Business Technology Roundtable

I received an email the other day congratulating me on a column I wrote for NetworkWorld nearly three years ago entitled, "Why Managed Services Fail." The 'shelf-life' of web content always amazes me, but it is gratifying to have people stumble across my past writings and still find them timely. What struck me as I revisited this 2005 column was how many of my points were still true, "...Almost every supplier and service provider I talk to admits that selling managed services has been harder than expected." "The first problem these managed service providers face is packaging." "The second issue is pricing." "The third challenge is positioning these services properly." "But the biggest obstacle to selling managed services is poor sales skills." Sound familiar? Although industry research clearly shows that customers are becoming more receptive towards managed services and the economy is even driving an increasing numbe...

As industry analyst forecasts mount predicting the rapid growth of managed services, an increasing proportion of IT and business decision-makers are taking a closer look at how these alternatives can impact their operations. The challenge is effectively measuring the costs and benefits of these options. Gartner kicked off 2008 predicting, "By 2011, early technology adopters will forgo capital expenditures and instead purchase 40 per cent of their IT infrastructure as a service." And with today's unprecedented economy crisis, THINKstrategies believes the shift to managed services will be faster and more pronounced than predicted. As a consequence, every responsible IT and business decision-maker is obligated to carefully reassess their current operations and thoroughly evaluate all of the available alternatives to better manage their IT environments so they can better support their business objectives. Substantive Cost Comparisons However, many of the current methods...