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Seven Reasons to Choose a Managed Service Provider to Modernize Your IT Operations

The First Rule of Keeping Up with Rapid Technology Change: Don’t Go It Alone

For ease and economy of transition, a Managed Service Providerwill guide implementations & help deliver a true competitive advantage

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Change Need Not be Overwhelming

Your organization’s competitive advantage depends on whether you deploy the right technology, implement it effectively and use it strategically to meet your business objectives.

But how do you keep up? How can you separate vendors’ claims andthe flavors of the month from what you really need – and do it whilekeeping a relentless focus on your core business?

Hint: You won’t get it done while attempting to learn about, implement,operate and manage every new technology on your own. It can’t bedone. Many organizations learn this the hard way.

There is another option, one that many organizations have not fully investigated. It could transform your company.

Your Technology Sherpa Is ReadyThe answer is a managed service provider that has successfully implemented new technologies across multiple industries. This is yourguide and partner, the mentor that helps with the planning and heavylifting so you can summit. This partner will help you harness complextechnologies and integrate the right functionality as services so youcan continue to focus on your core business - and on finding ways to monetize the results.

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Keep Up or Lose. It’s That Simple.

Today’s technology advances are like cars blurring by at 90 mph.

Unfortunately, the speed of business doesn’t give you much of an

on ramp. Every few months, another major new technology evolves

or is hatched anew.

In 2013 alone, the major new trends included:

• Mobility squared. Smartphones are expected to overtake PCs

as the most common web access device worldwide. Increasing

“consumerization” means enterprises will have to adapt to support

multiple device types and manufacturers.

• Apps go even more mobile. While mobile developers will need to use

several app development environments (native, special, hybrid, HTML,

Message and No Client) for the next few years, there will be a shift from

native apps to web apps as HTML5 becomes more sophisticated.

• The cloud expands dramatically. More applications are moving every

day to the cloud. Thus the personal cloud, home of apps, content

and preferences, will become more prominent.

• Analytics become truly actionable. Analytics are now being delivered

in context, so users can make better decisions faster.

• Increasing virtualization. Storage, desktops, applications and

networking will see continued virtualization with improvements

in security and manageability.

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Adapting to Change: How to Be Smart and Efficient

Your organization is under tremendous pressure to adapt technology that will deliver – but it’s impossible and inadvisable to simply jump on the latest trend. The answer is deep competence in efficiently implementing and managing technologies and in aligning investments to well-defined business objectives. You must also develop the ability to continuously strategize and optimize increasingly complex and dynamic business services, processes, and relationships. To accomplish these things, you need deep technical know-how in a wide range of technology arenas. Or do you?

What if instead of trying to build your own office building, including setting up the electric power plant, running cable, installing computers and purchasing desks and light bulbs, you simply rent space in a building with all the features and utilities you need, and focus on running your business? Wouldn’t that make more sense? Why should IT be different?

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Moving Ahead or Trapped by Inertia?

One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result. If your IT department is operating the same way it did 10 years ago, your organization is doomed. As just one example, IT can no longer continue to procure, prep and feed IT assets out to the business. It simply can no longer work that way. End users’ desires to bring their own devices and use them to access corporate data has wrested control of IT assets from the IT department. Like it or not, your IT people are being bypassed – marginalized.

The solution? Turn to a managed service provider to assist you in developing your mobile policies, set up a proper way to track and service these devices and applications and deliver that as a turnkey service to your end users – and to you! Suddenly, a problem has become a driver of revenue and productivity.

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Harness the Cloud

The cloud is another ideal example. You want to take advantage of its efficiencies, but there are so many choices that it becomes difficult to make a decision. Build it yourself? Do you have the time, capital and manpower? Rent it? That also entails work – and risk. Many organizations don’t have the staff to properly perform the due diligence and create a business plan. Yet at the same time, the business is screaming for cloud capabilities – now!

