At OSF Digital, we have seen firsthand how companies across industries and sizes can transform their bottom line through managed services. Here’s how—and why—it works.
Major Ways Organizations Waste Money
Most organizations don’t realize how much money they’re wasting until it’s too late. So, how exactly are businesses losing money? Here are some of the most common areas where inefficiencies create significant costs, and how managed services can reverse this trend:
1. IT Costs/Total Cost of Ownership: Technical debt, outdated technology, and complex processes and systems that are difficult to maintain or require heavy reliance on the IT team not only create a backlog for the IT team but can also cause costly downtime. It also hinders the speed and agility needed to meet customer needs.
A managed services team can maintain your system, minimize downtime, and keep your system optimized to reduce your total cost of ownership (TCO) by cutting maintenance costs and extending the life and utility of your platforms.
2. Staffing Costs: Recruiting, hiring, and training full-time IT professionals with expertise across multiple platforms can be costly and time-consuming. It’s also hard to scale.
A managed services team can provide expert support without the in-house costs. You get access to highly specialized talent without the overhead of hiring, onboarding, and retaining a full-time team. An outsourced multidisciplinary team can hit the ground running and scale with your needs.
3. Operational Costs: Running less-than-optimal platforms, fragmented systems, and not knowing (and not using) best practices can duplicate or increase effort and reduce overall efficiency. Siloed teams can also block efficiency.
Managed services can unify support across your Salesforce ecosystem, streamlining workflows, reducing rework, and helping your teams move faster. An expert team will ensure you’re maintaining best practices and optimal processes.
4. Implementation Costs: Poor implementations delivered by an inadequately trained team can cause costly errors or a slow time to market. The longer it takes to implement a solution, the more it costs in lost opportunities.
Managed service providers have the expertise and agility for a successful rapid deployment, accelerating time to value with prebuilt processes, post-launch support, and training to get your teams to adopt and use the new technology and capabilities.
Hidden Costs That Further Drain Budgets
Beyond the obvious costs, businesses may also lose money through:
- Reactive Support Models: When you only respond to issues after they arise, you're already behind. Proactive managed services help companies identify risks before they become costly problems and continuously optimize operations.
- Lack of Collaboration: Siloed teams can hinder collaboration that leads to innovation. With unified support across your ecosystem from a managed services team, you’ll not only improve efficiency but also delivery and cost outcomes.
- Limited skillsets: A team with limited expertise can’t scale and will create bottlenecks. A managed services team can provide talent at scale.
- Missed Opportunities for Innovation: Companies that fail to maximize the potential of their platforms may miss out on growth opportunities. Managed services provide the expertise needed to support innovation and capitalize on new trends.
When these hidden costs go unchecked, they drain budgets and delay growth. Managed services reverse this trend, allowing companies to reduce waste and reinvest in high-impact areas like customer experience, employee satisfaction, and product innovation.
Predictable Costs, Strategic Value
Beyond cutting costs, managed services provide financial predictability. With fixed monthly costs, companies avoid budget surprises and can plan confidently. This allows organizations to reinvest savings into strategic growth areas such as customer experience, product innovation, or expansion into new markets.
The Path to Savings: What Does the Transition Look Like?
While there may be an initial investment in transitioning to managed services, the cost is minimal compared to the long-term savings. Companies can start seeing savings relatively quickly, with managed services offering a shift from reactive to proactive support models.
Savings often begin within the first few months as the provider optimizes existing workflows, eliminates redundancies, and fills skill gaps. For example, one OSF client shifted from spending 70% of their support budget on break-fix issues to just 30%, while also experiencing year-over-year growth in online revenue, thanks to proactive, outcome-focused managed services.
OSF’s Approach to Managed Services
OSF provides a range of managed services to co-create strategies that drive growth—from technical delivery and creative agency services to business advisory and strategy consultancy. Our team of experts helps companies transition to managed services through a comprehensive approach that includes:
- Accelerated Onboarding: Leveraging tools like our AllAI Productivity platform to reduce risk and improve efficiency.
- Audit and Assessment: Conducting a deep dive review of the current state to identify areas for improvement.
- Knowledge Transfer and Planning: Collaborating with clients to understand business goals, establish benchmarks, and build a roadmap for success.
With our scalable support model, companies can focus on driving innovation and growth without being bogged down by operational issues or IT distractions.
Managed services aren’t just about outsourcing support. They’re also about unlocking efficiency, agility, and innovation. By addressing both the obvious and hidden sources of waste, businesses can not only save money but also drive growth, improve experiences, and outpace the competition.
If your organization is feeling the pressure to do more with less, it may be time to consider how managed services can help you achieve more—faster, and for less.
