In-house Strategy, Outsourced Operation: IT Managed Service from a Service Providers Perspectives

As the IT Managed Service trend continues towards more industry consolidation & expansion in service varieties, it is facing basic questions about ‘In-house Strategy & Outsourced Operation’? And it seems like most industry experts are divided in their opinions.
The IT Managed Service trends are enjoying increasing service expansion ranging from anti-virus service and software upgrading to complete infrastructure solutions. Moreover the increasing spending budget among the corporate houses and newly emerging SMB’s is stretching the boundaries of Managed Service.
The issue has become a raising concern among a number of IT Experts who actually see this as an inevitable future of Managed Service: The split of Strategy & Operation of IT Service. As organizations focus more and more on optimizing their IT budget and operations, Managed Service is becoming more & more commoditized. All the recent researches also stand by this point where companies are showing increasing interest in Managed Service, Hosted Service, Network & Server Supports, etc.
But if this split is seriously inevitable, then we should prepare for some fundamental changes within the organizations, both for the clients & service providers. Although from an organization’s point of view, it will bring more control on their business operations since they won’t have to hire, manage and train more IT employees which is a continuous challenge. The scenario is the same when it comes to Infrastructure Management as day by day, IT infrastructures are becoming more & more complicated. So this split will make more room for strategies for organizations with less weight on in-house IT professionals & infrastructure. On the other hand, service providers will have to get their baggage ready with improved skills & professionalism as they will be playing the central operational role for business success. What more, increased commitment will also be a major factor for their overall success.
So this split will lead us towards a more focused and professional level as companies will have more resources to concentrate on their core business and service providers will be more focused in service delivery. But the term ‘In-house Strategy, Outsourced Operation’ also raises another question: Who will develop the IT Strategy for the organization? Especially for SMB’s with a limited budget? At this point, we should go back to the commitments of Managed Service. Managed services are based on Partnership Spirits. So with this spirit on high, the split of ‘In-House Strategy, Outsourced Operation’ will provide its promised outcomes as well as a fine balance of both Strategy & Operations is imperative.

Microsoft CRM for SMB : A Path to Business Success

The recent Microsoft partner programs & technology roadmaps released throughout July 2007 makes it very clear that the software giant is getting serious towards Small & Medium Businesses. The latest version of Office 2007, Vista & Dynamics show Microsoft’s integrated approach for building stronger enterprise IT infrastructure while the new pricing & partner program makes it really competitive in the market with its network of a few thousand partners.

The Small & Medium Business houses are increasingly gaining maturity in their business operations and becoming more & more concerned towards customer satisfaction, loyalty & acquisition. But the IT budget, infrastructure and staffing have always been a hurdle for the SMB companies. With Microsoft’s new partner program and pricing, Microsoft has extended its services to the Small & Medium Businesses not only with a justified budget but also with a suitable infrastructural solution.

The newly introduced Multi-Tenant architecture of Microsoft Dynamics CRM takes it one step closer to the SMB’s as the application can be hosted on either the Partner Systems or the Client System and is also hosted by Microsoft itself. This is truly a Software-as-a-Service approach for the growing number of SMB’s interested in enterprise solution within a reasonable budget. The real value of Microsoft’s technology solution & Multi-Tenancy approach reaches SMB’s of any size or industry.

Apart from the benefits of Dynamics CRM, the extended partner program goes a long way in the adoption, integration, deployment & support of SMB’s. Having the largest partner network program, Microsoft shows strong commitment towards its clients. Moreover, the flexibility of the Multi-Tenant program, seamless upgrading & other Microsoft Software Integration are the key features of Microsoft Dynamics CRM which will definitely differentiate them in the market.

Understanding the similarities and differences between SMB needs was the key drive for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. And they did it smartly with the right solution, through the most suitable infrastructure and distributed it widely with the Microsoft partner program. A nicely tailored CRM solution for the emerging SMB’s of today.