The easier, faster and less expensive option is to turn to a managed service provider. Based on your needs, a managed service provider can bring you new capabilities, including cloud services. You can have the type of cloud you need –public, private or hybrid. It’s easy to order, buy, provision, track, govern and manage from a contractual and operational viewpoint. A managed service provider does the heavy lifting, from setting up the technologies and the partnerships to creating a simple and easy-to-use interface for people to order. Doesn’t it make more sense to utilize this approach and spend your time thinking about what you’ll DO with the cloud versus how to GET, provision and administer it?

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Skill Sets and Mindsets

For many organizations, developing new ways of doing things is like being at the base of the mountain looking up. You’re not sure how steep the climb is, how much equipment you need tocarry or pull, or even how to develop and coordinate the resources you need to get safely to thetop. Having the right guide, who knows the terrain and has been up and down the path before, can make all the difference.

However, you know that changing mindsets is even harder than changing skill sets. The old saying,“The hardest thing to change is someone’s mind,” is appropriate. And yet the business mustchange or it will die. When people in IT hear the words “managed service” or “outsourcing,” theythink they’ll lose their jobs. But today, outsourcing is really more about “out-tasking” and role augmentation. Everybody in IT is already playing multiple roles, so in reality, managed services just help them do those multiple jobs better – which makes it more about job protection and enhancement than job loss. This kind of outsourcing is about bringing in a partner that can enhance what you’re doing – to be your IT asset department, to create your change managementprocess and implement technology that drives your business forward.

While DIY is achieving some popularity, savvy organizations prefer to turn to a specialist. Their rationale: Let the specialist do what they do all day long, because they are good at it. Specialistsenable you to take advantage of the learning and best practices and mistakes of other clients.Allow yourself to be in the (insert your industry here__________) and not in the business of (insert your IT technology of choice here __________), whether it’s virtualization, cloud, ITSM,mobility, data center, application performance monitoring, etc.

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Seven Reasons in the Form of Self Reflection Questions to DecideWhether You Should Move to a Managed Service Provider

If you’ve decided you don’t want to go it alone anymore or are leaning thatway, consider these seven questions. They will help you determine whethera managed service provider is right for your organization.

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1. Does your organization know where it’s going and how to handle the inevitable obstacles?

The road to inhospitable places is paved with good intentions. Many IT projects start out with strict goals, yet end up bloated with “feature creep” while running late and over budget.

How do you avoid going down the wrong path? You need a roadmap that tells you where you are,where you’re going and how to navigate the obstacles. In deciding whether to perform servicemanagement in-house, you need to determine whether you’re fully prepared to handle the challenges or whether you need a partner who can act as your guide, Sherpa, navigator, architect – an organization that’s been there, done that, and can show you the way.

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2. Can your organization take the time to learn and implementeverything they need to know?

With so much rapid change, it’s time consuming to learn which technologies you need and how to architect, implement, maintain and manage them. Are you and your teams willing and able todevote the time to learn about multiple new tools and technologies? Or does it make more sensefor you to utilize consultants who already understand the technology and can make the differencebetween success and failure?

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3. Does your organization want to focus on its core business or onthe details of implementing, running and maintaining technology?

This is the most important question: What does implementing technology have to do with your ability to meet your business goals of selling more, shipping more, developing more products and services and markets? We all need to know how to use computers, but that doesn’t mean we need to know how to make, install and maintain them. Perhaps it makes more sense to focus on your business strategy and operations while working with a partner who can handle the technology details.

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4. What makes more sense: spending time implementing and integrating a tool or learning how to use it to meet your goals?

Choosing between implementing technology in-house versus working with a partner who can perform this function is like deciding between going to four years of school to study architecture or hiring an architect for your place of business. A professional can show you what a building willlook like based on your requirements, and design all the structural elements like load-bearingwalls and infrastructure components (plumbing, electrical, heating and AC, etc.) But with a partner– your Sherpa – you’ll focus on what you want your rooms and exterior to look like and how to ensure it’s a building that helps your team do its job. For most organizations, that makes a lotmore sense than banging nails for eight hours a day, and you’ll move in more quickly, too.

