An executive's guide to managed services

As organizations navigate rapid disruption and rising complexity, managed services providers (MSPs) have become strategic partners in building resilience, accelerating transformation and enabling growth. Most industries, from healthcare to finance and beyond, can benefit from outsourcing to an MSP.

Ready to reframe what managed services can do for your organization? This executive guide helps you evaluate your path forward with clarity and confidence. 

What you'll learn in in this guide:

• Why modern managed services matter now more than ever
• How outcome-based MSP partnerships deliver measurable value
• The 8 essential characteristics of a high-performing MSP partner
• How to anticipate and avoid common pitfalls
• Practical steps to evaluate your current strategy and track progress

What sets a good MSP apart?

Today's leading managed services providers take a holistic view of business processes, platforms and operations to reduce costs, unlock reinvestment capacity and drive ROI-led digital innovation. A good example? Rather than waiting for systems to break, a well-rounded managed services provider takes a proactive approach, monitoring systems 24/7/365 to identify and detect issues before they can disrupt your organization. 

High-quality managed services providers also refrain from using a one-size-fits-all methodology. Instead, they are able to tailor solutions and processes to the specific and unique needs of your organization. This level of attention to detail and industry expertise is what sets MSPs apart from other outsourcing methods. 

What you'll learn in this guide:

• Why modern managed services matter now more than ever
• How outcome-based MSP partnerships deliver measurable value
• The 8 essential characteristics of a high-performing MSP partner
• How to anticipate and avoid common pitfalls
• Practical steps to evaluate your current strategy and track progress

How to find the right MSP for your business

With the right partners at your side, navigating the peaks and valleys of change and reaching new vistas of innovation, efficiency and sustainable growth is possible. But when you’re ready to search for an MSP, where do you start?

We recommend defining your specific IT needs before creating a list of potential managed services providers. Once you’ve determined the tasks you’d like to offload, you can gather MSP recommendations from your peers, checking the credentials, experience levels and testimonials of each one. If they sound as though they may be able to fulfil your vision, examine their Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and pricing structures to determine whether or not it’s doable for your budget.

Questions to ask when choosing a managed services provider:

• What is your average response time for critical and non-emergent issues?
• What is your experience in my industry?
• What does your onboarding timeline look like? 
• What security certifications do you hold? 
• Do you offer any other business process services? 
• What is your help desk structure? 
• How are after-hours issues handled if you do not offer 24/7 support?
• What does your access to top technology look like? 
• How do you approach scaling your services as my business grows?
• Is your pricing flat-rate or usage-based? 
• What services are not offered under the contract? 

CGI as your MSP

CGI helps organizations build modern partnership models that deliver savings, strengthen resilience and accelerate ROI-led transformation. Our global delivery network, industry expertise and end-to-end capabilities enable clients to achieve up to 40% cost reductions from day one and reinvest for the future.