How technology-powered managed services can drive business transformation

As businesses rebuild in 2021, transformation and the ability to think differently are critical – managed services can be the solution.

Managed Services: What are businesses looking for?

Where old school outsourcing once helped companies take cost out, businesses now expect managed services to also add value across all elements of their business. The magic happens when deep industry expertise is combined with global reach and state-of-the-art technology. By lifting the burden where it’s heaviest, managed services can truly transform key operations, enhance performance and introduce innovation.

This frees up leaders to add more value and focus on what matters – driving growth and maintaining competitive advantage in a rapidly evolving, more complex world.

Every business chooses a unique managed services path based on their business needs and growth opportunities. However, in my experience, the main reasons they choose a managed services-enabled approach are summarized as follows:

• They’re exploring new, more agile ways of operating:
  Successful transformation starts with having ambition for real, sustainable change. Despite volatile conditions, these businesses are not afraid to take bold moves to reshape and grow. Businesses that are ready to let managed services take on functions that are board-critical but not business-differentiating free themselves to focus on innovation and growth. 
  
  
• They’re driving more efficient spending:
  As these businesses shift major functions such as tax, finance, risk and compliance to managed services, they’re avoiding huge upfront and fixed capital costs and instead consuming services in a flexible, on-demand way. This is also allowing them to move beyond business processes and leverage providers’ core domain expertise and technology investments to make key functions add more value to the business.
  
  
• They’re reallocating resources to fuel innovation:
  Managed services gives businesses solutions that include secure, fast, cost-effective access to technologies such as AI, trusted intelligence and automation, sophisticated data analytics, and the technical expertise to master these – all without the big upfront costs. Technology is enabling faster, more reliable decisions that fuel smarter innovation.
  
  
• They’re responding to the need for more efficient regulatory compliance:
  Compliance is a top priority for the businesses we’re working with and is a critical pillar in their managed services requirements. A trusted managed services provider will ensure compliance with changing industry and regulatory obligations across all operational jurisdictions, giving leaders the confidence to push forward to access those opportunities.

Businesses are looking for integrated end-to-end managed services projects, which combine technology with industry and domain expertise. Their ambition is to revolutionize non-core, but board-critical activities with easy-to-integrate solutions that lift the burden in tax, risk, compliance, finance and beyond, helping them achieve long-term value, making them more secure, more efficient and more compliant.