Managed services

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Managed services is the practice of transferring day-to-day related management responsibility as a strategic method for improved effective and efficient operations. The person or organization who owns or has direct oversight of the organization or system being managed is referred to as the offerer, client, or customer. The person or organization that accepts and provides the managed service is regarded as the service provider.

Typically, the offerer remains accountable for the functionality and performance of managed service and does not relinquish the overall management responsibility of the organization or system.

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[edit] Common managed services

Common managed services include but are not limited to:

[edit] Managed services provider

A managed services provider (MSP), is typically an information technology (IT) services provider, who manages and assumes responsibility for providing a defined set of services to their clients either proactively or as they (not the client) determine that the services are needed. Most MSPs bill a flat or near-fixed monthly fee, which benefits their clients by providing them with predictable IT support costs.[citation needed]

Many MSPs now provide many of their services remotely over the Internet rather than having to perform on-site client visits, which is time consuming and often expensive. Common services provided by MSPs include remote network, desktop and security monitoring, patch management and remote data back-up, as well as technical assistance.

The business model behind managed services was commonplace among enterprise level companies, provided by large IT support companies such as EDS (Electronic Data Systems), IBM Global Services, and Centerbeam. The model was later adapted to fit small to medium sized companies by the value-added reseller (VAR) community as their existing model of reselling hardware and software continually provided lower profit margins. Some of the pioneers of what is today known as Managed Services include SWC Technology Partners (Chicago), Alvaka Networks, (Irvine, CA) Dynasis (Atlanta), Altuscio Networks (Atlanta), MicroMenders (San Francisco Bay Area), SLPowers (South Florida), Corporate Technologies, LLC (Minneapolis), IQ Systems (Reno, NV), Panurgy (NY/NJ), Debriefing Software(Denmark), Andor Systems (NSW, Australia) and Connecting Point (Las Vegas).

Managed Services Providers typically offer several price structures. Most commonly used is a per-month fee, but MSPs may also charge using a time and material model as well as price per desktop, server, or network device. For this fee they will monitor their client's IT infrastructure and resolve any issues that arise within it. This provides peace of mind and predictable costs for the client, as well as predictable revenues for the MSP. Managed services are often looked at as a way for small and medium sized businesses to outsource their IT needs at a lower cost than building an in-house IT support department.

One major challenge that MSPs faced was in changing from the reactive break-fix model to which they were accustomed into the new proactive managed services model, particularly because this model represented a major shift in the industry. Many early adopters struggled to properly convey the benefits of managed services to their existing break-fix clients. Many continue to service break-fix clients even though it is in their best interest to make the shift to managed services only.[1]

As the buzz around Managed Services and MSPs grew within the IT support community, some early adopters attempted to make their service available to other, emerging, MSPs allowing them to slowly transition to an MSP model while still enjoying revenue from a time and materials billing model. Some of these providers began marketing themselves as Master Managed Service Provider.

According to the Institute for Partner Education & Development, most established Managed Services Provider's revenues come from delivering contracted recurring services onsite or remotely. Including any combination of hardware and software in a managed services solutions as well as an ASP (Application Services Provider) model.

[edit] Customer & Service Provider (SP) Managed Services Benefits

Key customer benefits:

  • Customer peace of mind – monitor network on 24x7x365 basis proactively
  • Single point of contact for all network issues
  • Single supplier instead of multiple vendors
  • Defined Service Levels (for service delivery)
  • Known costs for management & fixed price contracts
  • Avoid costs of building own management & reporting systems
  • Lower Total Cost Ownership (TCO) for client

Key Service Provider benefits:

  • Business contracts – extended longevity (in line with CPE life spans)
  • Increased ‘stickiness’ & ARPU (average revenue per user)
  • Ability to interact with & influence customers at a business/application decision making level
  • Protect vital carriage revenue by de-commoditising & value adding

[edit] Growing Range of Managed Services Product Offerings

  • Managed Voice Access and Networking
  • Managed Integrated Access
  • Managed IP Address Management
  • Managed Remote Access
  • Network Monitoring
  • Network Element Management
  • Network Management
  • Fault & Performance Management
  • Configuration Management
  • Managed Router Service
  • Managed Server Service
  • Managed Backup Reporting
  • Managed Storage Reporting
  • Managed VPN / IP-VPN
  • Managed VoIP Service
  • Managed Wireless LAN (WLAN)
  • Asset Management
  • Managed Videoconferencing
  • Managed IP-PBX & Applications
  • Hosted IP-PBX & Applications
  • Managed Voice Security
  • Managed Firewall
  • Managed Intrusion Detection
  • Vulnerability Scanning
  • Incident Management
  • Anti-Virus & Spam Management
  • Secure Messaging/E-mail
  • Threat Assessment Monitoring
  • Managed Business Continuity Service
  • Software as a Service (SaaS)
  • Managed video as a service (MVaaS)
  • Hosted Video as a Service (HVaaS)
  • Managed Network & Endpoint Security
  • Back-office payments processing managed services
  • Automated Teller Machine managed services

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Steinhoff, A: "Reinvention – A Leap of Faith", DedicatedIT Blog, http://www.dedicatedit.com/blog/management/reinvention-a-leap-of-faith, 2009

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Managed_services"