Boost Efficiency with Tailored Managed Services for Peak Performance

Have you ever been to a restaurant whose menu promises an array of dazzling delights, only to be disappointed when the food fails to deliver? It’s proof that an impressive menu doesn’t matter if the execution is lacking. After all, the restaurant still needs to choose the right ingredients, train its cooks well, and make sure enough effort is being put into each dish.

Business services are the same way: a company can bring an extensive range of offerings to the table, but if they aren't delivered with the care, talent, and expertise required to satisfy your needs, you'll wind up feeling shortchanged.

Managed services is one area where execution is critically important. Done right, a good managed services plan can deliver transformative benefits for your business, such as:

• • Making your business more agile, adaptable, and resilient
  • Reducing overall maintenance expenses
  • Minimizing downtime and associated costs
  • Boosting productivity and efficiency
  • Avoiding security pitfalls
  • Taking pressure off of your internal IT staff
  • Freeing up team members for higher-level tasks
  • Maximizing the value of your systems
  • Providing peace of mind when issues arise

Unfortunately, managed services providers often neglect to truly understand the needs of their customers and fail to execute in a way that fully satisfies them.

That's why it matters that in the US, Columbus has achieved a 98.4% compliance rate for meeting our Service Level Agreement obligations. What we promise, we deliver.

And that's why Columbus has designed its Application Management Services (AMS) to exceed expectations. We aim to not only meet your current needs, but also anticipate and prepare you for your future needs, all while clearing the highest possible bar for value and satisfaction.

So let's talk about how and why managed services can benefit your business — as well as the secret sauce that sets Columbus's AMS offerings apart from our competitors’ and elevates our menu into the five-star category.

Why Do You Need Application Management Services?

Managed services are growing in popularity because they're generally superior to the old break/fix model, where you wait until there's a problem before calling in someone to fix it.

To use a medical analogy, we all know that when it comes to things like cancer or heart disease, the prognosis is better and treatment is easier when you catch problems early, before they have a chance to metastasize. Better yet, you can prevent those problems from ever occurring through regular care and a healthy lifestyle.

Managed services do the same thing for your business by allowing you to be proactive rather than reactive, addressing small problems as you go so they don't snowball into much larger and more expensive ones. With regular, prophylactic care and maintenance, your systems will stay healthy and purring, saving you plenty of headaches in the long run.

The Columbus Difference: A Customer-Centered Approach to Managed Services

At Columbus, we've redesigned our managed services from the ground up to be more responsive to what your customers actually need, and what helps keep them up and running.

Many managed services providers operate with a monthly time bank of hours and a "use it or lose it" model: If you don't use your hours in a given month, they're gone. We thought that was a little unfair, so we decided that you should be able to roll those hours over from month to month within any given quarter, which gives you a lot more flexibility.

Plus, at the end of each quarter, we allow you to “true up” or “true down” for future quarters. So if you've got something big coming, and you know that you're going to want to do some elaborate BI reports in Q2 (for example), you can ramp up that bucket so that you'll have funds available and avoid overage rates.

And here's a special mark of consideration: Because we understand that it takes a while to figure out what your needs are going to be, we do not charge overages for the first quarter.

We realize that the first quarter is a “getting acquainted” period, so we've taken the time to develop a win-win offering that is centered around the customer and their success.

As an example, suppose you initially underestimate your needs and end up using three months' worth of hours in the first month. You would still receive your discounted loyalty rates for the first quarter, and at the end of the quarter, you would be able to “true up” to match what you spent for future quarters.

And whereas most support agreements for other service providers are limited strictly to break/fix support, our agreement allows you to use your retainer for any professional service that we offer. So if you say, "Hey, I've got a problem with a database and I don't understand what's going on. Do you have a data and analytics person that I can engage?" Our answer will be, "Absolutely."

Setting a Superior Standard

It's not just the deal we offer — it's how we execute.

Our 98.4% compliance rate for Service Level Agreement obligations in the US isn’t the only metric that sets us apart. Our standard response for a critical ticket is one hour, and we pride ourselves on responding to every ticket within 15 minutes. Getting timely responses reduces stress and anxiety and helps keep your team productive.

We're also proud of the deep bench of experts we can deploy on your behalf. We have approximately 800 veteran team members worldwide with an average of 10+ years of experience. And our team has a track record of 80,000 customer issues resolved annually.

This allows us to provide you with 24/7 proactive customer support, most often from team members located in or close to your own time zone for faster responses.

A Full Range of Modular Services

Now that you know about our commitment to superior execution, it's worth showing you the broad and comprehensive menu of modular services we offer. We've built up these offerings over the years by listening attentively to our customers, working closely with them to tackle their issues, and carefully devising solutions to respond to their needs.

Want to learn more about how Columbus managed services can boost your business while minimizing friction and downtime? Reach out today.