Pound coins
Businesses will have to invest at a time when capital is in short supply

Downturn prompts growth in managed services

New report predicts 'perfect storm' for IT industry

Iain Thomson in San Francisco

A new report from analyst firm Forrester Research suggests that managed services could get a big boost from the current economic downturn.

Despite the economic situation the analyst points out that the rapid growth of technological areas such as metro Ethernet, videoconferencing and high-end telecoms, means that businesses will have to invest at a time when capital is in short supply, which makes lower cost managed services more attractive.

Advertisement

"Year over year the story for all types of managed services is the same. About 10 per cent of potential customers buy, and 30 per cent more say that they are interested. Is this the destiny for the industry? No," said principal analyst Henry Dewing.

"Forrester believes that a perfect storm is brewing. Technological change, the technology investment cycle, and difficult economics are combining to push some types of managed services over the chasm."

Dewing predicts that, while the very largest firms may be able to afford the investment needed in the coming decade, small and medium-size businesses will not, making them a prime market for managed service offerings that minimise initial capital cost and do not require an investment in IT staff.

For example, research found that 67 per cent of firms used managed telecoms services to reduce costs. More than half chose this option to simplify management, and nearly half felt that they could get better reliability of service than if they used in-house staff.

However, much of the possible success of managed services will depend on providers offering hybrid services which can handle companies keeping some systems in-house while outsourcing others.

As managed services vendors shift their focus to offering these hybrid deployments, integration between managed and non-managed services, often from different solutions providers, will be critical, Dewing added.

"Managed services vendors will need to offer these integrations seamlessly, co-ordinating and co-operating in a variety of different structures with other managed services and solutions providers," he said.

  • Have your say
  • Send to a friend
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Share

Do you agree?

Further reading

Network cables

BT taps Blue Coat for managed services support

Traffic optimisation and security for Global Services unit

Networks

Alcatel-Lucent to take over BT's non-UK network

Seven-year contract to optimise legacy infrastructure

Microsoft unveils Azure for cloud computing

Plans professional platform for “next 50 years of computing”

Novell snaps up Managed Objects

Acquisition adds performance monitoring to Novell datacentre range

Related whitepapers

Related jobs

Most watched

Summit: Views From the Valley

V3.co.uk's US office weighs in on the information overload crisis

John Chambers speaks on collaboration

Cisco boss talks up new offerings

Analysis and Reports

Remote access - Three steps to getting connected

3.4 million UK professionals now work from home – is your company equipped?

Cost benefits of a global collaboration network

This white paper is a must read for organisations looking for evidence of the bottom-line benefits of high-definition video and voice communications

Poll

Impact of Information Overload poll

Impact of Information Overload poll

What is the biggest problem your firm faces as a result of the data explosion?

View poll results

Advertisement

White paper library

Keep up to date with the latest products, services and technologies from the world's leading IT companies; IThound.com brings you over 6,000 white papers, case studies and analyst reports.

Advertisement

Newsletter signup

Sign up for our range of FREE newsletters:

Existing User

Newsletter user login:

Enter email address to edit your newsletter preferences

Job of the week

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Hiring now on ComputingCareers:

Related IT jobs

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Advertisement

Spotlight

deloitte

Summit interview: Deloitte discusses security implications of the data deluge

We chat to Mike Maddison, UK head of Security, Privacy...

ibm logo

IBM boosts mobile shopping with WebSphere Commerce

Update designed to give mobile users a richer, more personalised...

Summit: Intel discusses processors for data overload (part 2 of 2)

More thoughts on how servers can help manage overload

chrome logo

Google plans a Mac version of Chrome

A Mac-friendly version of the browser is in the pipeline

Primary Navigation