The way we work has been disrupted like never before. As a result, Gartner’s annual Magic Quadrant report¹, which profiles major businesses helping companies succeed in a new environment by providing managed workplace services (MWS), has become essential reading, particularly for sourcing, procurement and vendor management leaders.
In this latest addition of the Magic Quadrant report, Stefanini’s placement within the quadrant moved further to the right, demonstrating greater ‘completeness of vision’, as well as higher up, demonstrating greater ‘ability to execute’.
We caught up with Ionut Serdean, EMEA Practice Lead – Digital Workplace, Stefanini EMEA, to discuss how the MWS sector is evolving, why perception around Stefanini’s offering in this space is changing, as well as how Stefanini is making a powerful difference for businesses through its MWS offering.
The power of co-creation
During a period of such extreme disruption, a reliable and flexible partner becomes all the more important for businesses attempting to weather the storm.
“The fact that we act as true partners rather than just suppliers has always been a really important part of how Stefanini operates. We’re selling trust as much as we’re selling a service. Following the pandemic, our extensive experience of acting as trusted advisors has become more important than ever. It’s this spirit of partnership and co-creation that also means we’re flexible and agile, which is crucial during challenging times,” explains Ionut.
Zero-touch provisioning
Ensuring that the same level of support services are available despite the pandemic has been crucial to MWS providers enabling businesses to succeed in the face of disruption caused by the pandemic.
Fortunately, the industry has already been moving toward zero-touch provisioning.
“The industry’s direction of travel was already heading towards zero-touch, with ongoing monitoring of device wellbeing, which means minimizing the disruption caused by needing to fix issues on-site. Clearly the pandemic has accelerated this trend, and we’ve responded by, for instance, creating an employee portal that allows for a zero-touch process for ordering a new laptop. Technology now allows equipment to go directly to an employee’s home and is then configured automatically according to their profile, without any need for a deskside engineer to be present,” says Ionut.
Flexibility – and transformational partnerships
At a time of disruption, flexibility becomes crucial. Stefanini is a perfect fit for many businesses because it is large enough to offer a global presence but small enough to offer flexibility.
This also includes the flexibility to create tailored service agreements, with Gartner’s Magic Quadrant estimating that “40% of European MWS deals now include a transformational focus on improving business outcomes”.
This shift means innovation and transformation projects will be judged on whether a desired outcome was delivered, rather than simply the project having been completed on time. A chatbot, for instance, will be measured on the achievement of the predicted usage levels, rather than simply its successful implementation.
“Working with the very biggest providers tends to mean things are quite rigid. A business of our size is more willing to be flexible and co-create SLAs and KPIs with our clients, which means identifying how these can be outcome-based, ensuring projects deliver transformative innovation built on a solid partnership,” concludes Ionut.
Disclaimer
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
¹)Gartner Magic Quadrant, https://www.gartner.com/en/research/methodologies/magic-quadrants-research
