Managed Services: The Unsung Hero of Great Customer Experience
As we celebrate National Customer Service Week, it’s important to remember that exceptional customer experiences don’t happen by chance! Behind every smooth conversation is a foundation of planning, investment and the right teams working quietly in the background.
For many organisations, that’s where Managed Services come in. While customers might never see them directly, managed service teams are the unsung heroes that keep Contact Centres reliable, secure, and ready to adapt.
Why legacy systems are holding businesses back
In a recent interview, Mark Rossell, Head of Managed Services (IPI) and Dave Glasgow, Sales and Marketing Director (IPI), point out that many organisations are still tied to outdated on-premise technology. Like an old car that constantly breaks down, these systems drain money, time and patience. Agents feel the pain when calls drop or systems freeze, while customers losr confidence when service is slow or disjointed.
Beyond cost, the real issue is agility. Outdated platforms make it harder to scale, integrate with CRM tools, or adopt innovations such as AI. In contrast, cloud-native platforms are designed for flexibility, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
The hidden drain of maintaining legacy
Keeping legacy systems alive isn’t just about money, it’s about people. IT teams spend countless hours patching, upgrading, and firefighting issues, often out of hours. Skills are also becoming scarce as engineers move on to newer technologies.
Mark explains: “That’s where a partner matters. We maintain legacy expertise but also help organisations transition to cloud at the right pace. It’s about skills, knowledge, and the experience of having done this many times before.”
Managed Services as a bridge to the future
Managed Services aren’t just about “keeping the lights on,” they’re about:
– Maintaining stability today – ensuring systems are secure, supported, and optimised.
– Guiding cloud migration – bringing hard-won experience of hundreds of transitions to make the journey smooth.
– Investing in people – developing skills so engineers can evolve alongside technology.
– Minimising disruption – managing cutovers with zero downtime and phased approaches where needed.
Dave highlights the benefit: “We’ve taken countless customers from outdated platforms to modern cloud systems with minimal disruption. That experience means we know what works, and where pitfalls can appear.”
A real-world example
Take the case of a large housing association. Faced with a failing legacy system and a tight deadline to move away from their incumbent provider, IPI rapidly assessed operations, built a cloud environment in parallel, and migrated them with zero downtime.
The result? Tenants experienced uninterrupted service, their people gained tools that made their jobs easier and the organization moved forward with a platform built for growth, backed by a managed services team ensuring it runs smoothly every day.
Why it matters during National Customer Service Week
National Customer Service Week is about recognising the people and processes that make great experiences possible. While agents, supervisors, and digital tools are on the front line, managed services teams are the backbone, ensuring systems don’t fail, upgrades happen seamlessly, and customer journeys aren’t disrupted.
Great service is built on trust. Managed Services create that trust by ensuring that when a customer reaches out, whether it’s a tenant, a student, a patient, or a retail customer, the technology is there to support the conversation.
Final thoughts
In a fast-changing world, organisations can’t afford to stand still. Legacy platforms create cost, inefficiency, and risk. Managed Services offer the stability, expertise, and innovation pathway needed to keep customer service sharp, agile, and future-ready.
As Mark puts it: “It’s about bringing people with you, your teams, your supervisors, your agents, so they can see and feel the benefits of new systems. That’s what makes the difference.”
This National Customer Service Week, let’s celebrate everyone who makes great customer service possible, not just the voices on the front line, but also managed services teams who ensure those voices are always supported by reliable, secure and future-ready systems.
IPI enables brands to meet their digital transformation goals with creative and innovative Contact Centre, Cloud and Connectivity services and solutions, which are proven to drive exceptional customer and employee experiences, as well as better business outcomes and increased revenues.
Its team of experts add value at every part of the transformation journey, by providing bespoke consultancy services, training and enablement programmes, DevOps and integration, as well as a range of proprietary solutions and managed services, spanning the Contact Centre, automation and AI, workforce engagement, security and compliance, speech and text analytics, voice services, cloud, and outsourced IT.
Founded in 2001, with its headquarters in Reading and offices in London, Manchester and the Philippines, IPI’s clients include some of the biggest brands in the finance, insurance, retail, travel and leisure, utilities, higher education and public sectors.
For additional information on IPI view their Company Profile
