Mission-critical communication networks are an important consideration in public safety agencies’ ability to serve communities. These networks are crucial to deploying any new service or capability on a large scale. As communication infrastructure moves from an analog base to an all-Internet Protocol (IP), digital platform, new opportunities and challenges are emerging.
Managed services are an effective way to bridge the gap between the new demands on public safety, regional needs, budget constraints and the fear of falling behind in capabilities. The vendor takes on the risk of maintaining, upgrading and managing the complexities inherent with new IP-based infrastructure on the customer’s behalf and delivers the communications required as a service. These services give customers the choice of paying for the solutions as an operational expense rather than buying expensive infrastructure as a capital expense.
For many, a managed service is a new option to consider in addressing the challenges they face, and it’s one that provides three areas of advantage over purchasing or operating their own infrastructure:
Operational Flexibility
Managed services unburden leadership from worrying about the rapid pace of technological evolution. Managers can focus on the benefits a function brings rather than maintaining infrastructure and staff for support and service. The work of entire functions or parts of a function can be moved to a managed services partner, providing flexibility in funding and managing assets.Total Cost of Ownership
Managed services can change the way technology is procured and operated, and can lead to savings from a total cost perspective. Managers can convert capital expense into an operating expense (OPEX) and reduce the overall spending by moving to a managed services model. With this approach, no bond issue is required to upgrade to the latest infrastructure. Massive capital investments don’t become out-of-date in a few years. The OPEX price can be locked in for a predictable period, and at a lower total cost, by leveraging the scale offered by a managed services provider. Local, county and state IT professionals understand that “modernizing” infrastructure has to coexist in the same world as fiscal discipline. Capital expenditures in many local jurisdictions are scrutinized for waste, cronyism and their impact on taxpayers. Paradoxically, by the time a bond issue can be approved, a new generation of technology may have been introduced. All things considered, switching to a lower total cost OPEX model can be very appealing.Strategic Necessity
For some jurisdictions, managed services may be the only practical solution for meeting public safety communication needs. The range of technical skills required to operate and maintain modern infrastructure might not be available. Some jurisdictions might have specific assets to protect or geographic considerations (ports, for instance) that consume available capital funding. Managed services can fill a need for a more affordable public safety communication solution.The technology industry is changing to help customers find creative solutions to address these realities. The managed services approach turns functions into services that can be procured from vendors. The path to a managed services decision is a process of exploration. At the end of that process, managers know if they can benefit from the operational flexibility, total cost of ownership and strategic necessity parameters mentioned above. The recommended steps for exploring managed services include:
1. Evaluate the Real Needs of Today
2. Take the Long-Term View
Even if current resources satisfy today’s need, the future offers its own challenges and opportunities. Those challenges include population and demographic shifts, a growing base of local assets like new transportation hubs or institutions, reasonable threat assessments and a host of other changes that can be seen in advance. Opportunities include the identification of new services that could be delivered digitally, sharing costs with adjacent jurisdictions or enhancing cooperation in a shared services arrangement with other agencies.
3. Consult a Trusted Advisor
A trusted advisor is one that combines expertise in the future directions in hardware, software and applications with a fundamental understanding of public safety operations. The trusted advisor also appreciates that working with managed services partners should not mean giving up control of the communications function. Once you make the decision to work with a trusted advisor, they can help develop key points of control, visualization and monitoring (such as dashboards for monitoring performance). The trusted advisor also brings operational knowledge that can consolidate multiple contracts into a single package that includes service level agreements and key performance indicators.
Managed services provide new options to public safety IT professionals who are working to maximize the impact of every dollar. It turns capital expense into operating expense. By shifting the burden of managing communications technology to a trusted partner, IT professionals can focus their funds and attention on the benefits they can bring to the communities they serve.
Gary Aitkenhead is the vice president of Managed Services at Motorola Solutions, a leading provider of mission-critical radio communications for public safety, transport and utilities.
