Time to Rethink Managed IT services

| 23 July 2019

Konica Minolta reveals how a managed IT services strategy can help your organisation simplify IT and seize the opportunities of digital transformation.


Business leaders are eager to exploit the opportunities offered by technology innovation. Modern, breakthrough digital technologies open the door to new business models, support new revenue streams and enable the development of consistently rewarding customer experiences.


Intelligent automation technology, for example, allows the business to automate manual, repetitive business processes – increasing operational efficiency and freeing up resources to focus on creativity. The cloud enables the rapid development of innovative, personalised services. And mobility can drive improved employee collaboration, agility and decision making.


Indeed, 53% of UK organisations are already considering the use of intelligent automation and 50% the use of artificial intelligence to grow revenues and improve customer engagement, according to a recent survey of Konica Minolta customers.


Who do business leaders turn to in order to deliver this technology transformation and lead the organisation into the future? The IT function of course. The business wants IT to be a strategic partner, one that channels its skills and resources towards innovation, agility and insight. IT can no longer remain a support function.


IT immersed in operations not innovation


 In some organisations, the IT function is putting the brake on innovation. Despite making heroic advances against a tidal wave of everyday demands from the business, IT is often too immersed in “keeping the lights on” to concentrate on forward-thinking innovation.


Among many priorities, IT is engulfed in ensuring business systems remain connected and accessible 24x7. IT is managing a sprawling, complex infrastructure that extends into the cloud and more endpoints than ever. And it is dealing with abundant and malicious security threats.


Recent research among small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) by Kingpin, commissioned by Konica Minolta finds that the key IT challenges for SMEs are to maintain security, ensure watertight data protection and effectively manage data. Keeping up to date with new technology is only their fourth priority.


So how can organisations strike the balance between maintaining a reliable, secure, high performance infrastructure and delivering the digital transformation the business so urgently needs?


Simplify IT with Managed IT Services


Imagine a scenario where your IT systems operate reliably and at peak performance in a secure infrastructure. Where costs are predictable and there’s no sudden capital expenditure. Where mundane tasks are managed by experts, automated, or run seamlessly in the cloud. And where you have access to a pool of skilled IT staff on-demand.


This is managed IT services (MITS) in action. This hosted services model allows you to simplify your IT function, passing the management of day-to-day services as diverse as infrastructure services, cloud hosting and helpdesk-as-a-service to a trusted partner. Secure, cost-effective and offering the reliable performance your users expect, MITS ensure your business has the agility and flexibility to pivot quickly, shift resources towards innovation and – crucially – lower the cost of operation.


The results speak for themselves. According to the Kingpin research 91% of UK SMEs agree that MITS have benefited their business. SMEs report that the three key benefits associated with MITS are the enablement of a cloud-first strategy (cited by 23% of respondents), support for digital transformation strategies (22%) and the freeing up of IT resources to focus on strategic initiatives (16%).


The top ranked benefit from SMEs that have introduced an MITS strategy is security (cited by 51% of UK SMEs), followed by cost savings (44%) and availability (32%).


Demand for MITs surging - especially among SMEs


The appetite for outsourcing and managed services is rising too. The MSP Trends report by CRN reveals that organisations currently entrust an average of 32% of their IT estate to third parties, rising to 48% within five years.


The biggest leap is set to take place among SMBs (between 26 and 250 staff). By 2022, they expect close to half of their IT estates to be managed by third parties, in line with their much larger counterparts with more than 1,000 or 10,000 heads. The next-largest jump is among lower mid-market firms with 251 to 1,000 staff.


Managing today’s complex IT infrastructure can absorb a significant amount of time, money and people – assets that are typically in short supply among SMEs. MITS enables organisations to reimagine the way they operate, devolving day-to-day operational tasks to a trusted partner and freeing up resources to focus on innovation and growth.


Discover how Managed IT services drive agility and innovation

‘Time to rethink Managed Services’ research shines a light on the challenges small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face in terms of IT services delivery and offers advice on how to tackle these. It discusses the advantages of managed IT services, reveals what keeps heads of IT awake at night and highlights which IT investment delivers the greatest return on investment.

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