Hot Top Trends in Managed IT Services
These days, around half of enterprise-level companies make use of IT as a service, or “Managed IT”, within their company. The concept is growing every year as more companies see its benefits. Because of this, it is important to know what it can offer you so you do not miss out.
This article will explain how IT services are changing and what trends you can expect to be at the forefront of managed IT services in 2022. By the end, you should have a good understanding of how the future will pan out so you can plan for it moving forward. So, read on and improve your workplace’s services.
1. Automation, Automation, Automation
There is more data than ever coming into companies after people use services or perform their jobs. Because of this, it is becoming much easier to analyze patterns in behavior.
Analytics has improved again and again over the past decade. It has gotten to the point where we can make use of artificial intelligence to analyze it and provide recommendations.
An AI can look at the work done and provide early warnings based on patterns it detects in a computer network then offer several options for a solution. For example, it can provide an automated response which it uses to mitigate any problems and keep a system running. It can then inform a human IT manager of any long-term repercussions or provide data for the manager to make decisions in the long term.
Automation in this case is much faster than any human can respond. It can cut off malicious access, increase processing power, or manage data in a larger system without a person needing to lift a finger. Many users will not even realize that anything is happening behind the scenes as resources move around.
2. Data-Driven Customer Service
While automation might make drastic use of data to perform a job better, the same data is also useful across the company to make other major changes.
For example, in the customer service area, representatives can get information on ongoing issues as they occur. No longer do they need to wait for that data to get passed their way by a third party. With such data, they can make plans to communicate with clients and customers before problems noticeably rear their heads.
Similarly, if long-term patterns energy, then the company can choose to react to them well before they happen. For example, managers can plan for more customer service reps to be around during specific periods. For example, when they expect peak calls every year. Or, managers can optimize inventory to be ready for an influx of new communication about specific problems that occur, or are likely to occur.
This is better than the analytics of the past, where people had to regularly retrospect on issues and resolve things as they happened. Gone are the days when an unexpected change would catch you out and that would cause an increase in customer service workload or other changes.
Instead, many other things can give you forewarning. Examples include external trends, your competition’s actions, or annual events. Instead, they can now give you an early warning of work you might need to do sooner.
3. Deeper Cooperation With Partners
Moving forward, we are likely to see more examples of both clients and outsourced tech support companies evolving and changing together. In the past, it was more expected that each separate entity would change its systems in isolation as technology improves. But, greater cooperation is now recognized as leading to better innovation on both sides of the relationship.
These days, clients have the opportunity to design and develop their own UIs, solutions, and journeys. It allows them to create something that is custom-tailored to their processes.
At the same time, IT services provide the core underlying architecture that allows the solutions to work. IT services provide APIs that can allow this to work without having to create bespoke systems that work with the client.
4. Increased Budget
It might sound blunt, but the simple fact of the matter is that with a larger budget, a managed IT service can do a lot more. In general, it is forecast that across the world, IT support spending looks like it will go up by almost six percent in 2022. That money can go towards your IT service management in a way that ensures you are getting a service worth paying top dollar for.
On top of that, to have a well-managed system, you need a highly-competent organizer. To get one of those for your IT system, you need to pay them an IT manager salary.
A larger budget allows you to put money aside to pay good workers what they are worth. You will be able to both hire high-quality IT managers as well as keep hold of them if they have options to go elsewhere but your pay is too good to resist.
On top of this, it is true that many solutions to IT problems are not simple affairs. Many of them take large amounts of time and effort to put in place, and this costs money. This is without even thinking about long, ongoing support and bug fixes that made need to occur over time.
An increased budget mitigates some of the worries of this by letting solutions take as long as they need to. This prevents your service from rushing the solution the first time, or only half-completing it in preference for newer issues. You can also make sure that you can upgrade your managed IT service if you need to by buying a better or more comprehensive package.
5. Just In Time
These past few years we have found that new problems have hit every aspect of life. COVID and other healthcare issues have meant that any part of a work chain might go into disarray at any time.
This is true when we are thinking of a physical supply chain from manufacturer to client. But it is also true for the ability of managed IT services to stay on top of network issues. Not to mention, IT services need physical hardware or expect the completion of software or firmware on time.
As we move into 2022, we are starting to see data analytics used in this area of business also. Supply chains are starting to move from a front-heavy plan to a just-in-time process, communicating with all other steps as they move along. As any slowness affects supply chains, they can prepare and either change their plan or communicate any problems as necessary.
Just-in-time allows for better planning and better use of time across the board. Bottlenecks will be a thing of the past and prove an IT project manager’s salary to be worth its price.
