The business of taking care of remote hardware and software has never been bigger:-Managed systems and services for retail, point of sale, hospitality, and other distributed operations are a hot growth area.- Enterprise help desks manage an increasingly dispersed array of hardware and software.- Enterprise software providers are moving to managed services and other value added support offerings to preserve margins in the face of increasing price pressure.
Virtual Support NetworksTen Tips for Delivering Managed Services to On-Site Systems
repaP etihW - skrowteN troppuS lautriV - setaicossA David Kay& y PrincipalaK DB Kay & AssociatesBD April 2005Before Virtual Support NetworksThe operations manager gets a flashing icon at the top of his queue. He glances over, looks at the customer site, and winces. It's another problem with the guest registration system at a small hotel in rural China.. M ultiple contacts to resolve The hotel chain is a big customer, but some of their remote locations appear designed to stretch the limits of his support capabilities. Sighing, he dispatches the incident to the support . Expensive field service center.. Significant downtime Sure enough, as he expected, the technician isn't able to do anything. Phone problems, . C ustomer dissatisfaction language challenges, and lack of technical expertise on site conspire to foil attempts to fix problems with anything as simple as a phone call. Yet, complete service is what the company sold the hotel chain, and complete service is what they'll deliver.
Mentally tallying the cost of another truck roll, the operations manager dispatches a partner's field service technician to the remote location and hopes he'll get there before the local hotel property complains to Corporate.
With Virtual Support NetworksThe operations manager gets a flashing icon at the top of his queue. He glances over, looks at the customer site, and shakes his head. It's another problem with the guest registration system at a small hotel in rural China. Downtime for systems like this can be costly, so he feels good his remote support team will be on it right away.
He dispatches the incident to his remote team which has recently been equipped with virtual . Closed at first contact r support network (VSN) technology. This a system that allows them direct, secure access to ep. Cost effective customer systems anywhere in the world-even in places where internet access is slow and a spotty, through a dial-up line or wireless.P . Shorter time to relief et. Customer satisfaction A few minutes later, the operations manager notices the case has been closed. Curious, he ihand loyalty opens up the incident and sees that the technician was able to easily reset a configuration file W that had been corrupted, likely because someone working at the registration desk had installed - something they shouldn't have. Smiling wryly, the manager remembers when a little problem s like that would have likely turned into a truck roll! What a waste that was.kro Pleased, the manager goes back to reading the company newsletter. The company just had wt its best quarter ever, fueled by repeat business from loyal customers. The CEO is quoted as e saying their difference is the quality of the service they deliver. The operations manager agrees.N troppuS lautriV - setaicossA & yaK BD
Page 2 - April 2005Executive Summary"Managed services in North America are the key data service trend going forward."- Charles R. Carr and Eric Goodness, Gartner
The business of taking care of remote hardware and software has never been bigger:
. Managed systems and services for retail, point of sale, hospitality, and other distributed operations are a hot growth area.. Enterprise help desks manage an increasingly dispersed array of hardware and software.. E nterprise software providers are moving to managed services and other value added support offerings to preserve margins in the face of increasing price pressure. Gartner estimates that managed services will grow at a CAGR of nearly 36 percent from 2001 to 2006.
These opportunities are being driven by CIOs' need to manage cost and risk carefully. With research showing that 47% of IT spending going to total cost of support and maintenance (TCSM), outsourcing system management to specialists makes sense for the buyer. But where does it leave the provider?
Field service visits are very expensive, costing at least a hundred dollars for even the simplest issue, and much more for complex resolutions. Managed service providers wisely avoid "truck rolls" and field service calls if possible. But how?r A new class of technology that we call Virtual Support Networks, exemplified by WebEx ep SMARTtech, has arrived to fill exactly this need. Virtual Support Networks allow service a providers to securely, scalably, and cost-effectively manage distributed installat... [download for more]
