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Identifying a Best-of-Breed Managed Services Partner

Overview CONTENTS

Overview ...... 1 of every size now commonly use providers to help implement, deploy and operate important IT solutions. However, not all service providers are alike. How to Spot a Service Provider At a high level, two types of service providers are emerging: “suppliers,” who are That Is a True IT Partner ...... 2 typically focused on providing a single point solution delivered according to the specific Assess the Relationship . . . . . 2 details of the service ; and “partners,” who actually take the time to learn about their clients’ needs and strategies. Suppliers solve a specific, tactical problem. True Customers Are Not Force Fit partners tailor their offerings to address the ’s current and future needs. Into a Standard Solution . . . . . 2 Partners become an extension of an organization’s knowledge base and skill set, helping Customers Can Leverage to optimize specific aspects of IT infrastructure. Specific and Deep Solution-Focused Expertise . . . 2 Neither approach is best, however it’s important to note that the customer is going to get a very different type of relationship depending on which type of service provider Enhancing Innovation ...... 3 is engaged. Specifically, the value that a customer receives is going to be dramatically Carousel – A Best-of-Breed Partner . 3 different. The benefits of a true “partner” have become far more important in the last few years as internal IT departments have less bandwidth to stay on top of the many Conclusions ...... 3 new and emerging technologies that may have possible benefit to the organization, or create new systems that support emerging processes. Further, partners have become an essential go-to for providing additional personnel resources for overstretched IT organizations.

Two types of service providers Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that a service provider can’t put one foot in two canoes, claiming to offer both supplier and partner approaches. The primary are emerging: suppliers and reason for this is that true partners will invest in substantial customer-facing staff and partners. resources to support a more consultative approach. Suppliers typically don’t spend as much time on-site discussing strategy or evaluating larger issues; their focus is to get the contract for their standard service completed. These are very different business models and drive how they engage with the customer.

Another trend driving the move to partners is “service provider sprawl.” Managing as many as 12 to 15 tactical service providers demands too much oversight, and makes any strategic solution integration very difficult. As a result, IT organizations are seeking to work with fewer partners who can provide more comprehensive solutions and services.

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How to Spot a Service Provider That Is a True IT Partner

The push toward higher-value relationships and the IT organization’s desire for more comprehensive solutions has not escaped notice in the service provider True partners will not force fit community. This has led to many suppliers trying to recast themselves as partners customers into their preexisting when they may not actually have the internal resources to deliver on that promise. solution or offering. This can lead to disappointment and projects that are not successful. As a result, it’s essential that IT organizations know what to look for in a real partner.

1. Assess the Relationship

Among the most telling actions that define a true partner is how they approach the relationship with the customer. A partner will invest time and resources to understand the unique issues and challenges that an organization faces and what IT systems are needed to support or resolve those issues. The partner invests their time and resources to acquire this knowledge before any solutions are discussed or selling starts. In addition to the sales team, a partner-oriented provider will bring technical staff and their own experienced management team into the process, adding a larger skill set to the up-front consultation and learning exercise. There are two key traits that define a partner: The contract or services are frequently tuned, and there is flexibility in how services are delivered to ensure they meet unique and specific customer needs.

2. Customers Are Not Force Fit into a Standard Solution

One of the key distinctions between suppliers and partners is the willingness to modify, change or update the solution or service. True partners will not force fit customers into their preexisting solution or offering. Modifying the offering, the contract or the details of the service requires the service provider to invest in making those changes and creating new business agreements. Service providers that won’t do this are generally in the supplier category. An additional hallmark of the true partner is that they will usually focus on delivering a broader, more complete solution, and one that can be more easily customized. A cohesive solution reduces complexity and allows IT to gain more leverage from a single partner. In addition, the more complete offering will already include the necessary future functionality that the customer may desire in future deployments and results in far faster time to value for that next-generation deployment.

3. Customers Can Leverage Specific and Deep Solution-Focused Expertise

One of the most important points of leverage from the customer’s perspective is the ability to utilize the service provider’s expertise, experience and knowledge for the specific solutions that they provide. True partners that have a broad perspective of the solution area and substantial in-house expertise will have more institutional knowledge that customers can rely upon. A true partner shares this expertise with internal IT staffs to optimize their learning and experience curve. This knowledge transfer allows internal IT to blend their skills and understanding of the organizational issues with the focused expertise and research being done by the service provider. Partners will make the time and technical resources available to ensure that this cross pollination occurs.

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4. Enhancing Innovation

Innovation is essential to creating the new processes that will drive organizational success. There are a number of aspects to how innovation happens. A partner- oriented service provider will have the skills and expertise to incorporate innovative A partner-oriented service and new technologies that will add functionality to the overall solution or support new business processes. With so many new technology options coming to market, provider will have the skills being able to leverage your partner’s evaluation and implementation skills to and expertise to incorporate identify new capabilities is a huge advantage. Next, the partner will have the innovative and new technologies expertise to recognize what new business processes or capabilities are becoming that will add functionality to the common in their solution area and will proactively add support for them. The systems to support new also demands expertise to effectively overall solution or support new integrate and test new technologies to ensure that they are deployed successfully, business processes. in a timely fashion.

Carousel – A Best-of-Breed Partner

Carousel Industries has been a service provider since 1992. During this time the company has grown to support more than 6,000 customers, including 35 of the Fortune 100. This success is predicated upon the company’s commitment to invest in resources that bring direct and measurable benefit to the customer.

Carousel’s large staff focuses on primary solution areas that fall within cloud, data center, networking, Unified Communications and Collaboration, security and managed services and applications. This allows the company to develop substantial depth of expertise, invest in technical staff and learn from numerous customer engagements of similar solutions. To further enable new, high-value solutions, Carousel has certification and often top partner status with more than 50 technology vendors and providers that support solutions within Carousel’s areas of focus. Carousel also offers cloud and on-premise solutions, allowing customers to deploy new applications using the infrastructure approach that makes the best sense for their unique situation.

Conclusions

A confluence of multiple long-term IT trends—IT staff reduction, an explosion of new technologies, changing user demands, and a focus on an OPEX model of IT—has made service providers critical resources for implementing and supporting new solutions and business processes. Internal IT organizations no longer have the resources to meet the expanding organizational needs for new capabilities. However, the service provider population is now bifurcating into two primary roles: the tactical-focused supplier, and the more consultative and strategic partner. Both types of service providers are valuable, but current trends are driving an increased reliance on partner providers.

Organizations of all sizes are finding that strategic partners are more attractive, as they have the internal resources and desire to customize offerings to best fit the business © Copyright 2017 Carousel Industries of North America, Inc. All needs of their customers. In addition, many IT groups want to avoid service provider Rights Reserved. Carousel Industries® sprawl by working with a smaller number of strategic partners with more comprehensive is a registered trademark of Carousel solutions. The most important issue for IT organizations is to consider the use of service Industries of North America, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of providers from both a strategic and tactical perspective, and make decisions that fit the their respective owners. long term. A true partner will deliver evolving solutions that keep pace with needs.

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