The global managed services market was said to have been worth approximately £143.3 billion ($200.3bn) in 2019. It’s expected to rise to £352.2bn ($492.2bn) in 2027 which is a compound annual growth rate of 12.2%. So, it’s clear that more and more businesses are realising the benefits of working with an Application Management Services (AMS) partner.
What exactly are these benefits?
Application management offers a much more comprehensive service than outsourced IT support. Rather than offering a break-fix level of support for IT-related tasks (e.g. software maintenance, diagnosing and resolving hardware and software faults), they will manage your applications. Think along the lines of how your business systems perform and how they’re fitted into your IT infrastructure.
So, with application management, you’ll require both a broader range and deeper specialist expertise. If you don’t have that in-house, you’ll need to recruit (which comes with a host of additional costs which I’m sure you’re aware of). Or, work with an AMS partner - it’s often the more cost-effective option.
Managing your IT infrastructure and applications so they’re healthy, evergreen and at little risk of causing downtime is already a big responsibility. Then there are tasks such as fixing solution-related incidents and performing root cause analysis to prevent them from happening again. That leaves your teams with little time to keep up with industry trends and focus on innovating your business.
An AMS partner will handle these day-to-day responsibilities so your team gains time back. They can now spend that time analysing industry trends, monitoring competitor activity and reviewing opportunities for innovation within the business.
Even the best laid plans can go awry. With an AMS partner, you can choose a coverage option that means application management is ‘always on’. So even if an issue occurs outside of business hours, you stay safe in the knowledge that your AMS partner will be working behind-the-scenes to fix it.
In addition to application management specialists becoming an extension of your team, you’ll also benefit from maximised internal productivity, process efficiency, application performance and uptime. All of which can improve your business’s overall cost efficiency.
When you work with a top AMS partner, you can certain they have years of experience in managing applications for a variety of organisations and navigating the challenges that come with that.
Here’s some more food for thought: The better the partner’s reputation, the more likely it is that they’ll have some of the best application management specialists on their payroll. Partner with them and these top specialists will become an extension of your in-house team. Meaning all their experience and knowledge, carefully honed over the years, will be available to you. Now your business has an edge competitors likely won’t have!
At Columbus, we can offer all the above and one more key detail. We’re also a Microsoft partner. So, not only do we have deep application management knowledge and experience, but we also have specialist knowledge in maintaining and managing Microsoft applications.
Whether you have the full Microsoft stack or you use a mix of solutions (e.g. Dynamics 365 CRM and Office 365 but your ERP system is bespoke), a Microsoft AMS partner can ensure:
And secondly, we will strive to become your trusted advisor. We will work to:
At Columbus, we revolve around our customers because we’re genuinely passionate about delivering project and customer success.
The biggest benefit of working with an AMS partner is that they can help you maximise the ROI of your technology investments. They can help ensure your tech stack is integrated within your IT infrastructure properly as well as keeping the individual applications healthy and evergreen.
But how can you differentiate one partner from another? What qualities will the right AMS partner offer your business? In our guide to AMS partners, we cover everything you need to know - from why you must invest in your application management to how you can choose the right partner.