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■SPONSORED REPORT
What you need to know
about managed services
David Delaney, head of Managed Services at Fujitsu Ireland,
offers a mini-guide to managed services
What are managed services? How do you maintain control of the service
Managed services can be described as an ‘à la carte consump- provided?
tion of an outsourcing model’. It allows a client company to You should ensure flexibility in the contract, allowing changes
take a service component it would prefer not to manage itself as your requirements change. You should also ensure that you
and outsource it to a third party. obtain from your provider agreed key performance indicators
which measure how the service is performing from your per-
What are the risks? spective – not the suppliers. Ongoing independent measure-
The main risk is that companies take an overly tactical ment of customer satisfaction gathered from those who use
approach and see managed services simply as a means of cut- the service is also essential to mantain control of the service.
ting costs in an increasingly competitive marketplace. There
can be risks with this if an organisation does not fully under- Can a service provider bring any actual
stand its own business requirements – the benefits it is look- innovation to your organisation or is it just
ing to achieve in terms of service improvements and business a case of doing the same thing in the same
efficiencies – as well as not understanding the cost drivers way, only cheaper?
within the service component it is outsourcing, meaning that Innovation should be a key part of what a service provider has
it is difficult to measure the benefits from a managed service. to offer. Fujitsu, for example, invests heavily each year in serv-
ices R&D, which results in the emergence of new tools and
What should I look for in a managed techniques that can transform both service delivery and
services partner? management.
Look for a company that: Fujitsu ‘Triole’ has been developed as a process for industri-
• Specialises in managed services rather than one that is alising IT infrastructure and services, which will guarantee the
simply offering these services as a by-product of some repeatability and the quality of solutions. Similarly, Fujitsu’s
internal capability ‘Sense and Respond’ system has a dramatic impact on help
• Holds competencies in areas in which you are looking to desk/service desk efficiency. This is where, as opposed to
procure – such as running a customer service desk – and trying to close calls as quickly as possible, our agents are
has the depth of capability and economies of scale that you encouraged to spend time assessing the impact problems
yourself couldn’t achieve have on the overall business. As a result some of our cus-
• Has customers with a similar profile to your own, in terms tomers have seen their problem calls drop by as much
of size and geographical coverage as 50pc.
56 Knowledge Ireland September 2008
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