It is about time to move on from the term ‘Systems Integrator’, which has by now become outdated. The future belongs to managed service providers. Alongside traditional project business, they offer their customers an IT flat rate with consultancy services at a fixed monthly fee. But how is it possible to develop this highly lucrative business segment ’Managed Services’?
The currently most successful systems integrators were chosen in the ChannelPartner study “The best Systems Integrator 2016“. The three winners in the category with the strongest turnover – ACP IT-Solutions, SVA System Vertrieb Alexander and Fritz & Macziol – are all still implementing traditional projects in service infrastructure and storage environment, but are already positioning themselves today as innovation drivers in managed services and cloud. That proves that those who want to continue to be successful, will not be able to avoid realigning their business towards becoming a managed services provider.
During the transformation of a systems integrator to a managed service provider, it is the non-technological factors, in particular sales and internal organisation, that play an at least equally important role as the right management software. Here a trusted cooperation partner, such as a value added distributor, can offer vital support. With its cloud platform and know how, this partner assists systems integrators with the transformation of their portfolio towards IT services.
Less Complexity and Cost Pressure for Customers
According to the current Crisp research study “Multi-Cloud-Management German Medium Sized Businesses“, the cloud has long arrived in Germany’s medium sized businesses. Therefore, the question for many business decision makers is no longer ‘if‘, but ‘how‘. In the interplay between innovation and cost pressure, it is in particular the medium sized businesses that lack internal IT specialists for the digitalisation of business processes as these are not easily available in the job market and are often too expensive for smaller companies. This is where managed service providers come in as trusted partners, who can take on responsibilities, but also achieve reductions in costs and complexity.
In addition, modern providers guarantee their customers a managed service at costs that are predictable and fixed. Therefore, the times of IT firefighting whenever necessary and repeatedly unplanned expenditure have now passed. Instead, customers benefit of monthly running costs that can be calculated easily. Thanks to monthly fixed fees, which were jointly agreed, customers have now security regarding their costs and forward planning, which can be business critical, in particular in smaller medium sized businesses. The customer not only benefits financially, but also from many other added values such as software always being up-to-date and the IT know-how of the managed service provider, who supports the business as its trusted partner.
In Pole Position as a Managed Public Cloud Provider
The Crisp research study shows clearly that medium sized businesses require above all support at the planning stage all the way through until the operation of cloud infrastructures. Hardly any company can leave the set-up of its public, hybrid or multi-cloud to its own internal competencies. Required here are expert knowledge and practical experience of an external service provider. It is therefore hardly surprising, that more than half of the interviewed companies (55 percent) are willing to rely on a managed cloud model. This model promises the customer an ‘All-Round Carefree Package‘, in which the service provider not only ensures the operation, but also takes over the set-up, integration, security, application administration and much more. This is where managed public cloud providers (MPCP) step in, who develop and operate systems, applications and virtual environments for their customers. This works in public cloud infrastructures as well as more complex multi-cloud environments in a managed cloud service model. A managed service provider, who is able to position itself early on as a managed public cloud provider (MPCP), already takes a place at the top and hence a turnover potential, with which it is possible to continuously develop new business areas in a constantly changing IT environment.
ChannelPartner Study „Best Systems Integrator 2016“: http://www.channelpartner.de/a/das-sind-die-champions-im-channel,3048561,2
Crisp Research Study: https://www.crisp-research.com/report/multi-cloud-management-im-deutschen-mittelstand/
