Our Guide to an Effective IT Managed Service

You are tasked with one of the most critical jobs in the company – keeping it running. You may not have a title starting with a ‘C’, but rest assured, the responsibility is huge.

The responsibility sitting on your shoulders to the business, your colleagues, every piece of hardware and software, whether it sits with IT, or was purchased by another function (Shadow IT), keeps you awake at night. Not only do you have to maintain all of the above, but you also must deliver the strategic initiatives handed down to you by the CIO.

No mean feat considering you currently have a recruitment freeze and a CIO who’s promised the delivery of these strategic projects to the board in very tight timelines.

You know that your team are more than capable of delivering the strategic priorities and they understand the business far better than any consultant. You also know that given the increased volume of support tickets over the last two quarters and the future expansion plans, you’re going to struggle to maintain the quality of service built up over the last few years – the continuity of service will ultimately begin to suffer and affect not only the day-to-day, but also the future objectives.

You know that the best solution for your company would be to hand over the undesirable and time-consuming tasks associated with keeping IT functioning and always on, to a Managed Services Provider (MSP). By defining clear and robust SLAs and KPIs, the provider could maintain the current IT Service Desk, Infrastructure and Network support services your function provides, scale and grow with the business and allow your team breathing space to get on with the long-term strategic project delivery.

Not only will this benefit the business and slow down the development of grey hair, but it will also help your CIO keep their promises to the board – it’s a win-win situation, however…

Your CIO remembers when IT Managed Service Providers called themselves IT Outsourcing Services and scarred on their mind are the poor service levels and the scripted robotic voices on the other end of the phone. But most of all, they remember the good reputation and foundations IT had built internally, destroyed by a poor service put in only to reduce costs.

So how do you convince your CIO that this is what you should do?

1. It all starts with some self-assessment

Ask yourself these questions and be brutally honest with your answers.

This exercise will allow you to understand your IT Maturity level, compare your internal costs and capabilities to the business needs and a provider’s ability to deliver against them.

2. The Discovery

From the information you gathered in the self-assessment, you can now document the high-level needs and the effort that will be required.

Your answers will tell you:

3. Define the service, document and deliver

You should at this stage have a clear understanding of your requirements. You’re ready to move forward and communicate your solution to your CIO.

You should also be able to define the service and wider requirements enabling you to go out to the market and short-list MSPs.

Conclusion:

At Allied Worldwide, we understand that having a genuine need for a service isn’t enough to turn it into a reality.

It goes without saying Allied can provide you with a full Managed Service Solution to fit your needs but what’s more, we can guide you through these three steps to help you build a compelling business case to take to your CIO or IT Director.