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A recent study from Insight Research predicted that global spending on managed services will grow at an annual compounded rate of almost 12% and that U.S. revenues associated with the managed services market will increase from nearly $36 billion in 2014 to $53 billion in 2018. Clearly, there is strong and growing market demand for this type of business service.
As pressure mounts on IT leaders to manage increasing responsibilities, and as the cost of mobility management increases, some organizations are finding relief with outsourced managed mobility services. These providers can reduce the technology burden and allow you to focus on your core business. However, it’s important to investigate this option thoroughly in order to determine if it’s the best choice for you.
The basics of managed mobility services
From the outset, it’s necessary to be clear about what a managed service is and does.
When an external service provider manages and delivers a service to an enterprise, typically under some sort of service level agreement, this arrangement is called a managed service (or outsourced management). Managed services are usually provided based on a subscription model, or on key volume or performance metrics – checks processed, calls managed, orders taken – and in the case of enterprise mobility, based on the number of devices managed or users supported.
Next, it’s time to think about where managed services might be of most use. A business can be considered a collection of core and non-core functions. The core functions are central to creating the products and services that a business sells, and make up the primary value that the company offers its customers. The non-core functions are essential to run the business, but they’re not the primary value that the company delivers. To win in a competitive environment, businesses need to manage and execute both core and non-core functions better than their competitors.
There are two ways to beat competitors at core and non-core functions. Doing everything internally, and learning to do it all better than everyone else is an option. Another option is to focus on core functions while outsourcing non-core functions to specialists. If you choose the right vendors and manage everyone effectively, you could have several outsourced teams of experts doing what they do best, resulting in peak competency and efficiency across all functions.
This leads to the questions of what to outsource.
Functions that are critical to operations, but provide little or no differentiation, are ideal for outsourcing to a managed service provider. Functions that are key business differentiators and critical to operations should be kept in-house. Functions that provide differentiation but are not essential to operations represent strategic partnering opportunities. Functions that make little contribution to operational performance and are low in strategic importance should be put on a starvation diet.
Real business value
Choosing to use managed services can yield a variety of business benefits:
–Services and service providers are adaptable. They can quickly be added or adjusted in line with changes in business and economic conditions to stay competitive and profitable, while the business stays focused on core capabilities.
–Deploying managed services also provides access to experts who can accomplish the task more efficiently and effectively by having a better and more focused understanding of the underlying technology involved, user pain points, service issues and support needed.
–Implementing managed services also provides financial flexibility in terms of reduced costs on hardware, operations, services, facilities, personnel and training. Internal capabilities are also not overstretched, offering predictability and stability in work and budgets.
–Mobile technology’s fast pace of evolution creates useful innovations that can help drive competitive advantage. Enterprises can speed the adoption of these new technologies by opting for managed services that embrace technological change, rather than acquiring the resources on their own.
Could enterprise mobility be a good fit for managed services?
Returning for a moment to the grid illustration, it becomes clear that although managing enterprise mobility is increasingly critical to business operations, it is typically not a key business differentiator. It should be a good candidate for the outsourced approach. Below are some specific characteristics of enterprise mobility management to consider.
Quickly changing and complicated technology landscape: Most enterprises already have thousands of employees using their own smart devices to access corporate e-mail, networks, data and applications, whether they’re managed or not. Building in-depth knowledge of all of these hardware and management tools, including devices, OS’ and MDM variations, is beyond most IT department capabilities. On top of that, there are dozens of solutions available for managing devices, mobile apps, telecom expenses, app stores and more. And all of these systems are being introduced and upgraded at an incredible pace. Engaging a managed service provider with a dedicated staff of experts whose mission is to stay on top of this diversity of systems could have real advantages.
Limited technical expertise: The number of individuals with deep expertise is quite limited whenever new technologies are introduced. This increases the difficulty of building your own internal team of experts. Building a team from scratch often comes at a higher cost for the enterprise than outsourcing. It is estimated that the per-device cost incurred for in-house mobility management is about 40% higher than that for managed services.
Expertise economies of scale: After achieving the difficult task of assembling a crack team that can master dozens of operating systems, platforms and management systems, can you use your team efficiently? If you’re supporting just a few thousand users and devices, you may be paying for expert knowledge and a support infrastructure that’s only being used a fraction of the time. Managed service providers, with established service centers, have the systems in place and volume of activity to maximize the use of everyone on the team – no waste makes for a lower management cost per device.
International support: For enterprises that have operations and employees spread across the globe, building business support – and in multiple languages – for their devices can be extremely challenging and costly. However, a fully staffed mobile service center can handle the load more efficiently in combination with other clients.
Adjust to fluctuations: How do you handle provisioning and deployment requirements for mobile devices? How do you build a team that can respond quickly to cyclical and unplanned changes in devices, OS’ and related technologies? A managed service provider can enable you to keep up with fluctuations in your business’s and users’ needs.
Round-the-clock service: Many enterprises would be hard-pressed to offer a “24x7x365” support team with adequate breadth and depth of knowledge. A well-established service provider should offer this coverage as a matter of course. This is another area where scale makes a difference.
Weigh your options carefully
As the technology juggernaut speeds ahead, some difficult decisions need to be made. One of them is whether to become excellent at core and non-core functions or to outsource those functions that are important but are not business differentiators. Should you outsource or not? An important factor to keep in mind is that providing MMS yourself usually costs 40% more than outsourcing that function. If there is not a compelling business reason to build a managed mobility team in-house, consider outsourcing. However, be sure to ask the right questions of any prospective managed mobility service provider to ensure a good fit. In this way, you can focus your energies on what you do best and let an MMS provider take care of the rest.
Sam Ganga is EVP of DMI’s Commercial Division. Under Ganga’s leadership, DMI’s Commercial Division has developed the world’s most comprehensive set of mobile enterprise solutions, including mobile strategy, mobile managed services, mobile app solutions and integrated vertical solutions for retail, financial services and healthcare. The group has more than 500,000 mobile devices under management, and has developed more than 400 mobile applications in the last 12 months. DMI Commercial Division also offers big data insights solutions that provide better insight, for better decisions and better performance to leading Fortune 500 companies. Prior to joining DMI, Ganga was the founder and president of Leverent Consulting, a professional services company that provided technology solutions to commercial and government clients.
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