Internetwork Engineering IT Services Research

TAB PLAN

Conducted by

December 2019
BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY

Background & Context:

Internetwork Engineering is enriching their marketing strategy with relevant content in order to
build brand awareness, credibility and engagement. As a result, there is a need for market
research to build meaningful content to ignite their marketing strategy. To gather holistic
perspectives, two phases of research are needed: a survey to quantify current IT market
practices and in-depth interviews to capture executive-level BDM perspectives.

Research Questions will be refined with input from the client, but initial topics include:

 Explore current challenges & pain points experienced by IT professionals

 Understand how IT pros would prefer to spend their time
 Benefits and business outcomes experienced as a result of it outsourcing

Course5 has recommended two phases of research to fully explore these types of questions, a
survey and in-depth interviews which will be conducted concurrently. This document covers the
survey, which will quantify challenges experienced by IT pros and understand what types of
strategic projects they would prefer to spend their time on.

Objectives:
Online survey will focus on the IT stages of the outsourcing services to for meet the following
objectives:
 What are the challenges that IT pros experience?
 What issues do IT pros have around support?
 Where would IT pros benefit from having external experience?
 Where would IT pros like to be spending more of their time if they had better support?
 What are the benefits and business outcomes of using a trusted partner for outsourcing?
 How should IT be perceived in the organization?

Methodology: Online survey

Target & Qualifying Criteria: n=200 Total qualified respondents, including:

 US IT pros with purchase influence over technology hardware, software and/or services
for their organization
 Companies with 100-999 employees
 Excluding individuals in NY, MA, CA, WA, OR
 Natural mix of industries (excluding MSPs)

Survey Length:
 Target: Max 5 min/~15-20 questions
 Current: 22

Field Date: September 2019

Survey CONFIDENTIAL 2
Include the following questions/open-ends in a separate file:

Others:
 Q6_97: Other IT related
 Q9_97: Other IT management
 Q11_97: Other IT related area
 Q12_97: Other challenge
 Q13_97: Other distraction
 Q15_97: Other specialist
 Q18_97: Other outsourcing challenges
 Q19_97: Other outsourcing benefits
 Q20_97: Other outsourcing outcome
 Q21_97: Other factor

True Verbatims:
 Q22: What would they want to hear/know from 3 rd- party IT service provider

Include the following in the open-end file:

 Company Size (Q5)
 Location (Q2)
 IT Management (Q9)

Please report all results in a single file, with the following banners:

Banner #1 - Total; all questions

 Location (Q2)
a. Urban (Q2=1)
b. Suburban (Q2=2)
c. Rural (Q2=3)
 IT Management (Q9)
d. In-house only (Q9=1)
e. All/some outsource(Q9=2,3)

Sig Testing (95% only): a/b/c, d/e

Survey CONFIDENTIAL 3
SCREENING/PROFILE

Q1. In which state do you currently work? (Select only one.)

O [STATE LIST] 1
O NY, MA, CA, WA, OR 2 THANK & TERMINATE
O Other 97

Q2. And is your organization’s location considered…? (Select only one.)

O Urban 1 QUOTA: ~22%

O Suburban 2 QUOTA: ~63%
O Rural/Small town 3 QUOTA: ~15%

Q3. What industry is your organization in? (Select only one.)

O Aerospace 1
O Agriculture 2
O Automotive 3
O Construction 4
O Consulting 5
O Education 6
O Energy/Power/Utilities 7
O Engineering 8
O Entertainment/Media 9
O Financial services 10
O Food/Beverage/Hospitality/Travel 11
O Government 12
O Health care 13
O Insurance 14
O IT services 15
O Legal 16
O Manufacturing 17
O Marketing/Market Research 18 THANK & TERMINATE
O Nonprofit 19
O Real estate 20
O Retail/Wholesale 21
O Software 22
O Telecommunications 23
O Transportation 24
O Other 97

[ASK OF THOSE WHO SELECT IT SERVICES (Q3=15)]

Q4. Is your organization a managed service provider (MSP)? (Select only one.)

