Three key attributes for selecting a managed services provider of choice

Recently our President & CEO George Schindler was quoted in a Fortune article, Outsourcing’s new role in digital transformations. The article shares the transition industry leaders are making from using outsourcing as a sole means to reduce costs and improve efficiencies, to one that also drives forward their digital strategies and enables greater business agility.

Take, for example, an announcement we made earlier this year regarding our partnership with OP Financial Group. Our long-term application development and management partnership, dating back to 2013, now extends to developing and delivering digital services for their insurance operations.

As shared in the Fortune article, we use the term managed services versus outsourcing. While outsourcing could infer something is taken out of a client’s organization, managed services demonstrates having a provider that is an extension of your team.

Certainly the pandemic intensified how technology has become part of every aspect of our day-to-day lives. Never has it been more important to find a trusted, capable managed services provider that can bridge and advance both your business and IT goals and priorities.

I lead the team that supports CGI’s business units worldwide with the design and implementation of managed IT and business process services. Here are three attributes that industry leaders can draw upon when using managed services to gain competitive advantage.

1.  Strategic partners are selected to advance digital leaders’ strategies.

We just completed our annual Voice of Our Clients interviews, whereby we spoke with nearly 1,700 business and IT leaders. When asked if they are achieving results from their enterprise-wide digital strategies, 20% said yes. One key finding is that these digital leaders use managed services more often. Now, more than ever, end-to-end enablement is required to bridge front-end digital solutions with back-end legacy systems. The right partner should help modernize your IT environment and transform your operations.

2.  Managed services supports the convergence of business and IT.

Business and IT departments should no longer be separate, but integrated. Leaders no longer look at IT as a tower-by-tower activity, such as separating the management of applications and infrastructure. They now look at their IT end-to-end. The right partner can help you connect and enable your business strategy with your enterprise architecture.

3.  Leaders maintain strategic direction, while leveraging providers as an extension of their organization.

When speaking with organizations about managed services, I advise they structure themselves to retain the strategic direction of their business and IT strategy. Their in-house IT function must be close to the C-Suite to ensure the linkage between the organization’s business and technology value chains. Through managed IT services, industry leaders use their partner as an extension of their organization, drawing on the provider to link performance, efficiency and quality metrics to drive business value, while also embedding innovation and continuous improvement in their day-to-day processes.

At CGI, we have a 45 year history of helping clients bridge the gaps between business and IT. I welcome the opportunity to speak with you about how we can help advance your digital strategies through a strategic managed services approach.