Listen to What Salesforce Managed Services Can Do For You

Episode Notes/Resources:

On this episode of “Salesforce Simplified,” the topic is “Managed Services Programs,” and our guest is AdVic’s Director of Managed Services, Joel Cajigas.

AdVic Provides a Managed Services Solution:
https://bit.ly/312YEOh

Building and Maintaining Relationships Through Managed Services: https://bit.ly/3lqVkof

Moving Your Business Forward with Managed Services:
https://bit.ly/3NGHDw4

Transcription:

Speaker 1:

This is Salesforce Simplified, the podcast from Ad Victoriam Solutions. Here’s your host Mike Boyle.

Mike Boyle:

Hello, everyone. On this episode of Salesforce Simplified, the topic is Managed Services Programs, sometimes referred to as MSPs for short. And our guest for today’s Salesforce Simplified podcast is Ad Vic’s director of Managed Services, Joel Cajigas. Joel, welcome. It is a real pleasure to have you on the podcast.

Joel Cajigas:

Well, thank you very much, Mike. It’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.

Mike Boyle:

Before we begin today’s topic, Joel, it’s probably a good idea for the benefit of those who don’t know to tell everyone what, in a broad overview, a Managed Services Program is.

Joel Cajigas:

Absolutely. So in the world of IT consulting, I think most people are familiar with the professional services side, which is “I have a defined scope, budget and timeline and we set out to do these things under these conditions and project starts and ends, and we move on.” Managed Services is more of a type of service where the consulting experts come in and proactively engage with the customer over a period of time to continue to enhance and add value. It’s just a little bit different in terms of the scope. We have breathing space. The delivery side of professional services is usually working under constraints.

Mike Boyle:

Got you. So why don’t we just dive in here and talk about some of the misconceptions, the common misconceptions about an MSP?

Joel Cajigas:

So in terms of the common ones, I think we find that a lot of people believe Managed Services to be a support bucket or a support type of experience. And it really isn’t. I think that’s misconception number one and the biggest of them. I think the other part is that you get some version of a B team in Managed Services where they’re not quite as expert level as you get on the delivery side. And that is actually not the case, since we are not a help desk type of service. We actually have very experienced team members who are in the business of proactively looking for how we make things better, how we add value. I’d say that at the very top that’s there. I think the other part is that you can’t tackle complex or complicated items on the Managed Services side. And that’s obviously also not the case. Our teams are built untangle a lot of the webs that exist, because oftentimes on the delivery side, you’ll get a project that serves the purpose, but it doesn’t have a long-term viability.

So we find ourselves untangling a lot of these messes and setting them down the right paths.

Mike Boyle:

How does a Managed Services Provider reduce a client’s workload?

Joel Cajigas:

Well, I would say that, first and foremost, this is what we do all the time. So we have the knowhow on jumping in and just taking customers to that next level. And so, by default, we are looking for the opportunities and working with our customers and partners on just finding where we can insert ourselves and how we empower them to get better. And you’ll see things like getting in and establishing a cadence and a rhythm for delivering things and knowing when to expect certain activities to happen. And just some of that organization will greatly reduce the workload. And then the other thing is we put a lot of effort into thinking about the day-to-day processes. So we take things that can be time-consuming on a regular basis and we look for ways to reduce that, whether it’s having automation or reworking a process, so that we’ve reduced some of those manual tasks and by taking care of that and empowering our customers, we’ve seen great reduction in workload and then we can focus on what’s the next big thing.

Mike Boyle:

Well, that’s the workload. Another thing people can be concerned about is how can they better enable collaboration and innovation within their organization? How does an MSP help that to happen?

Joel Cajigas:

Well, I would say that collaboration is built into the process. We have to be joined at the hip to tackle value. So we usually lean on things like roadmap sessions and strategic planning where we have the technical nuance, but we may not understand the strategic priorities of the company or our customers until we have an opportunity to have that dialogue. And then once we all align, then our processes are built so that we can continue to build and drive in that direction. Our customers are baked into our delivery cycles and they participate actively in the requirements gathering as well as validating that we are delivering the right kinds of services. So a lot of what takes place happens with real-time collaboration.

Ad Victoriam Solutions
Ad Victoriam Solutions helps companies bridge the gap between technology and business insights for greater efficiencies. We can turn even the most complex problems into smart solutions that help businesses perform better and achieve more. We’re cloud and data experts who work across a spectrum of leading-edge applications and technologies to help companies solve critical IT problems - quickly, simply and efficiently.