Do you rely only on your in-house IT department to keep your systems working smoothly, lead all IT-related projects and protect your company from cyber attacks? Well, maybe this isn’t the best option for your business.
I’m not saying that your IT team isn’t good enough. But it’s possible that they are overwhelmed, and that their time can be better utilized. In these cases, Managed IT Services can be a good choice.
What are Managed IT Services?
Managed IT Services Providers (MSPs) are companies specialized in all kinds of IT services. This enables companies to outsource their IT demands to these providers, which can be a good strategy to relieve the workload of the in-house team, or even to meet an IT service that the internal team is not able to do.
Typically, those services include cyber security services, cloud management, remote monitoring of the operation, communication solutions, hardware and software vendor management, among others.
When is the right time to look for it?
Managed IT services can be availed by every company that is struggling with IT issues. However, there are two specific scenarios that happen frequently and that we strongly recommend looking for an MSP:
- You own a growing small company, that doesn’t’ have an IT department. When you have an IT issue, you look for a “not so professional help”. Maybe it’s a one-man IT shop, or even a fried that knows a lot about IT. In the beginning, this guy handles all your demands. But once you grow, the IT problems increase, become more complex, and that guy can no longer handle your needs.
- You are a C-level or IT manager of a medium-sized company (with around 100 people). The company has an IT department, but it’s one or two people in the team. These guys are overwhelmed and frustrated, since they are working in a broke-fix model, with no strategy behind.
If you feel familiar with any of these situations, we recommend talking to us to understand more about Managed IT Services.
Benefits of Managed IT Services
The MSP industry is a growing market, largely due to the advantages that companies are achieving when outsourcing IT. Some of them are:
Increase the productivity of your IT team
It’s a waste of time using your in-house IT team to reset passwords and deploy simple software for new employees. Instead, they should be looking for new technologies and projects that can boost your business. A Managed Service Provider can take care of all your daily demands (including more complex ones), allowing your team focus on strategic IT work.
If you are a smaller company and still don’t have an IT team, probably you are the person that is handling IT issues. And you should focus on your core business goals, that is what most matters to grow. Let everything IT-related with an MSP
Finally, with a good Managed IT Services Provider, you will no longer have to worry about vendor management. You’ll have a reliable point of contact that will intermediate all the relationship with vendors. And this professional probably has much more experience doing it and can get you better negotiating.
Reduce downtime
When you take a reactive approach on IT – which means just acting after an issue occurs – downtime is certainly. And it can cost a fortune to your company. Instead of having your employee sitting and waiting the whole day until someone fix the problem he’s having on his PC, you can try another alternative.
MSP works essentially on a proactive approach. So, they use remote monitoring to identify, diagnose and troubleshoot potential issues that your team may have. From cyber threats to software updates, you can anticipate and prevent almost any problem.
Reduce costs
Reducing downtime is also decreasing costs. But there are some other ways that you save money when you adopt an MSP. Probably the clearest one is the saving you make in recruiting, hiring and training IT professionals. This takes time, money and can go wrong even if you follow the best practices. With an MSP, you have experienced professionals ready to work for your company. From help desks to v-CIO, a good MSP has the expertise you need.
Another way to save money with an MSP is to have an improved IT budget. As we said before, MSP works in a proactive approach, so you have a better understanding of what will be your costs in the future. This way, you can plan and get a better negotiation. The relationship MSPs have with vendors can also help in this IT budgeting.
Get a more previsible scenario
When you partner with an MSP, you’ll have a fixed monthly fee, that covers exactly the expenses you need with IT. An advantage of it is that you eliminate an upfront capital cost, spreading costs over time.
Another benefit is that your financial team will love you: no more unpredictable costs and a financial forecast for the whole year. Not to mention that unexpected expenses are always more expensive. When you have time to plan, the savings are certain.
Get the exact expertise you need
It’s possible that you face an issue that your current IT team is not able to solve. One possibility is to hire a more experienced professional. It will take you a lot of time and money and there is a chance that you don’t need this expensive worker after the job is done.
When you count on an MSP, you have a team used to solving all kinds of problems. You’ll have the exact help you need at the time, not more or less. And you’ll pay according to the services your business needs.
Receive support 24/7
One of the premises of an MSP is to offer remote monitoring of your infrastructure. This means that any kind of problem will generate an alert to the system. In most cases, the issue will be addressed immediately and it’s possible that you’ll just know about it when it’s already solved.
The idea of an MSP is to prevent all kinds of problems. But if something bad happens, good MSPs have an incident response plan, defining actions and process that should be taken in each kind of situation.
No worries on scaling up
Above all, we are talking about technology. This means that everything changes at a fast pace. You’ll need to update your systems, your hardware and all sorts of technology that you use to keep your business alive.
When you adopt an MSP, you’ll be connecting to professionals that need to understand what the best solutions are available on the market. And more importantly, if your company needs or not each one of these solutions. Scaling up will be seamless and smarter partnering with an MSP.
Let’s talk about Managed IT services?
Syntech Group is a Managed IT Services Provider attending companies in all Inland Empire. If you are struggling with anything IT-related, we highly recommend booking a call with us. No matter if you want an MSP or you just have a simple doubt: we love to talk about IT and it will be a pleasure to have a conversation.