Yes 1 THANK & TERMINATE

No 2
Don’t know 99 THANK & TERMINATE

Survey CONFIDENTIAL 4
Q5. How many employees are in your organization? (Please include all locations. Your best
estimate is fine.)

O 1-19 1
O 20-49 2 THANK & TERMINATE
O 50-99 3
O 100-249 4
O 250-499 5
O 500-999 6
O 1,000-2,499 7
O 2,500-4,999 8
THANK & TERMINATE
O 5,000-9,999 9
O 10,000 or more 10

Q6. Which of the following best describes your role? (Select only one.)

O Owner/CEO/President 1
O VP IT/CIO/CTO 2
O IT Director 3
O IT Manager 4
O Developer/Engineer (software/app/web) 5
O Network/System Administrator 6
O Help Desk Technician 7
O Technical Consultant 8
O Other IT related, please specify 97
O Other non-IT related, please specify 997 THANK & TERMINATE
DP NOTES:
Include nets:
 IT Director+ (1-3)
 IT Manager (4)
 Other IT (5-8,97)

Q7. Please enter your exact job title in the space provided below.

O OPEN TEXT

Q8. Which of the following best describes your role in making purchase decisions about
technology hardware, software, and/or services for your organization? (Select all that
apply.)

O Determine need 1
O Evaluate solutions/vendors 2
MUST SELECT 1, 2, 3,
O Recommend solutions/vendors 3
4, 5 OR 7 TO QUALIFY,
O Make final decisions 4
ALL OTHERS THANK
O Approve purchases 5
& TERMINATE
O Deploy solutions 6
O Manage/maintain solutions 7
O None of the above 98 THANK & TERMINATE

Survey CONFIDENTIAL 5
Q9. How does your organization handle IT support and management for IT related issues
(e.g., Help Desk, Network Management, Security & Compliance, Hardware/Software, etc.)?
(Select only one.)

O In-house IT department 1
O Outsource to external vendor/service provider 2
(MSP) [GATHER MIX]
O Both in-house and external vendor/service 3
provider
O Other, specify 97
O Don’t know 99 THANK & TERMINATE
DP NOTES:
Include nets:
 Outsource some/all (2-3)

MAIN SURVEY

Q10. How much would you agree or disagree that internal business leaders perceive your IT
department to do each of the following? (Select only one per row.)

Neither
Strongly Somewhat agree nor Somewhat Strongly Don’t
[RANDOMIZE] disagree disagree disagree agree agree know
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (99)
Meets business needs
1 O O O O O O
consistently and proactively
Supports new IT initiatives
2 O O O O O O
with fast, affordable services
Executes end-user requests
3 and support functions timely O O O O O O
and effectively
Provides consistency in IT
4 design, configuration, and O O O O O O
problem resolution
DP Notes:
 Report Top 2 Summary table (col 4-5)
 Report one table per row
 Report one table per column
 Include nets:
o Strongly/somewhat agree (4-5)
o Strongly/somewhat disagree (1-2)

Survey CONFIDENTIAL 6
Q11. What are the top three areas of improvement you would like your organization’s IT
department to accomplish MOST? (Select up to three.)

O [RANDOMIZE]
O Create a more stable IT environment 1
O Enhance employee productivity 2
O Improve technology integration 3
O Increase IT cost predictability 4
O Reduce risk 5
Increase confidence in IT among internal business
O 6
decision-makers
Improve response time to organizational support
O 7
requests
O Other IT related area, please specify 97
My organization’s IT department doesn’t need
O 98
improvement in any area
O Don’t know 99

Q12. What are the greatest challenges faced by your IT department? Select up to three
challenges. (Select up to three.)

O [RANDOMIZE]
Apps, devices, and printing aren’t working correctly,
O 1
and IT hasn’t, or can’t fix it
Business leaders don’t believe IT can execute in an
O 2
effective or timely fashion
O Consistent turnover in IT department 3
O Immature IT processes 4
O Persistent security concerns 5
O Business requirements IT can’t meet 6
IT is often perceived as the reason that a business
O 7
opportunity can’t be realized
O IT is viewed as a cost center 8
IT struggles to balance security/audit requirements
O 9
with business needs
Lack of planning requires “emergency” funding to fix
O 10
IT issues
O Lacks consistent IT budgets 11
O Long wait times for IT responses to business needs 12
O Organization that is growing quickly 13
O Small IT issues quickly become larger problems 14
O Frequent IT outages/disruptions 15
The business finds it easier to source IT services
O 16
and solutions on their own
O Trouble passing audits 17
O Other, specify 97
O None 98
O Don’t know 99

Survey CONFIDENTIAL 7
Q13. Which one of the following is the greatest distraction that keeps you from getting your
work done? (Select only one.)

