MARKET REPORT Managed Service Providers
“We were struggling to maintain a satisfactory level of support, particularly when we had any staff
absences or during critical business periods.”
Gary Sharpe, Travail’s IT Manager
to nd an example of managed
services that was relatable in terms
of the services being provided by
a medium sized channel reseller
that many of our readers would
recognise.
Gloucester based PSU
Technology Group, a Mitel
resellers we have visited on
several occasions over the years,
has always been more than a
telephony services supplier having
also been an IT company ever
since we have known them and
this case study, for their customer,
Travail Employment Group, a
company with 30 branches across
the UK, is we feel a good example
of how PSU has expanded upon
their initial Co-Managed Service
engagement.
PSU says that for any company
experiencing rapid growth, an
in-house IT team can struggle
to maintain the support that the
business and its employees need.
Co-Managed Service support can
provide an e ective solution that
helps to reduce costly employee
downtime.
Travail Employment
Group’s in-house IT team were
committing increasing resources
towards their ICT infrastructure,
which was also leaving them with
fewer available hours to devote to
strategy.
Gary Sharpe, Travail’s
IT Manager said: “We were
struggling to maintain a
satisfactory level of support,
particularly when we had any
sta absences or during critical
business periods. It was obvious
that we needed additional ICT
support.
Why PSU? We chose them
as they were impressed by PSU’s
expertise as a fully integrated ICT
and Managed Services provider
and their commitment to service
excellence as an ISO accredited
company.
PSU recommended their Co-
Managed ICT Service, which is
working really well. We get the
back-end infrastructure, technical
and the essential frontline cover
support that we need, while
retaining full management
control over our ICT function,
which is perfect for us!”
In a nutshell, the PSU solution
is a service framework that
comprises:
1. Support help desk cover: to
help users during busy periods.
2. Guaranteed engineering
availability: where PSU engineers
respond and action jobs with a
clear SLA.
3. Intelligent Monitoring: where
PSU engineers monitor and
resolve any issues, before they
develop into anything more
problematic.
4. Proactive IT system
improvements service:
consultative advice to further
improve the e ciency of Travail’s
infrastructure.
5. Dedicated corporate and
technical Account Management
team.
In terms of bene ts this
service provides Travail with
enhanced support cover –
increasing the speed at which
Travail employees receive ICT
support, even during busy
periods. ICT issues are being
resolved more quickly – reducing
employee downtime and boosting
time and cost saving e ciencies.
Signi cantly, the managed
service has increased ICT
resilience with PSU’s Intelligent
Monitoring service and on-hand
technical assistance.
ED SAYS…
Resellers and VARs getting squeezed by falling hardware prices, vendor direct
sales and cloud deployment models is nothing new these days but the increasing
availability of ‘as a Service’ offerings is truly overwhelming for many organisations
– especially SMEs. The opportunity for managed service providers to take away all
the pain points, skills learning curves and staff recruitment and wage cost with a
managed service offering is enormous and growing.
cloud services. But the MSP has
already done that, so they can
open more doors for customers.”
Edmund Cartwright at
Highlight says that bundling
services allows MSPs to
demonstrate the value of their
services in an e ective, cost
e cient and straight forward way.
“Di erent tiers are typically
o ered (Bronze, Silver, Gold)
which generally respond to
di erent business objectives,
activities, deliverables and
budgets. Customers nd it easier
to allocate budget for bundled
services as it means they know
the exact recurring cost and value
of the bundle as de ned and
agreed between the two parties
(provider and customer). ey
can also save money overall since
bundled packages are o ered at a
competitive price when compared
to purchasing the same services
individually.
MSPs need to be able to
monitor, alert and report on as
many aspects of their customers’
infrastructure with ease. If they
can accomplish this from a single
solution, then there is a seamless
e ciency gain resulting in quick
and pro cient troubleshooting
without discrepancies, time
wasting and nger pointing. ey
can become experts, specialising
more so in advising customers on
service improvements and future
proo ng evolution. In doing
so, MSPs are able to become a
strategic partner, earning trust
and, converting happy customers
into long-term ones who are likely
to spread the good word about
their services.”
ANATOMY OF A CASE STUDY
If you combine the number
of di erent models in which
managed services can be provided
with the individual skill sets and
specialisations of any given MSP
and then consider the myriad
of needs that every organisation
has from their ICT systems then
it’s immediately apparent that
there is no such thing as a typical
managed services case study.
Having said that we set out
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