K. I. S. S.  –it’s a well worn acronym “Keep it simple s____” (you can fill this one in) –it’s the advice given by every speech teacher I ever had, and one which we all wish would be applied to the tax code.

22,400,000. The number of results from a Google search on “Managed Services”.  Managed Services is getting more and more attention and support.  Research firms, (Gartner, AMR, Forrester, to name a few) and academic centers –Stanford Global Supply Chain Management Forum, are publishing their findings.  Organizations Automotive, Retail, Financial Services, Consumer Products, and Manufacturing are adopting a ‘Managed Services’ model as part of their business to business strategies .   

SaaS,  PaaS,  B2Bi,  SOA, Hosting, EDI, XML, RONET, ISO, AS2, https, etc.   With all the acronyms  and all the results, can we really KISS Managed Services?  

Sure – by focusing on the values.    All of the functions, capabilities, drivers, and demands around managed services are contained in 5 basic values:  Reliability, Security, Interoperability, Scalability and Supportability.  Each value is really the answer to a basic question – as I’ve listed below

1)      Reliable:  Is it working?

2)      Secure:   Is it safe?

3)      Interoperable: Can everyone use it?

4)      Scalable:  Will it grow?

5)      Supportable:  If it breaks, (or bends) can I fix it?

There’s a lot of literature about what comprises these each of these values, and multiple approaches to providing them.  By driving to these values MS and KISS come together.