Managed IT Outsourcing: Boosting IT System Performance

Apr 9th, 2011 Chuck Vermillion

Managed services, sometimes referred to as Managed IT outsourcing, as well as outsourcing ERP has become a common practice for many businesses. In fact, according to an IDC Corporation study, a strong surge in demand for application management services is expected to grow the worldwide market at an overall compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.2 percent and reach $27.2 billion by 2009.

With a reputable managed services provider, each customer solution is uniquely designed to enhance the performance of existing IT systems while minimizing costs. Outsourcing allows businesses to benefit from high systems availability and 24/7 support. Customers can focus on strategic business goals versus managing their IT environments.

COMPLETE MID-MARKET MANAGED SERVICES
A high quality managed services or managed IT outsourcing service provider offers a comprehensive and flexible suite of ERP outsourcing solutions for mid-market companies. Instead of a "one-size-fits-all" model, they build their solutions around each customer's unique situation.

24/7 Support Center - A high quality support center provides 24/7 user support, problem tracking and issue resolution for all Level 1 and Level 2 issues. These services include:

- Call-logging, triage and call-management services
- Establishing customer-specific call types
- Establishing customer-defined escalation procedures
- Monitoring and troubleshooting scheduled batch and cron jobs
- Providing detailed, monthly call reports and analysis
- Creating and modifying user IDs
- Stopping runaway or hung processes (database, application specific, printer, UNIX, etc.)
- Assisting callers with software navigation and use

Application Administration - A reputable managed services provider's application administration team implements and maintains applications in a configuration optimized for each customer. These applications include user accounts, output devices, database interaction, batch jobs, patches and customizations. To ensure optimal system performance and availability, the application administrators work closely with the database and operating system administrators to proactively monitor and tune each system.

Database Administration - A high quality managed services provider's database administration services are designed for data availability and security. At the same time, they focus on maintaining data integrity and optimal system performance. Successful data backups, along with regular restore and recovery testing, are their highest priorities. Proactive and perpetual system monitoring and tuning ensures high availability oft their customers' systems.

Operating Systems Administration - A reputable managed services provider offers support for hardware, including workstations and enterprise servers. The operating systems supported include most flavors of UNIX, Wintel and O/S 400. Services include systems design, hardware installation, O/S upgrades and patch management, systems configuration, performance monitoring and tuning, security design and monitoring, and daily O/S administration.

WAN/LAN Management - A high quality managed services provider's WAN and LAN administration services provide customers remote, enterprise-wide network monitoring and management. The real-time status of all critical nodes/segments is monitored at the provider's 24/7 support center. The services include network discovery and analysis, trouble reporting and resolution, trend and usage analysis and capacity planning, and network security management.

Desktop and Device Management - A reputable managed services provider can provide support for the entire life cycle of your desktop technology. Whether dealing with deployments, break-fix issues or service level agreements, their flexible model can be customized to your specific environment. Their engineers can be strategically located on-site or off-site using remote tools to troubleshoot and diagnose problems over the phone. Their service engineers work closely with you to ensure issues are fixed and documented within established response times.

Outsourcing requires a unique combination of experience, focus, technical resources and a commitment to customers. By partnering with a reputable managed services provider, your organization will receive a customer focused, proven and practical outsourcing solution tailored to your specific situation.

About the Author:

Chuck Vermillion is CEO and founder of OneNeck IT Services, a leading Enterprise Resource Planning outsource provider helping mid-market companies improve system performance. For more information about managed IT outsourcing and how it can benefit your business, visit our site.

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