I'm sitting around a table of MSP executives in London and an idea strikes me mid conversation. I'm listening to the managing director of a mature MSP in the UK and he is describing to those around him a common problem MSPs face with internal IT departments. The problem is not new. Internal IT tends to have inherent suspicions about MSPs and their real motives. They go something like this: MSPs want to steal our jobs and reduce our significance in the company. I believe this is not only false, but a belief that needs to be corrected immediately. Furthermore, I believe the term "collaborative outsourcing" can help.
For as long as I can remember, MSPs have struggled with how to disarm the threat of internal IT departments and their often incorrect views on managed services. I've heard many of these accusations from a) I'm going to lose my job, b) I'm going to lose my job to someone overseas, or c) I'll keep my job but it will be greatly reduced in terms of importance to the organization. I'd like to explain why these beliefs are not only wrong, but how a proper relationship with an MSP can prevent these false beliefs from becoming reality.
First, the idea that a MSP would necessarily cause a customer IT department to lose a job is false. Originally, managed services was almost exclusively sold into the large enterprise. Rarely would these managed services relationships cause the customer to have to fire their internal IT staff. Generally, the IT staff would be responsible for managing the outsourced partnership (more than one typically) and also have new duties focused on core value to the organization. Let's not forget that one of the primary benefits of managed services is that it allows customers to focus on their business, not on managing IT. Too often, internal IT staff do NOT focus on core business objectives because they are doing other menial IT tasks that could be outsourced.
Second, these myths of "managed services" causing job loss due to offshoring have been completely debunked. Offshoring is not outsourcing (this is a great article written back in 2003; notice how relevant it still is). When companies claim to be providing IT outsourcing when it is really offshoring a job to another country, we must all make an effort to correct that type of misconception.
Last, we have a marketing problem which needs to be addressed. Much like how Apple took the term cloud and defined it in a way that made sense to the average non-technical user, we must also further define managed services so as to help customers better understand what managed services is and what it is not. This brings me back to my dinner story.
After hearing the MSP talk about their struggles with educating the customer, I suggested using the term "collaborative outsourcing" as a way to soften or change the tone of the conversation away from outsourcing (with its connotation of loss of control) to collaboration (and a tone of a deeper and more meaningful relationship). Outsourcing tends to lead people to believe that the relationship is being severed; there will be no more relationship once the deal is signed. But, a collaborative outsourcing relationship necessarily means there will be ongoing communication and participation between all parties.
Whatever term we use we need something that is effective. We can no longer sit by while our profession is incorrectly defined by those who do not even understand it. Let's start taking back our profession and educate more.
