Top Ten IT Priorities for 2011: What Multinational Companies Crave From Managed Service Providers

DENVER, Feb. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Virtela, the world's largest independent managed network, security and cloud services company, announced today the summary results of a survey of U.S.-based multinational companies which uncovers their top 10 IT infrastructure priorities for 2011 and areas of improvement for managed service providers (MSPs).

More than 400 IT professionals responded to the survey, ranking infrastructure management, security, data center consolidation, application acceleration and cloud solutions as their top five IT infrastructure priorities. Four out of 5 respondents report that they want more from their MSPs, with more value for the price, proactive management and faster response time topping the overall list of desired improvements.

"These survey results validate that there is room for all managed service providers to better understand the needs of their customers, improve service delivery and ensure timely communication when issues surface," said Virtela CEO B.V. Jagadeesh. "Virtela is especially keen to listen to and meet the growing needs of multinational companies, which is why we undertake this survey annually and ensure our investments continue to align with their priorities. We are committed to delivering innovative services in a timely and flexible fashion that consistently raise the industry bar on customer satisfaction."

The survey gauged multinational enterprises' level of satisfaction with current MSPs across four key categories: service offerings, service delivery, service management and pricing/billing.

Service Flexibility and Expertise: Respondents said they are looking for solutions that are better designed to fit their unique needs, delivered with more flexibility and personalization and a higher level of technical and design expertise.

Timely Service Delivery: The top demands of these IT decision makers are timely communication of status and issues, faster installation intervals as well as service implementation times.

Proactive Service Management: Multinationals report that proactive notification of issues and better response times are the most critical areas in need of improvement, followed by improving mean time to repair rates.  

More Value and Easier Pricing: Survey participants noted they would like to see more value for the price of their managed services, plus receive price quotes in a timely manner and in formats which are easier to understand.

Complimentary Webinar Presents Survey Results

Virtela will share the detailed IT survey findings in a webinar on Thursday, February 24th at 1 p.m. EST featuring Forrester Research analyst Brownlee Thomas, Ph.D.  Together they will present the key IT imperatives and managed services issues, and discuss how fast-growing multinational companies are successfully addressing those needs today, such as a case study of leading global publishing software provider Quark Inc.  

To register for the webinar, please visit: www.virtela.net/surveywebinar. Registrants will also receive an ebook featuring the full survey results on March 1, 2011.

About Virtela

Virtela Technology Services Incorporated is the world's largest independent managed network, security and cloud services company. Virtela offers an award-winning suite of services – including managed networks, security, application acceleration and proactive infrastructure management – to mid-market and Fortune 500 customers around the world. Virtela offers unparalleled geographic reach to more than 190 countries through its partnerships with more than 500 carriers.

Virtela is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, with globally distributed Network Operations Centers in the U.S., India and the Philippines. For more information, please call +1 (720) 475-4000 or visit www.virtela.net.

SOURCE Virtela