How Managed Services is revolutionising the business landscape

As the instability in political, economic, and social environments continues, the business landscape must keep pace. This is forcing chief experience officers (CXOs) to challenge traditional business operating models, ensuring that every interaction between a business and its customers is seamless, immersive and, ultimately, profitable. The acceleration of innovation and rapid technology advancements is also fueling the need for change, and this means that businesses need to consider a fundamental rewiring. One strategic solution continuing to gain prominence is Managed Services.   

The emergence of Managed Services

Managed Services have come a long way. What began for business in IT outsourcing, and had relatively limited scope, has now evolved into a comprehensive solution, which can help address the changing needs of a business and play a pivotal role in the ever-evolving business landscape. 

In the past, businesses often adopted a fragmented approach to enhance efficiency. They commonly relied on either a captive or outsourced model to independently improve various functions. The approach typically was taken due to the lack of in-house talent or budget to effectively keep up with the pace of change.

Leveraging outsourcing partners in the past has proved beneficial but it predominantly focused on low-end transactional tasks rather than specialised functions or a cross-functional perspective. Whilst organisations have been living with this for some time, the piecemeal nature of seeking efficiency improvements in isolated areas no longer adds value. To create long-term sustainable growth, businesses now need a company-wide defined strategy that gives them the freedom to implement meaningful change, rather than point-by-point quick fixes - allowing them to accelerate their transformations. For many businesses, the path for reinvention is through Managed Services.  Today, the right provider creates a connected Managed Services experience built upon a framework that makes it easy to add or expand solutions as needs change, shifting to a proactive stance, and anticipating issues before they arise.

Three trends a Managed Services approach could tackle head on

As the business landscape evolves, CXOs are seeing the growing complexity of technology and the increasing reliance of their business on its digital infrastructure. Managed Services providers will play a key role in helping businesses to continually evolve in response to emerging technologies and market changes.  

As I continue to engage with business leaders, I am seeing three broad trends that are shaping the business landscape.

1. Artificial intelligence and automation: Whilst automation will help streamline processes, AI will be able to analyse data in real-time to detect, for example, potential cyber threats. Both these technologies have become invaluable tools for CXOs.  They streamline processes, improve efficiency and enhance overall experience. AI will also be able to predict patterns and proactively address issues before they impact operations, as well as improve the reliability and security of business operations. Businesses will continue to look for Managed Services providers that will have leading edge capabilities and robust security measures, be able to stay at the forefront of innovation, enhance their agility and deliver a strong return on investment.

2. Support and Maintenance: As more and more devices become connected there will be a need to manage, monitor, and secure them through automating processes, capturing data and monitoring systems. This will require businesses to have a broader solution allowing them to anticipate potential issues through predictive analytics and automated maintenance. This, in turn, will reduce infrastructure downtime, as well as being able to make data-driven decisions to power their business forward. 

3. Regulatory requirements: With technology advances, the regulatory requirements that govern the use of technology will evolve and be more stringent. With rules changing faster and faster across multiple jurisdictions and regulators demanding greater transparency, companies can leverage Managed Services providers to ensure they are meeting the requirements.

Against this backdrop, CXOs are looking to access ‘modular’ Managed or Operate Services with technology at their core to manage these new dynamics.  All this whilst accelerating the more traditional drivers of reducing operating costs, improving operational productivity, increasing efficiency and delivering exceptional experiences. The trend for CXOs is towards creating a framework for continuous improvement with the ability to pivot and innovate quickly, delivering transformative change and a competitive advantage.

This rapidly changing landscape and resulting client needs has influenced my own choices, having recently joined EY. What initially attracted me was the investment in their connected Managed Services, coupled with a strong stance of offering clients trust-based services that have technology at their core. Secondly, the commitment to fostering talent which has been highlighted through the recent announcement of creating 1,000 new jobs in Northern Ireland over the next five years. This investment aims to provide access to the right talent across a diverse range of skillsets and specialisms equipping EY to solve its clients’ most complex challenges effectively. 

Embracing the future

As I reflect on the evolving landscape of Managed Services it’s evident it has been a continuous journey allowing businesses today to transform at pace and giving them the freedom to deliver long-term value whilst remaining competitive. To remain agile in the future, businesses must continually explore new approaches and models, building out a framework for continuous improvement and embedding the right ecosystems whilst striking the balance between innovation and risk.  

To learn more about EY Managed Services and how EY teams can help you, please visit Managed Services | EY UK.

The views reflected in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the global EY organisation or its member firms.