Untitled3

How Outsourcing IT Through Managed Services Benefits Your Business

Small Business

How Outsourcing IT Through Managed Services Benefits Your Business

How Outsourcing IT Through Managed Services Benefits Your Business

A lot of companies in the world today rely heavily on IT for the daily operation of their businesses. This necessitates the need for a comprehensive IT department. Unfortunately, this comes with a cost of its own, one many companies, especially small to medium-sized businesses, cannot bear. Because of this, businesses like this outsource all their non-sensitive IT operations to external companies for them to take care of. This is where managed services come in.

What Are Managed Services?

Managed services are business operations that are taken care of by dedicated service providers. A lot of the operations carried out in a company can be outsourced and executed by external service providers. They are usually more equipped to carry out these operations as they have more experience dealing with the operations of other businesses. 

Companies that provide managed services to businesses are called Managed Service Providers or MSPs. A lot of small and medium-sized businesses make use of managed services for their IT operations because of the advantage it brings to their businesses. Although managed services seem similar to regular outsourced services, the difference lies in the effort put by MSPs into ensuring whatever business operation given to them is achieved. 

MSPs tend to function as if they’re part of the companies they work for. They make sure the companies achieve their goals to the best of their ability and proactively try to prevent any issue from coming up.

Why Do you Need Managed Services?

There are several reasons a company might need to use managed services to manage their IT operations. Below are some of them.

The cost of hiring and keeping in-house IT professionals: Hiring and managing in-house professionals is usually very costly. And as a business scales, the IT requirements of such a company increases as well. This means the company has to hire more IT personnel to make up for the increased workload in their IT department. This problem can be solved by outsourcing your IT operations to an MSP. 

Hard time keeping up with new technology:  The IT landscape is always evolving, and rapidly too. IT professionals always have to be up to date with the latest developments in their field to ensure things are being done according to industry standards. It can get difficult for businesses to keep up with this ever-changing landscape. Businesses have to make sure their IT personnel are well trained, and this costs time and money. A better way to spend this money would be to hire the services of an MSP to save the company that time for more strategic IT operations.

Inability to meet up with set goals: Every IT department has set goals that have to be met to achieve some of the company’s business targets. If the IT department is frequently falling short of their deliverables, then that’s a good sign that an MSP is needed to reduce their workload. 

Benefit Of Outsourcing IT Through Managed Services

Managing your IT operations through managed services comes with a lot of benefits for your company. 

happy customer outsourcing their IT through managed services

Better pricing: Managed services providers charge their clients a flat fee for a scheduled period. Their fees are always much cheaper than having to maintain in-house IT professionals. Their fees are also predictable, which makes budgeting easier for the company.

Reduced risk: All operations carried out in a company come with inherent risks. Because the MSPs now take care of your IT operations, they also bear whatever risk that comes with it. This leaves your company to deal with other risks.

They follow best practices: MSPs are always careful to follow industry standards when dealing with their clients’ IT operations. This means all operations carried out for your business by the MSPs are foolproof and secure. 

They bring you to the level of your competitors:  Most big companies have IT departments with IT professionals assigned to all of their IT needs. This isn’t possible with small and medium-sized companies because of a lack of resources. But with MSPs, they can get the same set of services for a fraction of the amount big companies spend on their IT departments.

IT Solutions You Can Outsource To An MSP

IT departments oversee a plethora of operations in a company. Most of these operations can be outsourced to MSPs to handle. Some of these operations are: 

Security Management:  The security of a company’s IT infrastructure is very important, especially when they handle sensitive user data such as hospital records or bank accounts details. An MSP can take care of all these efficiently and securely.

Data Analytics: Data is very important in the world we live in today. But it’s almost useless without being analyzed. Businesses need to analyze data to gain insight into their operations and see where they can improve. This task sometimes falls on the IT department to perform. You can outsource this to a managed service company to save cost and get more qualified personnel on the job.

Technical Support: MSPs also provide technical supports to their clients’ staff and customers. It is necessary for all companies with IT solutions to have a technical support team to deal with issues that may arise from their product or platform. 

Network And Infrastructure:  In all companies, there are several tools needed by the employees to function properly such as computers, software applications, network systems, data storage systems and so on. Usually, this is taken care of by an in-house IT team. But they can be outsourced to MSPs to handle too.

Cloud Infrastructure: It’s no news that a lot of the web apps we use today (Office 365, G Suite etc.) are hosted in the cloud. This is more cost-effective than hosting them on-site. Some MSPs provide clovud services such as virtualization and SaaS (Software as a Service) to their clients.  

Choosing A Managed Service Provider

There are several MSPs available to you, each offering different services. It is important you go for one compatible with your company’s goal to avoid issues down the road. Before choosing an MSP, there are some things you should observe first. 

Expertise: It is important you determine how good the MSP you are considering is at the services they offer. This isn’t something you can find by going through the MSPs website, by the way. You can do this by seeking reviews from their past clients. You would get a more accurate opinion this way.

Customer service: Every company that deals with customers should have a good customer service team available to handle whatever problems their customers face. So when choosing an MSP, make sure it has a topnotch customer service and is always available.

Security standards: The security of your company’s data is very important and needs to be handled with caution. Make sure whatever MSP you go with takes security seriously and adheres to information security standards in handling your data.

cyber-security-tips

Services: MSPs offer a wide range of services as you have seen above. Not all MSPs offer all these services though. Some offer very comprehensive services, while others are more specialized. Therefore, it is essential the MSP you go for offers the exact service you need to avoid incompatibility issues down the line.

Cost: While MSPs are known to be cheaper than maintaining in-house IT staff, some are pricier than the other. Ensure you compare the prices of the MSPs you are considering alongside the value they offer to make the best choice.

Conclusion

Now you know the benefits an MSP brings to your business. All that’s left is for you to partner with one to get started. However, it is important you make proper research before choosing one to partner with. This would save your company a lot of problems and money down the road.