Managed services

Managed services is the practice of outsourcing day-to-day management responsibilities and functions as a strategic method for improving operations and cutting expenses.

Although the terminology varies, typically the person or organization that owns or has direct oversight of the organization or system being managed is referred to as the offeror, client, or customer; and the person or organization providing the managed service is the service provider or Managed Services Provider (MSP).

Generally the client remains fully accountable for the overall management and control of the organization or system - including the functionality and performance of the managed service.

A very wide range of services can be managed in this way, including: HR-activities, production support, computer and IT systems.

Common managed services

Common managed services include but are not limited to:

Service provider

A service provider (SP) is a company that provides organizations with consulting, legal, real estate, education, communications, storage, processing, and many other services. Although the term service provider can refer to organizational sub-units, it is more generally used to refer to third party or outsourced suppliers, including telecommunications service providers (TSPs), application service providers (ASPs), storage service providers (SSPs), and Internet service providers (ISPs).

IT professionals sometimes differentiate between service providers by categorizing them as type I, II, or III. The three service types are recognized by the IT industry although specifically defined by ITIL and the US Telecommunications Act of 1996

Type III SPs provide IT services to external customers and subsequently can be referred to as external service providers (ESPs) which range from a full IT organization/service outsource via managed services or MSPs (managed service providers) to limited product feature delivery via ASPs (application service providers).