Two people are talking in the office

or a long time, managed services followed a simple logic: people deliver the service, while technology plays a supporting role. Cloud computing has fundamentally changed that logic. Customers now build applications faster and more flexibly and expect greater self-service, quicker responses and much higher levels of automation. 

Bechtle responded to this shift by launching the Service Factory in 2020. Rather than treating these demands as an extension of day-to-day operations, Bechtle created a dedicated environment to develop new ways of working and to test them with a start-up mindset—approaches that are difficult to pursue in the operational routines of Bechtle’s IT system houses. “Managed services used to be a people business—delivered by people, supported by technology. In the cloud, that picture flips: technology sets the pace, with people supporting it,” explains Ingo Janßen, Business Manager for Managed Services at Bechtle. 

What the Service Factory does in practice.

The Bechtle Service Factory designs and runs standardised managed cloud services. It launched its first service, Microsoft 365 Smart Workplace, in 2020. Since then, the portfolio has grown steadily, with the team increasingly taking on the management of additional platforms. Alongside the Bechtle Cloud, this now includes hyperscalers such as Azure, AWS and Google Cloud, as well as European providers like Ionos and Nextcloud.  

A core promise is immediate service readiness. While traditional service projects often involve transition phases of three months or more, the Bechtle Service Factory is typically ready for operation much faster.  

Radoslav Marjanac

We can deliver immediately, without first having to find the people to run the services. We scale through automation.

Radoslav Marjanac, Head of the Bechtle Service Factory

A person working in the office with a tablet

Digital sovereignty as a growth driver.

Demand is currently rising sharply for services that support sovereign cloud solutions. For businesses and public-sector organisations that need to run workloads in Germany or elsewhere in Europe for data protection or regulatory reasons, the Bechtle Service Factory offers purpose-built solutions—either based on Bechtle’s own data centres or developed together with partners such as Ionos and Nextcloud.“Digital sovereignty has gained enormous importance over the past one to two years,” says Ingo Janßen.

“With the Bechtle Service Factory, we can integrate sovereign cloud providers quickly and deliver the corresponding managed services. Thanks to the flexibility of Radoslav and his team, we’re able to respond to customer requirements very rapidly.” 

Why customers want standards.

Standardised services are gaining broad acceptance. In a Bechtle survey, 77 per cent of managed services customers said they would be willing to use standardised offerings if these deliver cost and scalability benefits. Among C‑level decision-makers, approval rises to as much as 84 per cent. Combined with the tailored approach of Bechtle’s IT system houses, this gives customers the best of both worlds: reliability and speed through standardised services, alongside individual support from dedicated contacts. The Service Factory provides the standardised building blocks, which the system houses then integrate seamlessly into bespoke customer solutions.

AI as the next step.

Artificial intelligence is a key driver in the continued evolution of the Service Factory’s portfolio. In the medium term, customers will be able to manage their services directly using natural language. “In three years, I see end users speaking to the AI—while our services run quietly in the background,” says Radoslav Marjanac.