Four Ways Managed Services Can Grow Your Business
Most people think of managed services as a low-valued commodity: buy a bucket of hours and get access to a person or team to do the work. It is low cost, tactical, and anything but high-grossed service. But if we take a stroll down Simplus’ lane with Ryan Northington, the managing director of strategic services, that perception changes.
In an interview on our podcast, Revenue Growth, Northington explains how Simplus approaches managed services as a valuable method to make a customer more successful. The company does this by taking something that is viewed as a staff fog and putting advisory punch behind it to help customers grow their business. According to Northington, Simplus customers “eat it up” because it removes the pressure of managing their mission-critical enterprise application to help their business succeed.
Trying to understand the value in managed services? Here are four insights as to why Simplus’ managed services are unique and how they can help you grow your business.
1. They Are a Named Team
Simplus tries to stay away from the idea that managed services are only associated with maintenance, support contracts, and call centers. In other words, Simplus does not follow the round-robin model that merely consists of customers contacting a random person at a call center for support. “We try to go above that,” Northington says.
They do this by providing you, the customer, with a named team focused solely on managed services. “In the professional services world, it is easy to have big projects become a resource suck,” Northington says. “One of the ways we have maintained high levels of research continuities is that we have separated the managed services team from the project management team.” This allows Simplus to have one single unit that operates the Salesforce solution. Over time, the named team becomes more efficient and creates a strong bond with you and your employees.
2. They Optimize Productivity
After customers implement Salesforce into their business, they could find themselves in a rut, asking themselves how they will maximize the ROI of their initial investment to make sure that their platform users are as productive as possible. This is where Simplus’ managed services come in.
Simplus begins by improving the productivity of your platform users. For example, in the marketing world, there are lots of clicks and processes that are overburdening. To soften this load, Simplus decreases the number of clicks that it takes your users to get their job done, which ultimately increases their productivity and creates more leads and campaigns.
Next, Simplus focuses on decreasing the costs. A highly customized Salesforce instance that is poorly managed has the potential for complexity to creep in. Over time, this can increase the maintenance burden for users. “Having a trusted advisor to help you operate your Salesforce solution really minimizes that long-term maintenance burden that some customers find themselves in after over customizing their instance,” reports Northington.
3. They Encourage Collaboration from Both Parties
One of the most important principles you should understand about managed services is that both sides must collaborate in order for your business to be successful. “We don’t position ourselves as a one-time fix or as a silver bullet,” says Northington.
The managed services team is expert in Salesforce, while you are expert in your business. You understand the business process, the metrics that are important for your business, and your current initiative based on the season your business is in. “We have to do our best to align the technology that you’ve invested in to achieve the results that you, the business, has [sic] defined.” As you work with the managed services team and become a unified group, your business has a better opportunity of becoming successful.
4. They Are Founded on Clear Expectations
Good communication and proper expectation setting is key to business growth. This applies to Simplus’ managed services team, the customers, and the customers’ customers.
There is a proper way to manage Salesforce efficiently to help you increase the return on your investment. “You have to set those expectations with those users to make sure that they are aligned with what it takes to operate this solution successfully,” Northington advises. If you don’t set proper expectations, “then you find yourself operating by fire drill, which will cause the ROI to go right out the door.” To prevent this from happening, Simplus sets its expectations in the beginning and encourages you to do the same.
Managed services may be a commodity for some people, but in Simplus’ world, they are a way to instigate growth. By being a named team, optimizing productivity, collaborating with its customers, and setting clear expectations, the Simplus managed services team is better suited to help you meet your business goals and reach success.
