How managed services help to reduce technical debt

Faced with the need to continually improve and innovate, many organizations find themselves almost forced into technical debt. Pressured by market forces and stakeholders, some companies have opted for cheaper solutions to move a given project forward. The problem is that they may end up paying the cost in future reporting periods. 

Managed services, offering integrated enterprise solutions that combine internet, networking, and cybersecurity help organizations reduce technical debt. By consolidating disparate systems in a single, cohesive platform, companies can eliminate data silos, automate routine tasks and gain real-time visibility into operations. 

Some managed services centralize business processes and data, enabling seamless communication across departments. With managed services, the technology partner provides updates and maintenance, and companies can avoid accumulating technical debt as the business scales and evolves. A managed unified communications service, for example, reduces the immediate burden of technical debt and prevents its future accumulation through standardized processes, automated maintenance and centralized governance. 

For those unfamiliar with the concept, technical debt is the implied cost of rework caused by choosing a fast solution now over a better, more time-consuming implementation. While this choice can speed delivery of an initiative, unmanaged debt slows down future development, increases costs and may lower the overall quality of an organization's infrastructure and applications.

As companies attempt to remain agile and gain a competitive edge, the need to reduce or eliminate technical debt becomes glaringly obvious. Traditional approaches, such as the disruptive tactic of ad hoc software patching, tend to address symptoms rather than root causes, inadvertently compounding technical debt.

The almost inevitable result is a vicious cycle where resources are diverted from innovation to maintenance. This forces tech business leaders to choose between short-term fixes and long-term transformation. Technical debt adds up to 31% of IT budgets and demands 21% of IT resources for its management, with nearly 70% of technology executives citing it as a primary obstacle to innovation.

However, according to IDC, organizations that proactively reduce technical debt can realize up to a 30% faster time to market on new digital initiatives.

A case for managed services

The correct managed services partner can help organizations reduce technical debt by delivering the infrastructure, service and support to help remove operating risks. They should function as an extension of your IT department and provide expert industry, technology and application knowledge with 24/7/365 US-based support. 

The use of managed services is becoming more commonplace every day. The Managed Services Global Market Report suggests spending will grow 46% by 2027. Outsourcing IT infrastructure and its management alleviates costs for CIOs and provides access to human and technology resources that may not exist within their organizations.

With services that are flexible, smart, and ready to evolve with needs, a managed solution may be the perfect balance of quality and affordability. It can open the door to enterprise-level networking with the sophistication required to meet current and future challenges without overburdening IT resources. 

CapEx vs. OpEX

Another key benefit of using managed services involves the opportunity to fund technology from the operating expense (OpEx) budget. When businesses purchase or build and maintain their own infrastructure, the cost is funded from its capital expense (CapEx) budget. Using CapEx funds to purchase technology becomes a sunk cost and vulnerable to being a source of technical debt in the future as upgrades and maintenance become an inevitability. 

Broadly defined, OpEx applies to standard, regularly occurring business expenses, whereas CapEx is used for more strategic and irregular investments. Managed services that include equipment owned by the technology partner but used by businesses and billed monthly have completely changed the technology cost model. This enables businesses to acquire new technology and expertise via OpEx while retaining CapEx to fund more strategic investments aligned to core business needs. 

Choosing the correct managed services partner

Organizations should avoid managed service partners who can’t integrate network connectivity with key capabilities such as cybersecurity, unified communications, SD-WAN, WiFi and hardware. Furthermore, steer clear of providers that do not provide enterprise grade customer support and transparent SLAs. Organizations can now get their technology services in one robust solution delivered by a single partner that makes network modernization easy.

Your goals are our priority. Let’s talk.

Our Managed Workplace Package brings together secure connectivity, SD-WAN, unified communications, equipment and network management in a single solution. And this service is all accessible through a single portal that extends enables service level visibility and control — allowing you to reduce technical debt and to focus on what matters most, running your business.