What Is a Service?

by Ray Barber, guest blogger from Kaseya

Services providers (SPs) traditionally provided clients with a mixture of the break-fix model, point solutions and out-of-the-box products that tied clients down to vendors for extended periods of time, even when those products didn’t necessarily work. But, the days of single-minded inflexible quick IT fixes are fast coming to an end.

During the last five years, there has been a dramatic shift in the way people consume IT products and services, and the SP industry has not been left untouched in this respect.

Savvy clients want flexibility; they want services on demand and the freedom to change products and services with little or no repercussions. These clients are looking for end-to-end IT services and proof that their SP truly understands their business needs.

This, of course, places SPs under pressure to re-think their selling propositions and client maintenance strategies. SPs must be able to articulate best-in-class IT service provision to clients on a level that they can understand and also see its benefits. This is especially true for IT service providers that are interested in the SME market, where clients are after maximum flexibility, scalability and a competitive solution that can provide excellent customer service as well as a true appreciation of their business situation.

Flexibility

In terms of SPs, the lack of flexibility is often seen by customers as an inhibitor for effective workflow and service provision. Flexibility for MSPs can be defined as giving the end-user the option to pay for exactly what they want.

An example of flexibility would be an SP selling a client an end-point security service, not charging the client for the product but rather selling them a service that includes a product. In this instance it would mean that the client has an end-point security solution on their system, but does not own it or manage it in any way. The SP will ensure the running and proactive maintenance of the end-point security on the network, which means that the client at any time could stop the service or switch to another end-point solution, with no-cost implication, hence a “managed service”, and so transforming from a reseller or SP to an MSP.  

This is exactly how end-users would want to consume their IT services as it implies massive cost effectiveness, however, it is heavily dependent on the SPs capability to deliver these services.

Service

SPs are becoming increasingly customer-aware and are focusing on continual service relationships by actively engaging with their customers in such a way that it adds value to the relationship through service.  

There are various ways to go about this, but an emerging trend shows that the biggest contributing factor to service in the IT industry is the removal of risk for the customer. For many SPs, service in this respect means that they need to deliver a fixed price service to their customer, while removing the risk from the client’s business and placing it on their own.

Removing risk holds huge benefits for the end-user but places immense pressure on the SPs to manage services and agreements well. This can only be done if the SP has the right, automated, tools in place with which they can gain an overview of a client’s IT infrastructure.

All of the above also means that the quality of IT services are being raised and becoming more cost effective as SPs can reduce downtime and focus on proactive problem solving. Having the right tools also offers IT service providers the flexibility and scalability that they require to increase their recurring revenue with minimal initial investments.