Insights

MSI: towards a new governance for companies?

Fri 08 Feb 2019

Today IT teams must deal with more and more suppliers and service providers. To face this growing complexity, companies are adopting a new multi-vendor business model:  MSI (Multisourcing Service Integration)

Let’s take an example: the case of multi-cloud environments

Let us take the example of companies adopting a hybrid or multi-cloud architecture. They are in constant increase. According to a study performed by IDC, 85% of them shall have a multi-cloud IT environment by the end of 2020.

Their aim is to optimize their storage capacity, host their data and applications, and enable collaborative working.

The benefits are many:

  • increased competitivity,
  • selection of the best supplier,
  • reliability, maintaining of operations in case of a supplier failure,
  • and reduction of downtimes.

Nevertheless, operational difficulties occur when it comes to steering these multiple cloud suppliers:

  • Contract management and SLA, defined during the introduction of the service provision,
  • Troubleshooting, issue and operational incidents resolution,
  • Securing the applications and sensitive data
  • Tracking of the supplier performance

Successful management of all these cloud suppliers therefore becomes a real challenge for the companies wishing to speed up their digital transformation and remain competitive.

The  SIAM-MSI approach to meet these new challenges

Many organizations by now outsource the control of their suppliers and service providers to a third-party integrator, by adopting the MSI (Multisourcing Service Integration) –or SIAM (Service Integration and Management) mode.

The service integrator acts transparently and impartially on behalf of customers, by  coordinating the services delivered by the suppliers from begining to end.

For what goals?

The main goal in setting up a MSI model is to bring an effective and unified governance of all service providers.

The MSI approach enables the companies to maximize the performance of their traditional and cloud services by:

  • Effectively integrating  the suppliers and by ensuring an end-to-end compliance
  • Ensuring transparency and visibility on the global performance of the solutions
  • Managing the diverse incidents, changes, and operational problems
  • Coordinating the interactions between the various players
  • Negotiating the  supplier contracts
  • Offering a global Service Desk

For which benefits ?

They are numerous. The service integrator coordinates the service ecosystem of the companies by making sure that the suppliers act in perfect harmony.

It becomes the keystone of the IT infrastructure by reducing the risks and costs associated to the setup of a provider-model.

In conclusion

Companies’ IT ecosystems are becoming more and more complex, and this trend is going to increase in the years to come.

The IT strategy has become a pillar for the good commercial health of companies that must today integrate the IT organization into the elaboration and implementation of their global strategy. The Multisourcing Service Integration (MSI) approach enables IT services to outsource the management of the complexity linked to a multi-vendor environment.

Oriane Duglue

Customer Project Manager