Equant's Haissanguerre added that experience is also key. "Customers must look for service maturity and customer references." Expertise within the relevant industry sector is also an item to look out for as well as recognition for the industry.

Ability to deliver efficiency is a top priority with any promises of cost reductions, performance gains and technology enhancements built into the managed services agreement, added Haissanguerre. He concludes that the provider must also show itself to be flexible in being able to customize and develop services to fit changing client requirements.

Evolving service portfolio

Moss at BT notes that service offerings must be underpinned by rigorous procedures and first class security, as well as comprising leading products and technologies. "Failure to have all of these elements in place will compromise effectiveness, operational performance, and possibly security, with potentially disastrous results for a business," said Moss.

Enterprises should start by understanding the spend they have today and also the potential opportunity costs of having valuable IT staff perform tasks that can potentially be done by a third party. After understanding what they spend in time, money and people resource, it's then possible to create a framework identifying what takes place where and what the needs of the business are. "It is against such a framework that any potential managed service providers can be evaluated," added Moss.