Managed services is rapidly gaining momentum as a key player in accelerating digital transformation. This business model has been a game changer for organizations that were previously too busy to prioritize digital transformation.

While digital transformation is urgent, legitimate obstacles prevent organizations from pursuing it. From the current IT talent shortage to the ever-rising demand for IT services, ROI, and performance, there’s simply too much to manage with too few resources. As a result, your project backlog continues to build, and digital transformation initiatives that could considerably impact your company’s success fall by the wayside.

It’s no longer realistic to rely solely on your in-house IT team to cover your digital transformation strategy, solution delivery, and optimization.

That’s why 84% of organizations are adapting their business strategies to cover deficiencies in their current operating models. And for many, the answer is adopting a managed services business model.

Managed services can augment, supplement, or outsource your technical support to a team of experts in your areas of need. As a result, this partnership offers you access to the tools, talent, and insights you need to achieve your transformation goals faster. Let’s explore five ways managed services providers can help you accelerate your digital transformation.

5 Ways Managed Services Accelerates Digital Transformation

1. It Fills Skill Gaps to Support New Technologies

The pool of skilled, specialized technology workers is running increasingly shallow, making hiring these professionals challenging. According to Gartner’s 2021-2023 Emerging Technology Roadmap Survey, IT executives view the current talent shortage as the most significant adoption barrier to 64% of emerging technologies, compared with just 4% in 2020.

Managed services teams offer highly skilled, new technology-minded experts who can manage your current solutions in addition to implementing and supporting new solutions. This perk is especially valuable as technologies continue to grow in complexity and require increasingly skilled and specialized workers to run smoothly.

2. It Broadens the Horizon of Innovation by Saving Time

Managed services can help you increase operational efficiency by an estimated 45-65%. When your staff no longer spends their days running around putting out fires, they can begin making progress elsewhere. They’ll finally have time for planning, designing, and implementing innovative technologies that accelerate your digital transformation. Additionally, they can start chipping away at the backlog of value-added IT projects that support your transformation efforts.

It’s a win all-around: Your staff gets to tackle more exciting work and get creative, and your organization benefits from their ideas, all while your maintenance needs are squared away in the background.

3. It Saves You Money That You Can Reinvest in Digital Transformation

Partnering with a managed services provider allows you to reduce your IT costs by an estimated 25-45%. Managed services lets you ease your hiring efforts, which reduces expenses related to onboarding, training, and resources. For example, companies spend $1,886 per employee on average each year for training alone. Imagine not having to pay for all those certifications and trainings!

Managed services also allows you to cut down on expensive network downtime, which can otherwise cost $5,600 per minute. This gain comes from managed services proactively monitoring your solution for downtime-triggering events, which they can quickly resolve or prevent altogether. Additionally, managed services provide a predictable, fixed cost for maintenance activities. As a result, you can access premium tools and services without ownership fees.

4. It Provides Expert Insights to Improve Your Solution & Strategy

Managed services providers offer a vast pool of specialized resources. As a result, your managed services provider has experts on staff to advise and assist in the precise areas you need, as you need them. In addition to handling daily maintenance and new implementations, these professionals can provide ideas to improve your solutions. They can also strengthen your digital transformation plans by offering strategic advice and direction based on their knowledge and experience. Since your dedicated managed services team will know your company and solutions inside and out, they can give personalized insights you can trust.

5. It Increases Your Digital Agility

Due to rapidly evolving customer expectations, regulations, technologies, and industry standards, businesses must maintain digital agility to remain competitive. Keeping up with these requirements is increasingly challenging as key IT management issues become more complex. In addition to the IT talent shortage and retention, these issues include aligning IT with your business and cybersecurity. Staying on top of these rapidly evolving concerns requires continuous education. This moving target can be nearly impossible when your IT team is already strapped with other priorities.

Managed services providers can help by ensuring your solutions always meet evolving business requirements for performance, functionality, user experience, and security. And as we’ve already explored, they remove the IT talent shortage and retention obstacles. Finally, with the newly unlocked time this partnership will provide you, you’ll be able to focus on IT alignment. The experts on your managed services team can also weigh in with their insights, strengthening your efforts further.

How to Maximize the Value of OnBase with Naviant Managed Services

Put Your Digital Transformation on the Fast Track

By now, it’s clear that the way we worked pre-pandemic will never make a complete comeback. The way we operate has shifted and continues to evolve. To keep up, you need to accelerate your digital transformation efforts. Managed services can help you prioritize digital transformation faster and more efficiently than stretching your IT team thin or chasing new talent. And with the talent, insights, and tools managed services provides, your organization will be better equipped for future success.

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About Kara

As a Naviant Content Writer since 2019, Kara is passionate about helping organizations unleash the power of technology to solve their business challenges. In her weekly articles, Kara breaks down the latest research, trends, and tips in the digital transformation world, specializing in intelligent automation, the cloud, AP & HR automation, artificial intelligence, change management, and more. She is also a Copywriter for the American Marketing Association-Madison, where she contributes bimonthly articles that interview industry experts and highlight the latest marketing trends. When she’s not writing, Kara is working on her latest art project, scoping out new music, or out for a run.