From Plumbing to AI: The Evolution of Managed Services

In this episode of The Bridgecast, host Scott Kinka welcomes Frank Scanga, Executive Vice Chairman at XTIUM—the powerhouse formed by the combination of ATSG and Evolve IP. With over three decades of experience in the managed services and cloud space, Frank offers a candid look at how technology leadership must evolve from "wrench turning" to driving actual business outcomes.

The conversation dives deep into the current state of AI, where Frank reveals a startling statistic: 70% of AI projects fail because organizations take a technology-first rather than a business-outcome approach. From winning top honors in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Managed Network Services to building an "AI Manager" platform to orchestrate LLMs, Frank explains why the "S" in MSP—Service—remains the most critical component of the tech stack.

What you will learn:

Why 70% of AI projects fail and how to pivot toward business outcomes
The definition of a "full-stack" MSP and why point products are no longer enough
How XTIUM uses machine learning and AI for business impact modeling
Why the Windows 10 end-of-life is driving a massive resurgence in Desktop as a Service (DaaS)
The one question every business should ask an MSP: "How do you perform in a failure?"
Why curiosity and listening to customers are the keys to long-term leadership

Frank Scanga is the Executive Vice Chairman at XTIUM and a longtime leader in the managed services and cloud industry. A New York native and Fordham University graduate, Frank founded Maxpoint (later ATSG) in 1994 and has scaled the organization to support 1,700 clients across complex IT environments. Today, he helps drive XTIUM’s "security-first, AI-enabled" approach to IT, focusing on providing high-level business value by automating and managing the foundational technology stack.

To find out how Bridgepointe Technologies helps businesses make IT decisions faster with world-class engineering support and ongoing guidance, head to https://bridgepointetechnologies.com/

Episode Highlights:

[11:17] The 70% Problem: Tech-First Is the Wrong First

Frank opens the episode with a number that stops listeners cold: 70% of AI projects are failing. And the culprit isn't the technology—it's the mindset. "They're taking a technology approach to it and not so much a business outcome approach," Frank explains. This isn't new. It's the same pattern he's watched play out since the dot-com boom, through the cloud rush, and now into AI. CIOs who lead with bits and bytes get tuned out in the boardroom. The ones who thrive frame everything around business impact.

The analogy Frank uses is pointed: "It's a service; it should be up and running, period. You turn the lights on, you expect the lights to be on." The moment a CIO starts talking about infrastructure for its own sake, they've already lost the room. The lesson applies directly to AI: a "technology-first" AI strategy isn't a strategy—it's a procurement plan. The organizations winning with AI are the ones asking "what problem does this solve for the business?" before they write a single line of code or sign a single vendor contract.

[13:25] Building the MSP of AI: Ten Years in the Making

While most organizations are just beginning to think about AI governance, XTIUM has been quietly building it for nearly a decade. Their observability platform uses machine learning to distinguish "white noise" from "bad noise" in managed networks—and goes further with business impact modeling that ties network events directly to business outcomes. They built AI into their DaaS cloud management platform as well.

But the most forward-looking development is internal: XTIUM built an "AI Manager" to govern how their own teams deploy and use AI—because they experienced firsthand what happens when AI usage becomes sporadic and ungoverned. "We realized our own AI deployment was sporadic, so we centralized it," Frank explains. Now, they're preparing to offer that platform to customers. The positioning is characteristically direct: "Someone's going to manage the robots—why not us?" That's the XTIUM thesis in six words. And given their Gartner ranking—#1 in managed network services, automation/AI, and security in MNS—it's not just a tagline.

[26:50] The One Question That Exposes Every MSP

When Scott asks what question a company should ask when evaluating an MSP, Frank doesn't talk about certifications, headcount, or pricing. He gives a single, deceptively simple answer: "How do you perform in a failure?" It's a question that cuts through vendor theater instantly.

"Technology fails all the time," Frank says. "The 'S' is the big part of 'MSP'—it's a services business." What matters isn't how smooth things run when everything's working; it's what happens at 2 a.m. when something breaks. Frank has kept his first customer for over 32 years. His first employee is still with him. That's not a marketing claim—it's the output of a culture that treats trust as the core product, not the technology stack underneath it. "If you trust that we are taking care of the infrastructure, you can focus on your business." Everything else is commentary.

Episode Resources:

Frank Scanga on LinkedIn
Scott Kinka on LinkedIn
The Bridgecast on Apple Podcasts
The Bridgecast on Spotify
The Bridgecast on YouTube