Some organisations look towards outsourcing to assist them in achieving their business objectives, and some prefer to retain the delivery of IT services in-house. However, Butler Group is seeing an increasing number of organisations not only using outsourcing to complement the services they are delivering in-house, but also implementing a multi-sourced model – that is, having a number of different providers deliver various aspects of IT requirements.

The Managed Services model should enable effective MSPs to maximise the efficiency and quality of their offerings, due to their narrow focus on an area that can be improved iteratively. Along with the economies that can be derived from operating on a larger scale, Managed Services should be available at a lower cost than the customer organisation could achieve itself, thereby increasing value for the customer organisation.

However, it is not all a bed of roses, and undertaking the use of Managed Services can constitute a risk to an organisation. This is because it can create a dependency on skills from outside the organisation, and thus the extent of this risk should be quantified. If core, value-adding business processes and applications are outsourced to a MSP, the consequential loss of control over available resource levels (if they are not guaranteed) could result in a loss of organisational flexibility.

Key findings:
• Organisations must undertake Managed Services as part of a considered sourcing strategy.
• All sizes of organisation make use of Managed Services.
• Using Managed Services allows organisations to focus IT resource on delivering strategic benefits rather than repetitive services.
• Managed Services customers should seek to pay for actual usage, rather than maximum usage, of services.
• Commitment is required from all levels to make the Managed Services model work for the organisation.
• Customers need to spend time, effort, and money to support a Managed Services contract, through an in-house management team.
• Managed Services allow for increased business and financial flexibility, through the reduced need to commit to a long period of involvement with a single supplier.
• Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are an important element of Managed Services and need to be controlled and maintained.
• Network, voice/data convergence, and security services are the highest Managed Services growth markets.
• Almost 40% of organisations are likely to outsource aspects of their infrastructure in the next two years.
• Service requirements are converging across technologies.

Section 1: Management Summary 9
1.1 Management Summary 11

Section 2: The Universe of Managed Services 17
2.1 Report Description and Objectives 19
2.2 Introduction 20
2.3 Managed Services Offerings 23
2.4 The Business Case 28
2.5 The Offshore Perspective 32
2.6 Technology Transformation 38

Section 3: Functionality Considerations 41
3.1 Desktop Management 43
3.2 Server Management 47
3.3 Network Management 49
3.4 Security Management 52
3.5 Application Management 57
3.6 Storage Management 63
3.7 Mobile Management 66

Section 4: Decision and Selection 71
4.1 The Right Choice? 73
4.2 Procurement 78
4.3 Vendor and Contract Management 85

Section 5: Markets 91
5.1 Current Market Analysis 93
5.2 Individual Markets 97
5.3 Futures 112

Section 6: Vendors 115
6.1 Vendor Profiles 117
Accenture 117
Anite Group plc 118
Articon-Integralis 119
AT&T 119
Atos Origin 120
BT Group plc 121
Cable and Wireless plc 122
Capgemini 122
Cognito 123
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation 124
COLT Telecom Group plc 124
Computacenter plc 125
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) 126
Cybertrust 126
Dimension Data 127
Electronic Data Services (EDS) Corporation 127
EMC Corporation 128
Fujitsu Limited 129
Getronics NV 129
GlassHouse Technologies 130
GXS 131
HCL Technologies 131
HP Services 132
IBM Global Services 133
Infosys Technologies Limited 133
InTechnology Plc 134
Iomega Corporation 135
Kingston Communications Plc 136
LogicaCMG plc 137
Logicalis Group 137
MessageLabs Group 138
NetStore Plc 139
Perot Systems Corporation 139
Phoenix IT Services 140
Siemens IT Solutions and Services 140
Salesforce.com 141
ScanSafe Limited 141
SCC 142
Steria SA 143
SunGard Data Systems 143
Symantec Corporation 144
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) 145
THUS Group plc 145
Unisys Corporation 146
Vanco plc 146
Vistorm Ltd. 147
Wipro Technologies 147
Xansa 148
6.2 Vendor Matrix 149
Section 7: Glossary 153