Many organisations are turning to managed service providers to reduce overheads, improve system resilience, and support digital transformation. DSP’s Oracle Managed Services are designed to do just that, delivering proactive and reactive support, driving cost efficiencies, and aligning service delivery with customer sentiment.
Our blog provides a detailed overview of the key areas discussed in DSP's recent webinar, demonstrating how Oracle Managed Services deliver tangible business value.
Your Partner in Oracle Excellence
DSP has been a trusted provider of enterprise-grade services for over 25 years. With more than 250 employees and 600+ customers across Managed and Professional Services, DSP supports mission-critical systems for organisations of all sizes and industries.
At its core, DSP offers 24x7x365 proactive Oracle Managed Services, underpinned by a customer-first ethos. Whether delivering long-term managed support or short-term professional engagements, DSP sets the standard for excellence in managed service provision.
Preventing Issues Before They Happen
A cornerstone of DSP’s Managed Services is proactivity, detecting and resolving issues before they impact operations. Using a suite of proprietary monitoring tools, DSP provides real-time insight into system health, enabling early intervention.
In one example, a customer faced regular failovers in their Active Data Guard setup. These were not true disaster recovery events, but rather unexpected disruptions that compromised service continuity. Through DSP’s automated health check portal and deep-dive diagnostics, the root cause was identified: high CPU usage driven by inefficient SQL statements.
By tuning and removing the most resource-intensive queries, CPU pressure was reduced by over 50%, and the failover events were eliminated. This proactive approach not only stabilised the environment but also preserved the customer's investment in high-availability architecture.
Rapid Response When It Matters Most
Despite the best efforts to prevent issues, incidents can still occur. DSP’s reactivity process is designed to deliver rapid, expert-led resolutions for critical issues.
A recent major incident involved a third-party network change affecting a global production service. The issue fell outside the database layer, requiring cross-functional collaboration between DSP’s infrastructure and database teams. Leveraging its strategic partnership with Oracle, DSP escalated service requests to expedite resolution, restoring service without invoking disaster recovery.
DSP’s structured major incident management process, based on ITIL best practice, ensures clear communication, root cause analysis, and comprehensive post-incident reporting. Within 48 hours, customers receive a detailed incident timeline, including every action taken. This process builds trust, reinforces accountability, and drives continual improvement.
Customer Sentiment: Listening and Evolving
Traditional customer surveys often yield low response rates and limited insight. DSP takes a different approach, integrating real-time sentiment tracking into regular service review meetings.
Customers are invited to rate DSP’s performance using a traffic light scale (e.g., Amber 5, Green 9), with the results recorded in a central action tracker. These ratings are discussed in meetings to identify both positive feedback and areas for improvement.
One customer initially rated DSP a 4 out of 10 due to limited WebLogic monitoring. DSP responded by retrofitting bespoke monitoring based on solutions used with other clients. As the customer’s requirements were addressed, satisfaction improved to a perfect 10.
Internally, DSP maintains a KPI that customer satisfaction must remain at 9 or higher. Teams are actively challenged to improve service if ratings dip, ensuring that service quality evolves in line with customer needs.
Cutting Costs Without Compromising Performance
Cost optimisation is a key benefit of cloud adoption, but the real value often lies in post-migration tuning. Many organisations move to the cloud with like-for-like server specifications, but cloud environments differ significantly from legacy hardware.
DSP continuously reviews customers’ cloud usage and performance metrics to ensure the infrastructure matches actual needs. In one case, analysis revealed that two application servers were over-provisioned. DSP proposed reducing their size by 50%, resulting in a 25% monthly cost saving, with no performance impact.
This outcome was backed by data and ongoing monitoring, ensuring the change was both safe and effective. DSP remains engaged post-optimisation, ready to scale the environment up or down as business needs evolve.
Flexible Outsourcing
Not every customer requires a full-service managed contract. DSP tailors its offerings to suit individual needs, supporting hybrid models that blend internal resources with external expertise. The following real-world scenarios illustrate this flexibility:
Customer A: Augmenting In-House Skills
This customer had a junior DBA and a limited budget. Instead of recruiting another full-time resource, they partnered with DSP for 24x7 managed support, including a bank of professional services days. This setup enabled knowledge-sharing with DSP's senior DBAs, improving internal capability while avoiding recruitment costs.
Customer B: Relieving Operational Pressure
To achieve Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation, this customer had to implement monthly Oracle patching, overloading their DBA team. DSP provided reactive managed services and assumed responsibility for patching cycles, freeing internal staff to focus on strategic initiatives.
Customer C: Validating Internal Work
This organisation had strong internal confidence but wanted external validation. DSP delivered a health check with remediation recommendations and is now shaping a reactive support model for holiday and sickness cover. This ensures critical issues are addressed even when key personnel are unavailable.
Strategic Planning: When and What to Outsource
When should an organisation consider outsourcing? Ideally, before it's urgently required. Preparing for outsourcing during a period of stability allows for a smoother transition if resource constraints, leadership changes, or technological shifts occur.
DSP recommends understanding your current estate, tracking where time and money are spent, and evaluating which services could be outsourced to deliver maximum value. Whether it's to reduce costs, fill a skills gap, or support cloud migration, the key is to follow the data.
DSP’s proprietary Cost Calculator can help you estimate the cost of outsourcing all or part of your estate, arming you with the insight needed to plan ahead.
Key Takeaways
- Proactivity: Early detection and remediation prevents costly outages.
- Reactivity: Structured incident response delivers rapid service restoration.
- Customer Sentiment: Real-time feedback drives continual improvement.
- Cost Optimisation: Right-sized for performance and savings.
- Flexible Support: Tailored to in-house capabilities and business goals.
- Outsourcing Strategy: Be prepared, know your options before it’s urgent.
If you're considering Oracle Managed Services or want to understand how outsourcing could support your IT strategy, DSP is here to help. Contact our team today to discuss your needs and explore how we can deliver long-term value to your organisation.
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