When it comes to information technology, not everyone is savvy, and not every business has the capacity to hire a reliable IT team. The simplest solution to this is getting your IT services managed by a third party company. Getting managed IT services simply means delegating part of your IT operations to a more expertized company.
These companies are known as Managed Service Providers (MSP) and are mainly tasked with running the IT operations of a business. Managed IT services have grown exponentially over the last ten years and have taken the IT industry to the next level.
The managed service company is tasked with providing data center, telephony, core network, and legacy management services. This means your company is largely covered as far as some of the most complex IT projects are concerned. So, before we move to what managed IT service can do for your business, you first need to understand why you need it.
Why Managed IT Services?
For any growing business, the need for managed IT services is unquestionable. In the past, businesses depended on the ‘break-fix’ methodology with their IT services. What this meant is that whenever there was a breakdown, the company had to call the maintenance guys to fix the problems.
This method had its own inconveniences, including delays in business operations and the possibility of the problem not getting solved. Your business operations were just hanging on a thin line and depended on the competence of the technical team.
But this is no longer the case as many businesses have switched to MSPs. The company is responsible for managing all IT services; including fixing any problems that may arise. The IT service provider manages, solves problems, and monitors everything on behalf of the company.
With all these problems taken off your back, you can now focus on the core competencies of the business. You need all the time to increase your productivity and grow your business.
If you haven’t thought of adopting managed IT services for your business, then your business is left behind in the competitive world. Your company is expanding at a very fast rate, and you need to adopt superior technology. But keeping up with the growing IT needs can be too complex for your team and strain your budget.
And with the pressure to perform, enhance security, keep up with operational expectations and still keep the costs down, your business may not survive it. If you ask experts about this, they’ll recommend switching to managed IT services.
So, if your business is planning future strategies and thinking about deploying a new IT environment, it will be the right time to think about managed IT. The services are perfect for small, medium, and large businesses.
Reasons to Outsource Your IT Services
Companies decide to outsource their IT services for various reasons. The reasons largely depend on the vision of the company and what they seek to achieve; hence everything varies from business to business. Here are three categories that will better benefit if they outsource.
Limited Company Capacity
Small companies with no capacity to hire an in-house team or afford IT tools are better off with managed IT. Despite not having the required capacity, these companies have many IT tickets and systems they have to manage. Since they can’t do so, the MSP will come to their aid.
Too Much IT Work to Do
Even with a reliable in-house IT team, the right training, and updated tools, sometimes the work just becomes too much. Businesses that get overburdened with IT functions such as providing user-support, troubleshooting, and upgrades, need MSPs.
Sometimes this can take a toll on your team that they can no longer focus on long term goals or even perform high-level strategic initiatives. In such a situation, MSPs will come in handy to offer some desk support.
External Expertise for More Complex Tasks
Some businesses have a completely reliable IT team capable of handling all the tasks that the company may need. But the IT world is a complex one, and sometimes even the most experienced team can have problems. Since managed IT companies have different professionals with high expertise; they can help with the most complex tasks.
Such projects are meant to improve the company’s IT strategy. This can help with the company infrastructure, migration, or security information. The MSPs will provide the tools and expertise needed to make all these functions successful.
The Importance of Managed IT Services
SMBs can benefit a lot from managed IT support. Managed IT services companies such as Bits Technology Group can be a real time saver for your business. Anything that can save you time, money, and stress should be welcomed with open arms.
Are you still wondering why you need to outsource your IT services instead of doing everything in-house? Here are the benefits that managed IT services providers offer to businesses.
Saves Operational Costs
Running an in-house IT team can be so expensive. You have to pay salaries, office upkeep, insurance, and other employee benefits. Don’t forget that you’re going to have to fire and hire, which means training the staff members. Even if you manage to retain your team for a long time, you’ll still need to train them so that they’re up to date with new systems and processes.
Employee aside, IT equipment is pretty expensive. You need to keep them up to date as technology keeps changing every single day. There are breakdown and maintenance costs to factor in as far as IT solutions are concerned.
Outsourcing your IT services reduces large capital expenditures. It also helps reduce your IT costs by saving on labor rates. Signing the service level agreement is the best thing that can happen to your company in regards to money matters.
Better Risk Management
Risks are an everyday part of the business, and what you can do is try and minimize them. When it comes to IT-related risks, MSP is the right solution for you. They come with their own modern infrastructure and software and some methodologies that can work well for your business.
