Safely through the crisis with managed services

How satisfied are German companies with the services they use and their service providers, and in which areas is there an urgent need for action? The analyst firm Techconsult presented the results of the "Professional User Rating: Managed Services 2021" and showed how service providers and their managed services are rated by IT experts.

The past year has shown companies how essential an adaptable and flexible IT infrastructure is. The shift to modern workplace models and digital business processes led to a significant overload of IT departments in many companies.

The use of managed services is likely to be the order of the day for many IT managers. In fact, 62 percent of companies plan to increase their spending on managed services over the next twelve months.

For companies, innovations and digitization projects play an important role in maintaining their long-term competitiveness. But this can only be achieved if IT staff are relieved of routine tasks and can focus their core competencies on these projects.

This is where managed services come into play and help to actively support IT departments. Overall, the service providers score very positively, but there is a need to catch up, particularly in the area of pre-sales consulting.

The IT managers surveyed predominantly rated the managed services and their providers as good across all areas. At provider level, the service definitions provided in advance stand out particularly positively.

For example, 55 percent rate the clear descriptions of managed services and 54 percent the precise definition of the scope of services as good to very good. These criteria are extremely important in order to be able to carry out precise planning and allocation of tasks within corporate IT.

However, areas for improvement can also be identified from the results. For example, satisfaction with the strategic advisory skills of providers is 42 percent, and only 41 percent are satisfied with the information provided on financial aspects and benefits as part of the advisory service.

Managed service providers must quantify the benefits of their services more strongly and make the cost-saving potential clear to companies in concrete terms. TCO analyses and the identification of concrete KPIs, tailored to the needs of the respective customer, are a must.

This is where the providers of managed application services are particularly in demand. Only just under one-third of IT managers consider providers in this service category to be well positioned in terms of their strategic consulting expertise.

The IT managers surveyed are satisfied overall with the managed services they have procured. Almost 80 percent confirm the high utility value of their managed services - in terms of ensuring smooth IT - in the corona pandemic.

With years of expertise, service providers can provide companies with advice and support even in unexpected market situations and meet customers' needs through flexible service models.

In line with this, 43 percent of the IT managers surveyed expect an increase and 19 percent a significant increase in spending on various managed services over the next twelve months. This trend is also confirmed by the mere two percent of respondents who expect a reduction in spending on such services in the company and 35 percent who are not planning any changes.