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5. What’s better for revenue: waiting for implementation – and the inevitable “feature creep” – or using the solution immediately?

Many organizations that implement technology in-house end up waiting interminably. Planning sessions. Meetings. Specs. More meetings. Revised specs. A point release. A full release. Then trying to get rid of the bugs. Before you know it, it’s not months that have gone by, it’s years, all spent evaluating, installing, revising, meeting and integrating. A managed service providertakes care of all this behind the scenes so you can focus on your business. You know the saying,“No pain, no gain?” Wrong. With the right partner, you avoid the pain and move right to the gain.

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6. Do you have extra time to manage a new environment?

IT process complexity has increased significantly across all industries. More time spent managingthe environment means soaring operational costs and service issues. Compliance requirementsalso carry implications regarding cost and IT processes. Do you want multiple technology vendorsand an internal support team for each and every system, or a proven team of specialists and generalists that knows your business, the technology, and where you are headed?

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7. Do you have the right people? Can you find the right people?

According a recent report, many organizations hire staff based on ITIL qualifications rather than experience, work ethic and common sense. The report argues that more important than qualifications are having people with relevant experience and a mindset geared for service and customer needs. Yet these people can be difficult and/or expensive to hire. And they need to continually upgrade their skills. A partner organization specializes in finding the people with the right experience to manage technology and makes sure they’re trained properly – and thenyour partner works hard to fully integrate these people into your team and business. No hand-holding, just work.

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Benefits of Working with a Managed Service Provider

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Those of you who answered “no” to several of these questions should consider working with a managed service provider. With the right partner, you get:

An Experienced Guide

A managed service provider is a partner who’s been there

and can help you navigate the most complex technology

strategy and implementation projects. You’ll quickly get

your head around the latest technologies. Your roadmap,

service catalog, business plans and results will come

together much more quickly.

Somebody With Enough Muscle for the Heavy Lifting

With a managed service provider, you can derive the

benefit of the most up-to-date technology without doing

all the work. Your partner will handle vetting, resourcing,

integrating and training while getting you up and running

faster. Get your new capabilities tomorrow as a service,

rather than months or years. The right partner will provide

specialized expertise in key areas such as end-point

management, data center management, end-user support

and/or mobility. The Ability (Finally) to Focus on Your

Business Instead of spending time on internal deployment

and integration projects, you can focus more of your

internal resources on your core business. In addition,

your partner’s team can also be embedded within your

team to better understand how your business works and

how your people work so the partner can align your sup-

port, services and processes to increase your productivity.

More Resources to Concentrate on Adding Value

By outsourcing the process of selecting and implementing

the right technologies, you can spend more time thinking

about how to take advantage of these technologies to

improve your business. Let your partner provide you with

the three-inch hole to run your conduit instead of taking

the time to source three-inch drill bits and the right drill.

Actually, if what you really want is light, how about we

just provide that to you?

Faster Deployments

A managed service provider can increase your capabilities

quickly, which in turn improves your agility and ability to

react to changes in the business. By acquiring capabilities

as a service, you can proactively guide your business and

drive new innovation instead of constantly reacting to

issues and trends.

Bottom Line: Going It Alone Doesn’t Make Sense

As you try to make sense of all the latest technologies, sooner or later you’ll come to the conclu-sion that DIY doesn’t make sense. So many organizations are reeling from learning it the hard way.Spending your time on technology means you’re not moving your business forward. It’s a given,akin to one of the laws of physics.

Instead, turn to Unisys.IT is our business. We can help you make the most of the latest technologies to move your business forward. We bring years of experience and countless engagements to the table – yourtable - and can share with you the best practices for end-user support, data center transformationand service management, to name just a few. With the promise of new areas such as mobility,cloud and application modernization, Unisys isn’t just your best choice – we’re your only choice.

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