imsp webinar

A P R E C I S I O N S O L U T I O N S G R O U P W E B I N A R

Is a Traditional Managed Service Provider Enough?

Finding the Right Solution For Your Enterprise

Precision Solutions Groupwww.PrecisionSG.com

(877) 677-5776


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• Larry Dube – President – PSGi

– One of 3 founders of PSGi which has been providing software and managed services for Manufacturers and distributors for 13 years.

– 28 years of experience with the Poweri platform and its predecessors

– 29 years of overall experience helping manufacturers and distributors receive the highest ROI with their ERP solutions

Presenters


• Dave Kravitt

– APICS CPIM Certified Chemical Engineer with MBA

– Manufacturing Management with Fortune 100 companies

– 30+ years in Enterprise Business Software Systems• Senior Application Consultant

• Marketing Product Management

• Sales Executive with PSGi

Presenters


• Introduction and Definitions

• Expertise

• Services

• Business Impact

• Questions to Ask

• Q+A

Agenda


• We know that a good traditional managed service provider will:– Have proper processes in place to support your platforms

– Tools ands automation to limit human error in supporting your platforms

– Scalable hardware and service offerings that can grow with you

– Effective governance of your environment and the policies that support that technology environment

– Investment in the people and hardware needed to support your technology needs.

Background – Presentation Assumptions


• Ask yourself this question:

• From the time your customer places and order to the time you can deliver product to their doorstep, how many applications, interfaces and platforms must your business go through to accomplish that task?

• That number is more than likely quite high.

The System Landscape


What Does your Environment Look Like?


• Is a good or even great traditional MSP good enough?

Our Basic Question for this presentation


• Managed Services is the proactive management of an IT (Information Technology) asset or object, by a third party typically known as a MSP, on behalf of a customer. The operative distinction that sets apart a MSP is the proactive delivery of their service, as compared to reactive IT services.

• MSP Alliance

Managed Service Provider


• Platform Expertise is not usually a problem

• Do they understand the impact of what they see to the business in all cases

• Do they understand the connection to the applications and which ones are mission critical

• Can they possibly be more than a script follower

Managed Services Challenges


• Application Support is the service of business applications. Providing functionality, education, implementation and sustaining engineering expertise for those applications.

• Application support can come from:

– The application vendor

– The internal IT team

– 3rd party support provider

Application Support Provider


• Application Expertise is not usually a problem

• Do they have the technical savvy to understand how the applications interact with the platform it runs on

• Is there comprehension of the technology required for interfaces and security

• Is it too easy to look to a technology issue

Application Support Challenges


How About Those Silos


• A service provider that can supply the services of an Application Support provider and a Managed Services provider with the following skill set:

– The required Application Skills

– The required Managed Services/platform skill

– The skill set that bridges the gap between the two and understands how the application and technology platform work together,

Integrated Managed Service Provider


• From the Plug in the wall to the end user

iMSP

Technology Platform

Management

Business Application

Management


• Minimum

– Look for a Managed Service Provider that has the business domain knowledge you are in – or -

– Look for the Application support provider that has the technology platform knowledge necessary

– You need the ability to take care of the shaded area in the Venn Diagram

iMSP

Technology Platform

Management

Business Application

Management


• The Additional benefits of an iMSP over traditional Managed Services providers and Application Service providers can be seen in:

– The expertise available

– The services provided

– The positive business impact

iMSP


Expertise


Why does it have to be so Frustrating


• Prospective MSP buyers will always look for:

– Hardware Maintenance

– Hosting services

– Ensure a stable platform and network infrastructure

– Manage platform operations • Answering messages, etc.

– Mange platform performance and up time

Expertise


• But will they look for– Knowledge in your business space

– Experience with integrated applications and the technology required • Be specific – do your applications use web services, are you still using

older technology for communication, what do the business applications do that use this technology

– Can they make the connection between the user experience and what is happening on the hardware.

– Can you avoid the “enter a ticket and we will look at it” mentality

Expertise


• Business Impact – no products shipped for 6 hours

• Symptom: A user reports that on a Saturday morning none of the shipping documents are printing out.

• All set up in the application is good.

