Chaotic. Turbulent. Overwhelming. Those are some of the adjectives people use to describe the current tech services market. I spend quite a bit of time on the road talking to customers – in their offices and at conferences. The refrain I hear consistently is that the landscape is more competitive than ever — all the way from managed service providers (MSPs) and value-added resellers (VARs) to system integrators (SIs) and other third-party providers.
They talk about pricing pressures and shrinking margins. They talk about strict mandates from their original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners. They even talk about not having the right talent in place to grow their business. Suffice it to say, they’ve got a lot on their plate.
If you think about it, the current service market resembles that of a perfect storm. Swirling market forces and intense competitive pressures coming from every direction. So how are they adjusting? What are they doing to prepare for the storm? We posed those very questions to a number of our customers. Not surprisingly, most of them offered different answers. Although there was one constant theme.
The New Face of Service: On-Demand
Every single person we met with acknowledged the importance of agility in today’s hyper-responsive service world. They all talked about building a service organization that can:
Respond quicker to customer requests Proactively anticipate market trends Leverage data to make real-time decisions So what’s the key? How do you build a service organization that is agile and nimble enough to adapt to unpredictable market conditions in real-time? The simple answer: by building an on-demand workforce of contractors that can be deployed almost instantaneously.
Of course, by now most service firms are utilizing contractors in some form or fashion. But the top service companies are taking a step further. They’ve built a cohesive on-demand workforce strategy that leverages software to manage the full contractor lifecycle, all the way from procurement to payment and everything in between. These firms are reaping the benefits of a variable cost model, plugging critical skills gaps and accessing the talent needed to compete in today’s market.
By embracing an on-demand workforce, they’re able to respond quicker to customer challenges, OEM requirements and capitalize on market opportunities before the competition.
Not everyone we talked to had started the on-demand journey though. Some of the managers we talked to were still using spreadsheets and email to track their contractors. As I detailed the benefits of an on-demand workforce model, the questions started coming in. What does it take to get started? How much does it cost? How do you ensure quality and compliance?
We’ve taken the time to document and answer these questions in a new and exclusive report, “Navigating the Perfect Storm With An On-Demand Workforce.” In the paper, we discuss many of the challenges facing today’s IT services providers and showcase how today’s top firms are using an on-demand workforce to navigate the perfect storm and thrive in an unpredictable service world.
I firmly believe the on-demand workforce model is here to stay, and within a few years it will become the dominant model for tech service organizations. However, there is still a great opportunity today to gain a competitive advantage by building an agile and nimble workforce that can respond to rapidly evolving market conditions in real-time. Download the new report today and let us know what you think. We’d be happy to chat!
