Five traits of a world-class
managed services
provider
As more companies choose managed
services for communications, they
should be very specific about what
they need — and expect — from their
service provider.
Large and midsize businesses are increasingly turning to
managed services providers (MSPs) to operate and maintain
their enterprise communications systems.
Companies that outsource to MSPs
including transformative initiatives
consulting company, recently
can benefit by:
that support revenue and profit
conducted competitive research
growth. Mobile solutions, video-
for Avaya to learn more about
conferencing and other unified
current vendor offerings and
communications tools boost
help identify attributes that IT
collaboration and productivity
executives should look for in a
• Leveraging MSPs to help manage
while reducing travel expenses and
managed services relationship.
the complexities of integrating
improving personnel management.
This white paper discusses
new and legacy technologies
An overextended IT department
five characteristics that were
across multiple platforms.
can be relieved of a significant
identified as traits of a world-class
systems management burden,
managed services provider.
• Reducing their operational costs
and increasing network and
application reliability.
• Accelerating the business through
a shift to unified communications
allowing key personnel to focus
on strategic priorities.
environments while reducing
overall risk and realizing full
A brief look at the
spectrum of MSPs
An often-overlooked consideration
According to Gartner, Inc., nearly
in choosing an MSP is that different
half (48 percent) of U.S.-based
Cost reduction and service reliability
providers focus on different
organizations plan to increase their
remain key reasons why companies
priorities, such as specific product
use of managed services. By doing
turn to managed services. However,
families, cost containment or risk
so they hope to overcome some
MSPs can help companies add
mitigation. MarketBridge, a brand
of the barriers to adopting next-
business value in other ways as well,
research and management
generation technologies, including
productivity earlier.
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large capital investments and
spending for training and tools.
They also hope to rein in lines of
business that are pursuing their
own technology plans unaligned
with overall IT strategy.
Traits of world-class
services providers
To many, outsourcing and
managed services are the same.
However, many of today’s businesses
do not necessarily want a service
provider to simply take over their
While planning to expand use of
MSPs, cost-conscious organizations
are taking a close look at their
provider relationships, including
traditional MSPs, systems integrators
and providers of direct manufacturer
support. The MarketBridge survey
sought to identify how leading
MSPs are focusing their offerings
and services. One category of
providers stresses their support
for business transformation,
including expertise in unified
operations. Rather, they may just
want a provider with the expertise
and resources to address network
and application performance
according to established metrics.
For example, instead of contracting
with an MSP to totally take over a
contact center, a business may want
to keep tight control over what the
center does and how it operates,
directing the MSP to meet specific
criteria, such as call handling times
and how to handle alarms.
communications and contact
center applications, and their
willingness to share risk with clients
through flexible arrangements.
Another category focuses on cost
control, service predictability and
transparency, along with multivendor support. And a third
category focuses on using their
expertise to help customers
Focus on customer
performance and growth
Reducing costs and improving
efficiency are objectives of virtually
all managed services arrangements.
World-class MSPs address these
priorities, but they also help
businesses use advanced
applications, such as unified
communications and contact
center technologies, to drive
top-line revenue growth and
bottom-line profitability, improve
the return on current investments,
and increase employee productivity.
This trait helps fill a growing need
in the market: Many companies are
challenged with deploying the
component applications of unified
communications, such as video,
instant messaging, presence, Web
In this new, more demanding
environment, the MarketBridge
survey revealed five traits that
stand out as indicative of a world-
collaboration, voice and mobility,
and they are unable to achieve the
effects of fully deployed seamless
implementation and operation.
class services provider: a focus on
customer performance and growth,
superior application management,
flexibility, accountability, and
standards-based services.
For example, Session Initiation
Protocol (SIP)-based technology
can help companies deploy more
enterprise communications solutions
capture the benefits of their
that promote mobile, nimble
own technology investment.
workforces that can quickly seize
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business opportunities. But
Characteristics of a world-class
cost-effective transition to SIP
MSP that contribute to performance
requires a defined road map to
and growth include:
avoid being overly capital intensive
or disruptive to the organization.