• There are no errors on the system

Expertise


• Problem:– A back-up failed the night before

– The errors associated with that backup were handled by the managed service provider

– This process prevented one job from starting

– There was no connection between the business impact of that job and the errors seen

– A possible fix to the issue would have taken less than 2 minutes at the time of the discovered back up error but instead resulted in shipment delays

Expertise


• Business Impact: Once again no shipping to the customers for several hours

• Symptom: No delivery of customer order information to the warehouse.

– Maintenance window needed to be in place for a server

– The server is half of an MQ communication platform for applications

– The down time window was really small

Expertise


• Problem:

– There is no connection to how the server interacts with other platforms

– The short down time was just enough to get MQ message numbers out of synch.

– User reported issues but the server was already up and running

– Hours before a call to the correct people to look at the Application and technology interdependence

Expertise


Services


Focus on the Business and not The platform


• Prospective MSP buyers always looking for:

– Platform management service

– OS and supporting applications management services

– Network hardware and services

– Platform operations

– Disaster recovery – back up and recovery

– Hosting

– Performance management

– Etc.

Services


• But will they look for

– Services and processes to improve application performance

– Services and processes that can help you understand the best use of a platform when new applications need to be purchased or developed

– Services and processes that will allow individuals to collaborate with business teams on future strategic needs for the business allowing the MSP to be proactive in understanding what might need to happen with the technology platform.

– Services and processes that can drive change within an organization

Services


• Business Impact: Users were unable to use applications because of an inability to read the screens

• Symptom: A Japanese user does not see certain screens in the local language after and OS upgrade.

– The local language was installed on the system

– First upgrade attempt failed but the second was flawless

Services


• Problem:

– The first upgrade had errors due to incorrect Double Byte software being used causing language configuration issues that went unnoticed.

– The service needed was one that understood the use of the OS and languages and an understanding of the impact of the original install that had errors on the language configuration

Services


• Business Impact: Sales data not reported to the business accurately. Noticed only after the second day.

• Symptom: BI users are suddenly not seeing data that they had seen in the past in their reports.

– Everything in the data warehouse looked good.

– A new security model was installed successfully on a server that sourced data to the data warehouse.

Services


• Problem:– Periodic access to this server by the BI solution failed

because of the new security model.

– The service performed was to implement an industry standard security model which did indeed get implemented.

– The service needed was a more sophisticated implementation that included a review of the BI access• This is a typical example of the “silo” affect where blinders are on

regarding other areas.

Services


Business Impact


Business Impact – Make it easy to Satisfy Customers


• Your customers receive their product in the time and quality they expect.

• How does an iMSP help you achieve that goal – Reduces delays in finding solutions to problems.

– Prevents problems from occurring by understanding the relationship between platform and business applications

– Provides more of a end user focus then a hardware focus.

– Provides an ability to proactively support business strategies

Business Impact


• When it works the way it should:

– A complete data center move is underway and you must have all applications tested and operational and an understanding of how each of those interact with the underlying architecture

– Great success with early identification of all integration points, all mission critical applications, and validation plans. Team oriented approach for go live.

– All systems worked as needed

Business Impact


iMSP Conclusions and Summary


• iMSP company – A company with the skill sets to bring the services to you.

– A cooperative internal process that provides seamless access to expertise

• iMSP virtual reality – A selection of companies that can provide the services

– Must have the communication and contractual arrangements to work as a single team

– Clear goals and objectives

iMSP Team


• An MSP is defined by the technical services it can provide

• An iMSP is defined less by the MSP services that it provides and more by the ability for it to provide business domain expertise throughout its service portfolio

• A difference in focus – the focus on the business

• A complete iMSP can provide full application and platform support – no silos

iMSP Summary


Do you Need an IMSP


• Expertise:– Do you require mainly platform expertise

– Are you seeking a provider that can relate to the end user experience

• Services:– Do you need services to maintain and operate the platforms you

have efficiently and ensure uptime of those platforms for your business

– Do you require services from your MSP that ensures your business is efficient and it has no delays in delivering to your customers.

Ask Yourself these Questions


• Business Impact

– Does your MSP know your platform and network usage

– Does your MSP have the capability to prevent “siloed” areas of expertise and services.

– If you had a strategic meeting about future business would you consider your current MSP an “must” invite to the meetings because of the insight they would have on your business goals.

Ask Yourself these Questions


Questions