Make Your Mark - The Place of Modern Managed Services

Does the right decision go against initial instincts?

I spent some time recently thinking about what our customers need from a modern Managed Service Provider (mMSP), the below is based on several conversations I had with our current retail clients.

Some things were very clear. It is assumed that the mMSP will resolve an incident or deliver a service request on time and with quality. It is also true that the retailer expects the MSP to deliver all their SLAs consistently, but that’s no longer the priority. Everyone’s talking about service transformation.

Retailers are needing to transform their businesses, in some cases to survive, and in others to support the rapid growth, internationalisation and new customer shopping journeys. Nearly all IT leaders I spoke to have seen their IT teams shrink, but they are still being expected to deliver a far higher rate of systems change, and an even more complex and highly-business critical systems operation.

The problem experienced by many IT departments today is the burden of change and the speed of change demanded. IT leaders must therefore decide what to entrust to their partners. This is, in my view, where it becomes challenging. It goes against the grain to let go and allow a service partner to deliver what they are paid to deliver, irrespective of whether it’s being delivered at the right level, which often comes down to several shortcomings, which I will try and explain in more detail.

Sleep well knowing everything is under control

High quality, timely information gives the Head of IT confidence that the issue is covered, and the MSP is doing all the right things with correct prioritisation, while keeping the end user updated with progress with an indication of what needs to be done and when it will be completed.

Visibility of service is imperative as we have shown. It needs to be available in various forms, all of which will be used based on the location of the user at any one time. But for the Head of IT, they need to know that all incidents are being managed in the right way. We must ensure that we give the Head of IT the confidence that their end users are all receiving the expected level of attention. This can be done through the presentation of key information via a dashboard that they can drill into if they choose.

Service information at the Head of IT’s fingertips is typically ‘Best Practice’ but actually I believe it doesn’t go far enough. They need to know the health of their IT infrastructure whilst they are travelling to the office and at any time during the day, irrespective of their location. Consolidation of infrastructure health together with application health, incidents and request status will give the Head of IT everything they need to ensure they are fully informed and can plan their day based on what they see in front of their eyes.

Automation

Automation plays a big part in any delivery. It’s repeatable with a consistent outcome and brings about improved efficiency.

In the case of automated fault resolution, automation is used to identify and then resolve the issue without end user intervention, and even before the end user becomes aware of the situation. This brings about a level of efficiency where the end user can focus on their core tasks and not be drawn away to log an incident or have the inconvenience of an outage.

It’s clear that automation of this nature might be a sticking plaster over the issue, however it shouldn’t be underrated because it does help improve efficiency in the workplace. For those sceptics, automation linked closely with problem management closes the loop and should be a component of the deliverable.

Taking a leap to the 'new'

Quite often, we see that Heads of IT are struggling to justify big investments in new, modern systems to manage and monitor their systems, conversely, we see many who have bought tools, but then lack the skills and the context to be able to apply and maintain the tools properly.

When working with a Managed Service Provider, IT leaders need to be sure of their trust and confidence in their Provider. To know that all of the above is under control, and that the MSP will do the right thing from beginning to the end, having a deep understanding of the importance to the end users of IT.

So, retailers are seeking a modernisation of the traditional managed service, what you might call a ‘Modern Managed Service’. Even if taking the leap to what they really need might go against initial instincts.

Phil Bailey, Managed Services Director

Phil Bailey leads the Managed Services division of PMC, providing a proactive and self-healing retail support service that delivers world-class service levels, 24/7, 365 days a year. Phil's breadth of service knowledge comes from his roles as a previous business owner providing hardware maintenance and managed services to the DTI and Atomic Energy industry, followed by a Senior Service Delivery Manager at Datalect and Wincor Nixdorf.