O [RANDOMIZE]
O Troubleshooting/assisting end users 1
O Implementing new projects or technologies 2
O Updating and patching existing environment 3
O Having to do everything (i.e., spread too thin) 4
O Doing routine maintenance 5
O Ticket documentation/reporting 6
O Other distraction, please specify 97
O I don’t have any distractions 98
O Don’t know 99

Q14. How confident are you in your abilities to engage in the following activities? (Select only
one per row.)

Not at all Not very Somewhat Very Completely Not

[RANDOMIZE LIST] capable capable capable capable capable applicable
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (99)
Device & application
1 O O O O O O
management
Emergency outage
2 O O O O O O
response
3 Network management O O O O O O
Onboarding/
4 O O O O O O
Offboarding
Optimization (including
5 assessment, O O O O O O
deployment, & mgmt.)
Proactive patching and
6 O O O O O O
monitoring
7 Security & compliance O O O O O O
8 Special IT projects O O O O O O
9 Systems administration O O O O O O
User support /
10 O O O O O O
troubleshooting
Audit & compliance
11 O O O O O O
remediation
Developing useful
12 monitoring and O O O O O O
reporting
DP Notes:
 Report Top 2 Summary table (col 4-5)
 Report Top 3 Summary table (col 3-5)
 Report one table per row
 Report one table per column
 Include nets:
o Very/completely capable (4-5)
o Somewhat/very/completely capable (3-5)
o Not at all/not very capable (1-2)

Survey CONFIDENTIAL 8
Q15. Does your organization lack a technology specialist in any of the following areas?
(Select all that apply.)

[RANDOMIZE]
O Security 1
O Networking 2
O Collaboration (e.g., VoIP, web/video conferencing, 3
etc.)
O Data Center 4
O Microsoft 5
O Cisco 6
O Other, specify 97
O My organization is not lacking specialists 98
O Don’t know 99
DP NOTES:
Include mean # of selections

Q16. Which of the following best describes how your organization handles the IT functions
below? (Select one per row.)

Do not
currently Do not
Currently outsource, currently
[RANDOMIZE] outsource to but plan to outsource, Don’t know/
an external in the next and have NO Not
vendor 12 months plans to applicable
(1) (2) (3) (99)
Backup/Disaster
1 O O O O
Recovery/Storage
2 Cloud/Virtualization O O O O
Collaboration (e.g., VoIP,
3 O O O O
web/video conferencing, etc.)
4 Desktops/notebooks/tablets O O O O
End user support (e.g., Help O O O O
5
Desk)
6 Mobility (e.g., BYOD, MDM) O O O O
7 Network monitoring O O O O
8 Network management O O O O
9 Security infrastructure/tools O O O O
10 Servers/switches/routers O O O O
11 Security operations center O O O O
DP Notes:
 Report Currently/Planning on Outsourcing table (col 1-2)
 Report Do Not But Planning/Do Not No Plans table (col 2-3)
 Report one table per row
 Report one table per column
 Include nets:
o Currently/Planning on Outsourcing (col 1-2)
o Do Not But Planning/Do Not No Plans (col 2-3)

Survey CONFIDENTIAL 9
[ASK Q17 IF Q16=1 (CURRENTLY OUTSOURCE) FOR AT LEAST ONE ROW]
Q17. Thinking about the IT functions you currently outsource, how satisfied are you with the
outsource vendor for each IT function? (Select only one per row.)

