This article was originally written by Avanade alum Louis Ampe.

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that the world today is much different than it was even a few years ago, and not just in the negative ways we hear about on the daily news. Change can be good! Technological innovation is accelerating at an unprecedented pace, creating new possibilities for businesses to modernize their operations for what comes next. The need to keep up has never been greater, and Avanade is helping our clients thrive by taking advantage of new platforms that build resilience and agility through our Manage & Evolve offering.

Now, you might have a preconceived notion of what managed services is: a simple, passive engagement involving spending money to have a third party monitor your systems and address support tickets. But in this world of constant change, even the scope of managed services has expanded to become a much more value-added offering. In this context, it’s time for companies to rethink what they can expect from a managed services agreement and demand more from their partners.

So, what does this look like in practice? I’ve been very proud to help many of our clients navigate their managed services journeys with Avanade. Let’s take a closer look at one such case:

Vandemoortele – a leading food company based in Belgium – has innovation baked right into its mission, calling it a “key ingredient” for success. The company, which specializes in frozen bakery products, margarines and other culinary oils and fats, believes that happy customers and happy employees build successful businesses and long-term value. It knows that this starts with operational excellence.

However, like many companies, Vandemoortele would rather spend more time focusing on fulfilling its promise of providing customers with the “best taste, best quality and best service” than managing its hybrid IT environment, which combines both on-premises and cloud-based infrastructure. Plus, hit by a sharp rise in energy and raw material prices, the company wanted to rein in its IT spending to keep its finances healthy without impacting the products that customers rely on. That’s where Avanade comes in. Through a managed services partnership, Avanade has provided support for Vandemoortele’s full IT environment while delivering consistent, accurate reporting that flags cost increases and helps the company bring them back down again.

But remember what I said about innovation? Our work with Vandemoortele goes far beyond a simple support ticket story. So, let’s add evolution to our list of key ingredients. After all, we don’t call our offering Manage & Evolve for nothing. What began as a more “traditional” management and support relationship quickly evolved into a trusted partnership between our two companies that has grown to include:

• Workplace enhancements, such as a Microsoft Teams Enterprise Voice implementation and more
• Application modernization
• A continuation of Vandemoortele’s Microsoft Azure cloud migration and adoption

“By managing and optimizing our IT estate, Avanade has helped us unlock capacity and budget to focus on higher value modernization efforts that deliver value to both our customers and our employees,” says Benoît Dewaele, CIO at Vandemoortele. And that’s exactly what we aim to achieve with Manage & Evolve.

Have you considered adopting managed services to free up more time to focus on your core business and explore new ways to modernize your IT estate? That’s the real recipe for success.

Check out the Vandemoortele client story page for more.