Using the best methodologies, the MSP team adopts best practices that work well to minimize the risks that come with service delivery. The service providers are equipped with the best industry knowledge, which mostly focuses on security and compliance. They can also provide businesses with a proper guideline on how to avoid risks.
Security Compliance
IT services provide businesses with a greater opportunity for business to enact some security policies as well as improve their expertise. MSPs employ standards such as PCI compliance and will steer your organization with the necessary parameters and regulations.
If you’re in the healthcare, education, or finance industries, your business needs this IT portion. But only the expertise and experience of IT service providers can allow your business to achieve this. You don’t want to mess up with anything the concerns security measures for your company.
Managed IT Gives You a Competitive Edge
If you’re not adopted managed IT services for your business yet, you should know that your competitors have and are reaping big. According to studies, about 53% of SMBs are now using the services of managed IT service providers.
Thanks to technology, small businesses have been given the opportunity to compete on a fairground with large industries regarding this. For this reason, take such technological opportunities as a chance to innovate, make a profit, and gain a competitive advantage.
Managed IT can improve your business infrastructure to allow you to compete fairly with big organizations. As a business person, you wouldn’t want such a big opportunity to pass you by.
Less Stress, Peace of Mind
Day to day IT tasks can be overwhelming, especially for a small business. Don’t mention the stress that comes with IT risks and breakdowns. Managed IT service providers take all these off your back by implementing reliable security policies and tested backups.
You’ll never have to experience downtime problems, which mostly lead to lost time and revenue. The IT guys come with a comprehensive roadmap and a guide that sees you through all the technological challenges you may face. With things running smoothly and nothing to worry about, you can sleep soundly knowing that everything is okay.
Increased Efficiency and Productivity
To ensure optimal performance, you need to ensure the constant availability of critical IT functionality. You cannot compute the cost of downtime, but you know that this is not something you want for your business. Unexpected outages also put your business reputation at risk if such erodes your public trust.
You need maximum performance to ensure a better customer experience, and you can only achieve this with a managed IT service. Sometimes, your business will need multiple technologies to keep critical IT components running. You need all components available to ensure uninterrupted operations for the internal end-users.
When you choose to work with an MSP, you’re assured of maximum uptime and almost zero service interruptions. The providers are highly efficient at their work and will deliver all these benefits at a low cost.
Your IT Future Is Secure
When it comes to IT, you know that changes can be overwhelming, and sometimes your in-house team may not keep up. Implementing all the changes will require funding, technical changes, security beef up, and operational changes. When you add the cost of training your staff to this, your business will have to deal with resource constraints.
MSPs allow you to achieve the full benefits of the changes without putting a strain on your pockets. The companies always ensure their staff is well trained with all the changes in regards to new technology. They also have all the necessary equipment ready to embrace any changes that may take place in the market.
Time Saving Benefits of Managed IT
Managing your in-house team and doing other IT operations can be time-consuming. You don’t have to manage a big team; neither will you deal with issues such as downtime. With all these taken off your back, you can focus on running other essential aspects of your business.
You’re going to spend less time dealing with IT support and more time running and growing your business. What’s more, your IT support system will always be available to your users 24/7, even on holidays. There is no better way to skyrocket the productivity of your business other than adopting managed IT.
Protect Your Company From Security Breaches
With the age of technology, cyber threats seem to be the order of the day. It’s the job of your IT department to ensure everything runs smoothly. But cybercrime is always evolving, and you don’t know what new tactics those criminals will come up with.
MSPs are always updated with the latest tactics and are prepared with all the necessary defenses. They also assist your in-house team in recognizing and avoiding all the threats that can come up. This way, your company will be more protected from any security breaches.
Don’t Take Too Long to Decide on Managed IT
Managed IT service providers are no doubt changing the IT world and relieving businesses of IT stress. With their services, you rest assured that you can enhance the stability of your IT operations. Knowing that everything is running smoothly and your business is covered from all corners will give you complete peace of mind.
Well, if you haven’t adopted managed IT services yet, this could be the best article you can come across as it acts as an eye-opener. You’re assured that you’ll never regret implementing these IT solutions. Also, consider taking advantage of other useful articles we have on this site to help you with your business’s tech aspects.
