Customers will look to managed services in particular to help them recover after the crisis, says NTT’s 2020 Global Managed Services Report. But in a competitive environment, service providers will have to differentiate to show their value. It highlights their security credentials, the depth of technical expertise and ability to deliver outcomes aligned to the business goals, as fundamentals of customer smart sourcing.
As organisations look set to further use the expertise of service providers over the next 18 months and form deeper relationships, the delivery of platform-enabled solutions at speed, across the entire technology stack becomes even more important, the report argues.
Specifically, the report identified:
• Reducing security risks is not only the biggest challenge faced by IT teams globally, it’s the top reason for service provider consideration
• Around half of business leaders already acknowledge a need to optimise the workplace environment.
• Technical expertise is the number one driver for selection of a service provider, with cloud infrastructure and security leading the demands.
The way in which we work has shifted - in most cases – forever, it claims. Remote working and the rise of bring your own device (BYOD) has hastened the need for proactive security alerts and fixes before issues arise. Previously, organizations sought to quickly scale to meet increased customer demand. Now, scale is focused on secure networks and remote workers, digital platforms and collaboration tools.
Transformation was for the most part, focused on customer experience and new revenue streams. Now, end-user transformation sits front and centre on the CIO agenda.
As businesses seek to recover and respond to a changing environment in the wake of COVID-19, service providers are on notice to increase their value. Encouragingly, the report says that “Organizations feel MSPs will provide the most value over the next 3-5 years through their security capabilities (44%), financial stability, trust and reputation (43%), and automation (43%).’
From cloud to networking, data centre to security and more, breadth and depth of capability is essential to recover and restore operations and position organisations strongly for the coming years, it suggests.
Previously, organizations sought to quickly scale to meet increased customer demand. Now, scale is focused on secure networks and remote workers, digital platforms and collaboration tools. And solutions need to be delivered with continuity, agility and scalability. And it needs to be done almost instantly. Speed of execution is critical and even more so in current times.
NTT Ltd.’s 2020 Global Managed Services Report used respondents from a cross-section of IT and business leadership positions, totaling over 1250 people in 29 countries including the US and Europe.
