Do you ever feel that your managed IT service provider is talking a different language?
Or perhaps you understand what they’re telling you, but you don’t understand how it relates to your business, your objectives, or your financial year targets.
The truth is that technology exists in business to bring efficiency, effectiveness & ultimately, profitability. That said, it can be very hard to connect the dots between technology and the bottom line without expert knowledge & advice.
This in part is why SMBs commonly outsource their IT services to a Managed Service Provider (MSP). An MSP can bring expert knowledge, skills and experience into a business that lacks internal capability.
But there’s a catch. More often than not, a gap exists between the business leaders of the SMB, and the key contacts of the MSP. This gap creates confusion, misalignment, and ultimately costs the SMB significant resources in time, money and lost opportunity.
In this article we explore this gap, it’s impacts, and how it can be overcome.
Understanding the GAP
The ‘gap’ refers to the distance between the focus of business leadership and IT service delivery. Business leaders tend to be focussed on items such as profitability, ROI, operational efficiency & the managing of risk.
IT service providers on the other hand will tend to focus on uptime, patching status, service quality & reporting. These focusses may be independently correct, but are often misaligned.
In a large business these focus areas are brought into alignment through layers of mid-level & senior management. The gap between business strategy and technical delivery is filled with IT Management, Strategy & Compliance; ensuring that all technical works are in alignment with, and in support of the businesses objectives.
In SMB however, this gap is commonly left unaddressed. You may not be aware of the gap, but it’s presence can be felt in more ways than one. Common symptoms of a gap include:
- Overly reactive services resulting in increased expenditure & user disruptions.
- Increased quantity & severity in unknown risks.
- Systems that do not suitably meet operational requirements.
- Recommendations that feel forced, generic & fail to consider actual business needs.
- Delays and difficulty in making technology-based decisions & budgeting.
- Underwhelming results from major IT investments.
Commercial Impacts of a GAP
The quality of something does not determine it’s value. The best luggage in the world has no value to someone who doesn’t travel.
Likewise, the greatest technology on the market has no value to an SMB if it’s use is not aligned to the organisations goals, values or purpose.
This misalignment has a number of direct and indirect commercial impacts; namely:
- The purchase & maintenance of unnecessary equipment / subscriptions.
- Overspend / overcorrection in relation to upgrades & fixes.
- Lost productivity stemming from poor fit solutions.
- Lost opportunity of leveraging technology to solve business challenges.
Often the cost of these impacts make up around 20-30% of a companies total IT spend, and can be as much as 50% or greater.
Common examples include oversold cybersecurity solutions, over engineered infrastructure, and poorly managed licenses & subscriptions. See: How To Reduce IT Costs Responsibly.
Feeling like you’re not on the same page with your MSP isn’t just annoying, it’s costly.
Bridging the GAP
Smaller organisations do not have the luxury of their larger counterparts. They do not have internal resources that can bridge the gap between business outcomes and technical directives.
The GAP however can be bridged. It requires the MSP to add additional roles, capabilities, and processes on top of the typical BAU services, designed to mimic the maturity of a larger organisation.
Your SMB does not require an IT manager, but it could use the skillset of one. Likewise it does not require a CIO/CTO, but could really use the expertise and direction that one would provide.
Integrated properly, SMB’s are able to boast increased capacity, ability to make sounder decisions, and maintain the peace of mind that their revenue is well protected.
We’ve discussed previously the value that utilising IT Roadmaps & Risk Registers can bring to an SMB. Just as important are the systems and processes used to produce & maintain these documents. Why does this matter?
- Producing a roadmap requires a level of thoroughness that is otherwise not needed in providing proposals reactively.
- The process of discussing Roadmaps and Risk Registers exposes the MSP to a far deeper level of understanding regarding business operations.
- By making decisions at a commercial layer, both parties are operating at a level playing field.
With clear visibility and transparency as to the state of technology in the business, business leaders and MSPs can work together to create a technology plan that aligns to business goals. This not only ensures that money is not wasted, but that any & all investments made will have clear and quantifiable returns.
Summary
At a high level all managed IT service agreements look similar. Everyone claims to be proactive, secure & strategic.
Whilst this may be true, ultimately it provides little value if what they’re doing is not aligned to your goals & requirements.
The GAP between business leadership and IT service delivery is often the biggest source of costs and challenges SMBs have with IT. Inversely, solving the GAP is commonly the single greatest opportunity SMBs have to improve results, efficiency and ROI.
If you feel your business is suffering the symptoms of the GAP, we’d love to talk to you about how we can help. Simply book a time for an introductory discussion.