Accelerate your digital transformation with managed services

The newest ‘it kid’ on the block, managed services, is actually not new at all.

But it is rapidly gaining momentum as a key component to accelerating digital transformation for organizations across the globe.

How and when is managed services a strategic move?

What is managed services?

The Technical Services Industry Organization (TSIA) defines it as follows:

Managed services bring a new face and definition to the concept of technical outsourcing in the information management and content services industries. It’s an excellent way to strategically support the maintenance, enhancements, integrations, development, automation and optimization of your key solutions.

Why are managed services models gaining popularity?

Even before the world changed in 2020, keeping up with the unprecedented pace of technology innovation and disruption was a challenge for organizations.

The pace of evolution continues. Today, digital transformation trends and technologies are redefining the way organizations in every industry conduct business. And while the idea of pursuing IT innovation is widely supported among organizations, the reality is, competing priorities oftentimes take precedence over making time for continued digital transformation.

For example, IT workers reported a paradox of demands in The State of Work Report, U.S. 2019 Edition:

• 64% said they are regularly asked to think of how they can do things in a completely new way
• 58% said they’re so engulfed with getting day-to-day work done, they don’t have time to think beyond daily tasks
• 57% were also being pulled into being “accidental project managers”

This continued trend of IT teams being bogged down by daily tasks, instead of contributing to more strategic and rewarding digital transformation efforts, may impact employee retention rates. The State of Work 2021: How COVID-19 changed digital work report, found that nearly half (49%) of U.S. workers say they are likely to leave their current job if they’re unhappy or frustrated with the technology they use at work.

This illustrates why it no longer makes sense to rely solely on in-house IT teams for your content services strategy, solution delivery and optimization. Many organizations are choosing to move to the cloud and consequently adopting a managed services model for key areas. This ensures trusted partners expertly maintain their information management solutions and continually optimize them to meet their exact business needs.

Partnering with the right managed services team unburdens in-house IT professionals from the project management, daily maintenance and constant education on emerging content services capabilities to ensure solutions are performing as needed.

It also enables in-house IT experts to rise to the challenge of planning, designing and implementing innovative technologies across their organizations to create true differentiation in the marketplace.

Managed services creates a budgetary win for IT

Organizations are also turning to managed services because it makes financial sense.

When you allow a third-party to manage your mission-critical enterprise platforms, you also benefit from reduced operating expenses. This is particularly true for organizations who struggle to maintain a large internal IT staff — and the associated expense from required platform education, training and tools — or have high employee turnover.

Plus, managed services’ fixed monthly cost structure allows your organization to manage its IT operations budget without the risk of unforeseen expenses. Regardless of the number of issues that arise in any given month, your costs remain the same. This consistent expense is invaluable to organizations who operate on a fixed budget as well as those planning for long-term expenditures.

Why is managed services critical? Organizations need digital agility

Rapidly evolving technologies, industry standards, regulations and customer expectations mean that your organization must have digital agility to keep pace and not get left behind.

But keeping pace and meeting all those needs and requirements in-house can be difficult.

For example, with more employees opting to work remotely, cybersecurity is a critical consideration for organizational health and resilience. It’s vital in combating threats that only are growing in their capacity for disruption.

According to The 2021 SIM IT Trends Study, which surveyed IT executives from 454 organizations with an average revenue of $6.8 billion, these are IT leaders’ top three most important IT management issues:

1. Security/Cybersecurity/Privacy
2. Alignment of IT with the business
3. IT talent/skill shortage/retention

These three areas of IT and organizational planning are increasingly complex and rapidly evolving. Staying on the cutting edge of their capabilities requires continuous education and training — something an in-house staff may not be able to prioritize when faced with competing strategic initiatives.

The managed services difference for content services

A content services platform is at the heart of digital transformation because it extends data-driven capabilities, communications, case management and automated work to other critical systems and users wherever they are located.

When you opt for a managed services model for your content services solutions, experts in the exact area you need take on the heavy lifting of solution maintenance and ongoing configuration optimization, including:

• Integrations
• Development
• Automation
• Strategic advice and direction for accelerating transformation

A managed services team ensures your solutions continually meet the needs of your evolving business requirements for security, performance, functionality, interoperability and user experience — so you achieve successful outcomes faster.

> Read more | Ten real-world examples of digital transformation 

It all comes down to being prepared for whatever is coming next

Especially in today’s digital-first, increasingly mobile world, organizations must be resilient and prepared to evolve in order to seize opportunity and thrive.

Opportunity comes to those who are prepared. And being prepared means having the resources to ensure your digital solutions adapt and optimize with the evolving requirements that your organization depends on.

With the ability to tap into expert resources with managed services, you can be prepared for any business environment by adapting to change with solutions primed for success.

Are you interested in simpler deployment for your Hyland solutions?