Signing on with a third party to manage a part of the IT infrastructure doesn't mean you've offloaded 100% of the work. You will reduce some workload from the task offloaded, but you will add different responsibilities for the internal team.

Managed services help IT staffs operate their virtual workplace, particularly when the IT staff is located centrally and is responsible for installation, management, troubleshooting, and training for multiple, geographically dispersed remote sites.

In 2008, 63% of organizations plan to use some form of managed services, up from 46% in 2007, according to Nemertes newly released Advanced Communications Services benchmark.

Success with managed services requires some pretty tight internal management in three key areas: processes, relationship management, and overall expectations. I’ll highlight a few best practices in each of these areas.

Processes: IT staffs must build in numerous processes to determine what services to offload, how to select the right vendor, how to hand off service management, and how to make sure the services are ultimately successful by various metrics. One of the most important best practices is to develop a process for evaluation and selection. Create a list of requirements, and always issue a request for proposal. The “Matrix RPF” is the best approach. By placing requirements across the top and vendor names along the side, you easily can determine which vendors meet the most important requirements.

Relationship management: Most IT staffs underestimate how much time they must spend managing their relationships with third parties. Yes, third parties will take care of the actual task at hand (whether implementation, troubleshooting, training, etc.), but any of these task requires some hand-holding from the “relationship coordinator.” They need to coordinate dates, times, measurements of success, etc.

Overall expectations: It’s vital to set expectations right up front - for the IT staff, end users at the branch offices, business units, and C-level executives. Buying managed services doesn’t mean the IT staff suddenly becomes non-existent or even extremely lean. Make sure you clearly identify which tasks the third party will handle, which positions will be eliminated and why, and how existing staff members will change their responsibilities. Most importantly, the answers to all of these questions must address the business benefit of the new relationships.

Robin Gareiss is executive vice president and senior founding partner of Nemertes Research. Click  here for the newsletter archive.