When outsourcing your IT support to another company, knowing your managed services ROI is important. After all, you want to know that you are indeed getting value for the money you are laying out, but a lot of companies don’t even know what this means. So, let’s examine it.
What Do We Mean By Managed Services ROI?
First, let’s assess what we mean by managed services ROI. The truth is that it’s all connected to whether you are achieving your objectives. Is your company getting the results you want from the managed services firm?
To do this, you need to know what you expect for your company, and how the business you are outsourcing to will be able to meet up with those expectations. If it is clear from the outset that they do not have the required skills, then how could you then expect them to deliver on what you need?
In that instance, the ROI would be poor as it is practically impossible for the two parties involved to be able to bring things to a successful conclusion.
Getting Feedback for Your Managed Services ROI
So, the question here is how you are able to understand if you are getting a good ROI when it comes to managed services.
One way is to get feedback from your staff or those individuals in your company that are using the services as provided by that outsourced company. What’s the response of your staff? Are they content with the provider? Do they think that the uptime is sufficient? Are they aware of areas that are under-performing and need to be changed?
But there’s one other area you should look at, and that’s data.
Data is a wonderful way of being able to determine if your ROI is good enough. Measure those aspects related to the service being provided by the company. That is how you will then be able to decide if the company is indeed meeting the expectations and standards expected by you.
So, How Does ROI Work?
The exact way in which managed services ROI will work is going to vary from company to company. This is entirely due to the fact that what you want to get out of this business relationship is unique and personal to your company.
But let’s get one thing straight.
Remember how we said earlier on that you need to know what you will get out of the relationship? Well, we aren’t merely talking about you saying you want to work better. That in itself is too wide-ranging an objective. Also, how do you even measure something like that?
Instead, the way in which the ROI will work is related to issues or problems that are far more specific.
Here’s an example. Let’s say you want help to have a better understanding of the technology that can help your business. You outsource this to a company who will assess your current technology before making recommendations as to what may need to change.
If, by the end of it all, you have that better understanding along with working more efficiently, then the ROI is positive. However, if you are still struggling to get to grips with things, and you have spent money trying to understand it, then your ROI is negative.
In other words, with managed services ROI, you have an idea of concept that you wish to focus on, and then see if the company you outsource to actually helps you to achieve those aims. If they do, then life is great, and you have had a significant return on your investment. If they don’t, then it’s back to the drawing board.