[SHOW IT FUNCTIONS
WHERE Q16=1
(CURRENTLY
OUTSOURCE), Not at all Not very Somewhat Very Extremely Not
RANDOMIZE LIST] satisfied satisfied satisfied satisfied satisfied applicable
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (99)
Backup/Disaster
1 O O O O O O
Recovery/Storage
2 Cloud/Virtualization O O O O O O
Collaboration (e.g., VoIP,
3 web/video conferencing, O O O O O O
etc.)
Desktops/notebooks/tablet
4 O O O O O O
s
End user support (e.g.,
5 O O O O O O
Help Desk)
Mobility (e.g., BYOD,
6 O O O O O O
MDM)
7 Network monitoring O O O O O O
8 Network management O O O O O O
Security
9 O O O O O O
infrastructure/tools
10 Servers/switches/routers O O O O O O
11 Security operations center O O O O O O
DP Notes:
 Report Top 2 Summary table (col 4-5)
 Report Top 3 Summary table (col 3-5)
 Report one table per row
 Report one table per colum
 Include nets:
o Very/Extremely satisfied (4-5)
o Somewhat/Very/Extremely Satisfied (3-5)
o Not satisfied (1-2)

Survey CONFIDENTIAL 10
Q18. What are the top 3 challenges or concerns that would prevent your organization from
outsourcing IT functions, support, or services? (Select up to three.)

[RANDOMIZE LIST]
O Budget constraints 1
O Complexity of tools/solutions 2
O Concerns about security/compliance 3
O Confusing service levels to accommodate different SLAs 4
O Poor past experiences with external service/support 5
O Existing contracts/commitments 6
O Lack of comprehensive tools/solutions 7
O Lack of end-user awareness 8
O Lack of need 9
O Length of time to resolve issues 10
O Loss of control/visibility to a 3rd-party 11
O Inability to support multiple brands/mixed environment 12
O Prefer to manage deployment in-house 13
O Prefer to use other sources for support 14
O Resistance from internal business decision-makers 15
O Time required to onboard/setup 16
O Uncertain of benefits/ROI 17
O Other, please specify 97
O Don’t know 99

Q19. What are the top 3 benefits you would expect to experience by outsourcing IT functions,
support, or services? (Select up to three.)

[RANDOMIZE LIST]
O Reduced costs (TCO) 1
O Access to vendor support and expertise 2
O Reduced need for additional IT staff 3
O Extended device life and support 4
O Improved predictability for IT costs 5
O Faster issue identification and remediation 6
O Reduced service/help desk requests 7
O Improved security 8
O Reduced maintenance/repair costs 9
O Reduced workload for IT staff 10
O Simplified management/maintenance 11
O Keeps us up to date on new technologies and trends 12
O Time savings to focus on other important IT initiatives 13
O Reduce downtime/more reliability 14
O Quicker deployment/setup 15
O On-site support post-deployment 16
O Other, please specify 97
O None 98
O Don’t know 99

Survey CONFIDENTIAL 11
Q20. What are the top 3 business outcomes you would expect your organization to achieve
by outsourcing IT functions, support, or services ? (Select up to three.)

[RANDOMIZE LIST]
O Improved customer satisfaction 1
O Improved employee productivity 2
O Reduced IT complexity 3
O Increased innovation/business agility 4
O Increased availability/access to tech experts 5
O Increased business efficiency 6
O Reduced costs - CapEx 7
O Reduced costs - OpEx 8
O Simplified management 9
O Eliminate legacy systems/system modernization 10
O Competitive advantage 11
O Improved security 12
O Other, please specify 97
O None 98
O Don’t know 99

Q21. What are the top 3 most important factors you would consider when evaluating 3rd-
party IT service providers/consultants? (Select up to three.)

[RANDOMIZE LIST]
O Ease of doing business 1
O Established reputation 2
O Quality of support 3
O Service portfolio 4
O Speed of support 5
O Technical expertise 6
O Fee structure/pricing transparency 7
O Reliability 8
O Cost 9
O Attractive service-level agreements (SLA) 10
O Other, please specify 97
O Don’t know
99

Q22. Lastly, what would want to hear/know from a 3rd-party IT service provider/consultant
about how they could help your organization? (Your feedback is important. Please be as
detailed as possible.)

[OPEN END]

Survey CONFIDENTIAL 12