Building strategic customer relationships to drive technology services growth

I’ve worked with many C-level executives, helping to build world class technology ecosystems for both public and private sector organisations. In my experience, they all share a common challenge; to deliver industry leading business applications whilst keeping a close eye on costs, security and compliance.

Historically, the focus was on building scalable, cost-effective enterprise infrastructure platforms hosted in centralised data centres. This created the platform on which their primary business applications would run. The supply and maintenance of this infrastructure provided the basis for many technology services provider (TSG) business models. However, as software vendors continue to transition to cloud based application offerings, CIOs increasingly focused on the end user’s experience and no longer need to commit significant portions of time to managing the application infrastructure. End user CIOs no longer view infrastructure service providers as strategic and typically delegate infrastructure management to more junior staff. This restricts meaningful engagement between TSG and their customers’ strategic stakeholders which, in turn, poses a challenge to the ongoing relationship. Consequently, many TSPs have struggled to maintain organic revenue growth in recent years.

Conversely, the cloud era has boosted the mid-market Systems Integrators who are more professional services and application focused. System Integrators deliver application-centric product and DevOps capabilities and have, therefore, maintained their strategic relationship with the CIO community. To prosper, traditional TSPs need to adapt their service offerings to deliver application-centric digital transformation. Navigating this transition to SaaS-based service offerings can prove challenging and requires a far deeper capability relating to modern applications deployment and operations including associated DevOps, cyber security and compliance practices.

Conclusion

These are time consuming undertakings for busy TSP leadership teams, so working with a CTO advisor with relevant experience of managing this transition will prove immensely valuable. However, many companies cannot justify the expense of a full time CIO/CTO on a six-figure salary. If this is the case in your service provide, why not explore the option of working with a fractional CIO/CTO. These are part time, C-suite technologist who can provide strategic advice and guidance for a fraction of the costs of a full time equivalent. For more information, visit www.digitalselection.co.uk or book a no-obligation 30 min introductory call here