CompTIA: Channel Must Educate Organizations About Managed Services
Only about three in 10 organizations have adopted some kind of managed services, and that modest uptake may mean the need for more awareness among, and education of, end users, according to new research from CompTIA.
In most cases, companies are using managed services along with their internal IT departments, CompTIA found in its Third Annual Trends in Managed Services study. Among those users, there’s a high level of satisfaction, said Carolyn April, director of industry analysis for CompTIA.
“But choosing the managed services route is a major organizational decision, one that must be weighed against handling IT internally, and one that requires many steps to make a successful transition,” she said.
Still, there remains confusion among organizations about what, exactly, constitutes a managed service, CompTIA discovered.
“The good news is that there are opportunities to be had in the marketplace,” said April. “But the first step has to be a greater commitment by channel partners and MSPs to build awareness and educate customers. Otherwise the market is likely to experience only incremental growth.”
The advantages to managed services, of course, are several, including better network uptime and security, and cost savings. And, overall, cloud computing does promise to help escalate managed services adoption.
“Cloud-based providers are enabling end customers to outsource IT functions in a more automated fashion for a fraction of the cost,” April said. “That’s the one wild card that could change the growth path.”