An MSP can develop and manage
the entire SIP-based unified
• Ability to provide multivendor
support
• A managed services platform
communications or contact center
that can quickly adapt to
solution using a predictable,
emerging technologies
per-user, per-month pricing model.
The customer doesn’t have to deal
with refreshing the operations
team’s skills or ongoing software
and hardware updates.
Next-generation
unified communications
• A strong focus on applications
in addition to network elements
• A strong focus on user experience
monitoring to address actual and
perceived service level
A world-class MSP can also guide
performance
the transition to new technologies
and contact center
in contact centers — a major user
solutions enable
of communications and computing
to improve overall solution
resources in many organizations.
performance
businesses to conduct
• Personnel who understand how
The MSP can manage deployment
integrated, personalized
and operation of Web-based
and real-time
applications and the integration
communications using
of social media into the center,
Next-generation unified communica-
enabling such activities as
tions and contact center solutions
monitoring and responding to
enable businesses to conduct
other channels.
customer tweets and Facebook
integrated, personalized and real-
However, these
postings. This allows the MSP’s
time communications using video,
customer to take advantage of
voice, data and other channels.
leading-edge technologies in a
However, these solutions aren’t
timely manner and address the
simple.
video, voice, data and
solutions aren’t simple.
Superior application
management
latest market trends both quickly
and without an outlay of capital
World-class MSPs are staffed by
investments.
highly skilled personnel who understand both the backbone network
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and the applications it supports.
center agents and the broader
World-class MSPs offer flexible
Moreover, they understand how to
workforce and can provide a
options that meet these needs.
optimize application and network
road map for implementation.
Services can be customized
performance in alignment with the
based on the customer’s specific
objectives of the business and the
Factors to consider in assessing
requirements, from simple system
needs of the end users, both within
the application capabilities of an
monitoring or hosting to total
the business and with outside users
MSP include:
infrastructure outsourcing. Services
such as suppliers and customers.
The MSP can execute site-by-site
cutovers with awareness of how
changes affect existing systems so
can be segmented within an
• Staff experience
• The number of customers, ports
and seats the provider manages
disruptions for users are minimized.
They can then manage and monitor
operations going forward so peak
user productivity is possible.
understands SIP
• What standards the provider
communications and call center
environments. For example, once
a company has enhanced its
contact center with instant
messaging, it may want to bring
in Twitter feeds. Or it may want
to deploy the infrastructure for
video kiosks or mobile applications
in the unified communications
environment. Leading MSPs
understand how different
applications fit together to
improve the performance and
productivity of both the contact
Flexible procurement and financial
options are also key. Approaches
can include capital expenditure,
operating expenses or leasing, as
Flexibility
abreast of the latest application
continuing evolution of unified
and can be delivered on premise,
remotely or in the cloud.
An MSP can also keep the
developments, supporting the
services, geographies or applications
• How well the provider
applies to its services
customer’s IT department
organization by operating units,
well as assets-on-books arrangements that include professional
Businesses want to leverage
managed services in different
and implementation services in
an overall agreement.
ways. One may be standardized
on a single vendor’s equipment
and software, while others may
have multivendor environments.
One company may want to mix
new technology with its existing
systems so it can wring more from
past investments while charting a
future course. Another may want to
Other options may include customizing a scope of work to service level
agreements (SLAs) and specific
service definitions, such as moves,
adds, changes and special requirements. In a call center, the MSP may
take over both service desk calls and
end-user calls, freeing internal staff.
take advantage of cloud computing.
One organization may want an MSP
to take over all its networks and
applications, while another wants
to pass off only a portion.
