As businesses continue to grow and expand, the need for reliable IT services to keep up with daily operations and customer demands is essential.
Working with a managed service provider (MSP) can be a great way to ensure your business’s needs are met and your IT services are handled efficiently and cost-effectively. In this article, we’ll discuss the benefits of outsourcing IT services to an MSP, how to choose the right MSP, and why managed services are essential for businesses.
Benefits of Outsourcing IT Services to an MSP
MSPs provide businesses with more comprehensive IT services than what a business could provide on its own, as they have access to a wide range of resources and expertise. MSPs are a great option for businesses looking to outsource their IT services to a reliable and experienced provider. Below are some of the benefits you should consider when looking to outsource your IT support:
- Security – Keeping you up to date with the latest security protocols and tools ensures that your systems are secure and protected from cyber threats.
- Increased Efficiency –Access to IT experts ensures that your systems are running efficiently and optimally. This reduces downtime, improves performance, and ensures that your business operations run smoothly.
- Proactive Maintenance –Helps identify and address potential issues before they become a problem, reducing downtime and keeping your systems running effectively.
- Scalability –Flexibility to scale up or down your support as needed to meet changing business demands.
- Cost Savings –Save money on hiring in-house IT staff, as well as the costs associated with keeping them up-to-date on the latest technology.
How to Choose the Right MSP
As with anything in business, ensuring you source the right partner, with the right solutions at the right price is hugely important.
First, you should consider the size and scope of the services they offer. Make sure that the MSP can provide the services your business needs, as well as the expertise to ensure that your systems are running optimally. As it’s pointless employing an MSP that specializes in product A, but you have product Z!
You should also consider the MSP’s track record and reputation. Make sure that they have a good track record of providing reliable services to businesses within your sector and to companies of your size. You should also research their customer service, as this can play a major role in determining the quality of service you receive.
Finally, look at the price. Get a feel for what they are saving you in time and your own staff. Then look at the cost per head and what level of service they are delivering? For example, if it’s remote third-line support only and you have hundreds of staff then this is obviously going to cost a lot less than a business with 50 staff that requires on-site visits and proactive monitoring.
Remember, the cheapest isn’t always the best.
What Services Does an MSP Provide?
Services offered by MSPs can vary but there are several common services that most will provide. These services include:
- Managed IT Support –Provides your business with standard working hours or 24/7 IT support to help minimize disruption to your business and reduce staff downtime.
- Ongoing Advice – Ensures your business is kept up to date with the latest advice on technologies and advancements, helping you to stay ahead or at least on par with your competitors.
- Cybersecurity – Provides anti-virus deployment, firewall installation, and network monitoring to protect your business and stay ahead of the ever-increasing sophistication of today’s hackers.
- Infrastructure Management – Helps maintain and improve your existing infrastructure enabling the systems and applications you need to run effectively and efficiently and when needed, deploy and integrate new solutions.
- Data Backup and Recovery – Safeguards your data and provides business continuity via regular backups and provides the tools to help recover lost or corrupted data.
- Network Monitoring –Helps identify and address any potential issues before they become a problem or even before your staff even notices there is an issue.
- Cloud Services – Provides your business with data storage and sharing, to help streamline business operations and protect your company’s data security.
Why Managed Services are Essential for Businesses
As more and more companies switch to cloud-based IT infrastructure keeping up to date with the evolving landscape is extremely challenging and time-consuming. Combine this with the fact companies use a myriad of solutions that all need to talk to each other, small in-house teams are finding it increasingly difficult to advise, maintain and manage these complex environments.
A managed service provider on the other hand has access to a wide range of specialist IT experts whenever they are needed, and for as long as they are needed, at a fraction of the cost of an in-house team. They also work with many other businesses, pooling knowledge to provide insights and best practice to help improve processes and efficiency.
Security is undoubtedly a top priority for all businesses at the moment and understanding the latest threats and available strategies to mitigate risks within a business is a full-time job. An MPS can reduce this risk by ensuring your business maintains the latest security protocols and tools to protect from cyber threats now and in the future. This can help reduce the likelihood of data breaches and protect your business from the financial and reputational costs associated with them.
Finally, they can provide your business with the flexibility to scale up or down as needed to meet changing business demands. This can help ensure that your business is able to keep up with the demands of its customers and stay competitive in the market.
Conclusion
Allowing a managed service provider to take on your IT responsibilities will ultimately help you to improve efficiency and competitiveness, lower and manage costs and enable scale. It also frees you up to focus on the core tasks of the business safe in the knowledge your business is secure, compliant and up to date with all the latest industry regulations.
FIND OUT HOW OUR MANAGED SERVICES CAN SUPPORT YOUR BUSINESS
If you are looking to outsource your IT service and want a list of things you should be considering – Check out our article on Evaluating the value of an MSP: Key Considerations
If you are looking for a new experienced and reliable managed service provider to meet the changing demands of your business, then contact us today. We offer a wide range of managed services, including IT security, data backup and recovery, managed 24hr IT support, network monitoring, and cloud services. We’ll integrate seamlessly into your team and ensure your business’s IT services are managed efficiently and cost-effectively.
