Managed Services are all about taking full responsibility

In a new series on our blog, we’re interviewing people at Spyrosoft to find out how they work and their perspective on the IT industry. Today, we’re talking with Michał Kaleta who recently joined the team as a Head of Managed Services.

The interview was published in November 2020. The current Head of Managed Services at Spyrosoft is Filip Różański.

What are Managed Services?

Managed Services indicate that the service provider takes over the complete management process of a certain service. Usually, it also means that the service is provided on a 24/7 basis with a guarantee of the service’s quality.

What areas are covered by Managed Services?

You can provide Managed Services in multiple sectors, i.e. HR or payroll. Obviously, in our case, we’re providing IT services, starting with hardware and infrastructure, through software development and any other programming services.

Why is it different from traditional outsourcing?

Traditional outsourcing is often delivered ‘on demand’ – if a customer needs something to be done, they ask their IT provider to complete the task as scheduled. They can also require the provider to tackle only one part of a service.

When it comes to Managed Services, the part where you take over the whole process is crucial, it’s far more limited in outsourcing. Managed Services are also more specialised than regular outsourcing.

Just to give you an example, if a customer wants to archive their documents, they pay a provider to handle it as a one-off service. If this was a Managed Services task, we would also take care of the whole process, including all related services and ensuring high quality at all times.

What are the benefits of using Managed Services?

The main benefit is the fact that the process is managed by the Managed Services provider – or a MSP – in its entirety. You can focus on your company operations and you can be sure that the IT services you handed off to the provider will be carried out in line with all industry standards.

In the case of outsourcing, the buyer has to decide what to do, how and when to do it. Of course, the vendor is also responsible for the task, but they don’t have any responsibility over the planning process. In Managed Services, the vendor is responsible for the whole service.

What is the future of Managed Services, and will they start covering more sectors?

I think that this sector will grow as quickly as the cloud services industry that’s also now considered a part of the Managed Services offering. There are large cloud services providers in both Europe and the US, and this direction will become even more prominent in the future.

Are there any sectors where Managed Services will never be applicable?

It’s hard to say as most services can be provided using this model. It’s simply more beneficial. It’s also about the balance – some companies may actually benefit from building an internal team of developers and testers, but others will prefer and get better results from using help from an external team.

On the other hand, there are more and more companies that are providing Managed Services, exploring new industries and domains.

What Managed Services is Spyrosoft currently offering?

We’re also ready to offer DevOps support which has been increasingly popular in the last few years. The service then includes the whole software development process, including preparing and setting up the tools.

You joined the company not so long ago. How did you get into Managed Services?

When I started working in the IT industry 13 years ago, my activity was mostly focused around customer support, working on systems that were already implemented as well as software development. I find designing services that can make systems more effective fun and inspiring. I’ve been doing it for a long time and I still enjoy it.

How do you see your role at Spyrosoft?

My first steps have been centred around DevOps competencies. We would like share as much resources as we can internally to integrate the DevOps team that we currently have. The DevOps team had been dispersed throughout the company up to now. We also want to employ and train new people.

I’d also like to set up and share Managed Services standards. This task will also be aimed at increasing the quality of services we’re currently providing.

Imagine you’re about to hire a new person on to your team. What skills should they have?

Customer support experience would be beneficial, but it’s not necessary. Personally, I can see a huge benefit in working with a system that’s used by real customer on a daily basis. There’s a difference between working with an app that’s still being developed and working with a system that’s available and providing value to its users each day.