1. Look at the profiles of these organizations. For each one, note down at least one advantage and one disadvantage of outsourcing its IT requirements to a Managed Service Provider (MSP).
For each company, think about these questions:
- How complex are the company’s IT and networking requirements?
- To what extent is technology a core competence of each company— is technology something linked to the company’s business?
- How important are issues like privacy / confidentiality / security?
- Can the company support the cost?
1. Maxland is a real estate company that operates in Southeast Asia.
It has recently acquired several smaller competitors and now has offices
in every state. It contacts clients through local advertising, databases,
emails and has details of every property for sale on its website.
2. The Dressing Room is a small boutique specialising in clothes and
accessories for women. It is a family business with only one store and
the proprietor has little knowledge of IT.
3. G-soft is a start-up company in Korea that is developing a range
of language learning DVDs and games. The office has five programmers
and there is a team of 15 other freelance software developers and language
teachers who also work for the organisation.
4. Olympus Z1 is code name of an operation that gathers intelligence
from a military base in the Eastern Mediterranean. The team intercepts
radio and email communications and passes the details back to the
security services.
2. ThaiManagement is a Managed Services Provider that offers three different levels of service to customers. Read the advertisement below and match the three levels (Bronze/Silver/Gold) with the word that best describes the service.
_____
Silver ThaiManagement’s Silver package includes:
- Same day response to technology faults reported to our Helpdesk
- Service agents will take your calls during extended business hours (seven days a week!)
- Proactive Fault Monitoring — our agents will test and ping your equipment and services on a regul; basis to spot problems before you do
- Performance monitoring of your network to find any bottlenecks or cost-saving opportunities
- Monthly Service Reports allowing you to spot trends in usage and problem areas and plan better for
- A ThaiManagement service Manager assigned to your account, responsible for your total service experience
- A minimum contract of five years is required
ThaiManagement’s Gold package includes:
- A dedicated team proactively monitoring your equipment & services for faults 24 hours a day, seven days a week
- A fast, four hour guaranteed response to all faults reported 24/7
- Performance and utilisation monitoring of all your network and applications to ensure users get the experience they want
- Real time reporting provided online, enabling you to see what’s happening with your technology infrastructure at all times
- A dedicated ThaiManagement Service Manager just for your business
- Buyback of your existing infrastructure as part of the agreement
- Technology refresh on an annual basis during the service contract
- A minimum contract term of five years is required
4. Work in pairs to play the game. Student A (you) should try to answer questions 1-7. Student B (me) should try to answer questions 8-14. The first person to answer their questions is the winner.
Find words or phrases in the text that begin with the letters in the question. See the example.
Example: What F.H. is a place you can call for advice and help at no cost?
Answer: Freephone Helpdesk
4 An agent from ThaiManagement is talking about the service the company can provide. Complete the sentences with the words and phrases from the box.
• buyback • dedicated • fix • ping test
• proactive • response • service • monitor