what does this look like for the role of the IT Partner? Innovative IT Support organisations have adapted to this change; changing business processes, training staff and adopting new methods of integrating with their clients. The opportunity here is an exciting one, which enables the organisation to become a trusted adviser and service provider, offering their management skill set and support on-top; this is the rise of today's Managed Service Provider, or MSP.

A forward thinking MSP will be equipped with both business and technology acumen. They will be the first and only port of call for the majority of their clients technology requirements; not necessarily armed with the skills to cover all areas themselves, but empowered by both in-house skills, and partner relationships which enable them to respond effectively. MSP's provide the consultancy, design, implementation and support of IT services, on top of the services themselves.

The competence of the MSP from a business perspective is now absolutely crucial; understanding how technology integrates with the business to enable the business to succeed. Where-as the IT Support provider only needs a vague grasp on how the business works, this grasp is now vital.

As the huge adoption of Cloud Services throughout businesses of all sectors increases, the value of an effective Managed Service Provider is greater than ever. The IT Support partner is no longer a pit-stop for IT maintenance, but a true Managed Service Provider; a rounded provider of business productivity.