Managed Services' balancing act - excellence and innovation The Managed Services and Hosting Summit showed how the market is changing; there are still questions on the managed services business model. Dave Sobel, director of partner community, GFIMAX talks about what he is finding managed services companies are worried about, and how to fix their problems:

“The managed services industry continues to evolve: we've transitioned from product-focused businesses to services then to managed services, as the need for recurring revenue continues to grow. The ability to move customers and service providers onto the same side of the negotiating table becomes a stronger business reason.”

“One of the challenges we've seen in solution providers as they adopt managed services is the balance between delivering consistency in their business – operational excellence and process development, with the need for continuing innovation. Most solution providers are struggling with the balance that correctly but often perhaps too much on operational excellence. We’ve been working on research around the idea of the perpetually-valuable MSP. This is how an MSP can balance the operational excellence and consistency with  business agility, and developing new product lines and services, integrating them and retiring them as they get left behind. The new forward-thinking managed services provider - the next generation - is the one that integrates their ability to stay agile with their ability to do present fitness and operational excellence.”

“The idea behind this strategy is to build a business model that actually moves them beyond that constantly thinking about the future. If you are good at adding new lines of service, you become very practised at it and agile. You have a business process that automatically adapts and is researching the next big thing.”