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Among the traits of a flexible
MSP are:
• Buy and/or build arrangements
Accountability
Historically, managed services
arrangements were akin to what
tailored to a customer’s
is today considered outsourcing.
spending model
An MSP would take over full
management and operation of
• Pricing models that accommodate the changing needs of the
functions such as network
services or contact centers.
experience and capabilities
that minimize the learning
curve at the beginning of the
relationship and adapt to
changes in the customer’s
Now, however, organizations face
greater accountability demands
from shareholders, regulators and
other stakeholders. In turn, they are
from MSPs.
to maintain control over their
environments while still shifting
operational responsibilities and risks
to MSPs. They want to specify what
functions an MSP will perform and
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for underperformance.
A key differentiator of a world-class
MSP is that it provides strong governance and is a trusted, accountable
a vendor but an extension of the
customer’s IT department that also
makes recommendations on the
organization’s technology road map.
The MSP understands the
customer’s business applications
In today’s world, businesses want
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controls, including financial penalties
demanding greater accountability
business over time
• Customizable services
through contractual SLAs and other
adviser. Such a provider is not just
customer
• Technical and business
how, and the MSP is held accountable
and what they mean to the
customer’s broader value chain.
It can advise on solutions the
customer can implement and
use to better drive business
performance, extend capabilities
and reach new markets. And it
The use of standards — especially
understands the controls needed
one as widely recognized as
to meet expanding regulatory
the Information Technology
requirements.
Infrastructure Library (ITIL) — can help overcome these issues.
Among accountability features
Standards help specify what
to look for in an MSP are:
an MSP will do when it says
it will monitor, operate and
• Customer control and a
customer-facing Web portal
• Full transparency of tools,
optimize a network based on
agreed-upon and documented
Face the future with
the right MSP partner
Businesses are looking for more
than reliability and cost reduction
from MSPs. Today they want help
in transforming their organizations,
deploying new technologies to gain
competitive advantage, and using
communications to increase
productivity and collaboration.
prerequisites.
processes and knowledge
It is important to remember
• A real-time network view
• Performance guaranteed
through SLAs
that an MSP that provides part
of the solution is likely to end
World-class MSPs offer
up part of the problem when
superior application
issues arise. Unless the provider
Standards-based managed
services
Managed services relationships
can dissolve for reasons such
as an actual breach of contract,
a customer perception of a breach
is willing to take on multivendor
management and
accountability, finger pointing
network expertise
will inevitably ensue — the network
across multivendor
vendor says it’s a router problem,
environments, as well
the router maker says it’s in the
PBX, and so on.
as flexible options
that meet a variety
or failure to meet the financial
goals of the pact. In any of these
cases, the primary cause of
problems is often a lack of
alignment between the MSP and
Key features of a standards-based
of needs. Services can
approach to managed services
be customized based
include:
• Use of ITIL definitions
specific requirements
• Agreement on nonstandard
segmented in many
customer on the definition of terms.
Common terms such as “capacity”
and “configuration” appearing in
a statement of work can be
surprisingly open to interpretation.
on the customer’s
nomenclature
• Responsibility for multivendor
environments accepted by the
ways and delivered
on premise, remotely
or in the cloud.
MSP
• Clear understanding of additional
pricing for incremental tasks
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Not all MSPs are equipped to handle
the job. Those that are will have the
capability to support a customer’s
growth and profitability goals, a real
focus on application expertise,
flexible arrangements, the
willingness to demonstrate
accountability, and a standardsbased approach that avoids
confusion and promotes an open
relationship. By considering these
five traits of world-class MSPs, IT
executives can be better prepared to
make a choice they and their
organizations can thrive with both
near-term and over time.
About Avaya
Avaya is a global leader in
business communications
systems. The company
provides unified
communications, contact
centers, data solutions and
related services directly and
through its channel partners
to leading businesses and
organizations around the
world. Enterprises of all sizes
depend on Avaya for stateof-the-art communications
that improve efficiency,
collaboration, customer
service and competitiveness.
For more information, please
visit www.avaya.com.
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