9 Incredible Ways Managed IT Services Can Boost Your Business
The managed services market for Information Technology (IT) is on an upward trajectory as many firms are finding it preferable to outsource their needs to stay agile.
By 2023 this market will be worth $282 billion, implying continued growth in the foreseeable future.
Here is why more and more firms are turning to managed IT services.
What Are Managed It Services?
Managed services in IT are the resources a third-party provider offers a firm, effectively outsourcing it for them. They come with several benefits.
1. Cost-Effective Scalability
In those seasons where your business hits a growth curve, your IT infrastructure will become both an asset and a cost center.
If you own all your hardware and software, scaling up will prove difficult due to high costs.
Working with an MSP in such a scenario helps to keep scale-up costs reasonable. In addition, due to the relatively affordable IT managed services pricing structures, your firm can tap into the tools it needs at a fraction of the cost.
A good example is a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, which cheaply gives firms the same infrastructure. In addition, you only pay for what you use, allowing flexibility when scaling up.
2. a Wealth of Support Experience
Managed IT support services can help your business grow by exposing it to more experienced hands.
When your firm is in its infancy or early growth stage, it does not yet possess a pool of specialized IT support staff.
As a result, technological challenges that crop up tend to slow workflow and lower productivity.
When you engage managed support, you bring in seasoned experts to help your business resolve technical issues when they occur.
That kind of expertise helps your firm cut down on response time during breakdowns.
Ultimately these quick recovery stints add up to improve overall productivity.
3. Affordable Technology Upgrades
The pace of new technological breakthroughs is overwhelming in today’s business environment.
Constant upgrades can be costly for firms looking to capitalize on technology to derive competitive value.
Managed IT service options make it relatively cheaper for a firm to keep up with new technology without being over budget.
For example, many firms are beginning to move to the cloud.
Instead of buying servers and footing all the maintenance costs, a company can outsource the same service from a data center.
That way, it will be cheaper to keep upgrading regularly.
4. Better Security
There have been 31 security breaches in the business and financial services industry since 2017 due to hacking and malware.
It is advisable to consider. IT managed services to balance costs and security needs.
Tools such as firewalls are essential to protect the integrity of your data. However, these need to be continuously monitored and upgraded if you want to maintain the integrity of your system.
Also, you can’t ignore physical security features such as security cameras as they can deter a break-in that could lead to theft or vandalism of your equipment. However, you must actively monitor the feeds.
You outsource these diligence tasks when you bring Managed Service Partner (MSP) firms on board. You can, therefore, focus on your core skills, knowing that security is taken care of.
5. More Efficient Workers
Working with IT managed service providers to move to select IT needs to a third party helps free up your staff’s time.
You can also maximize monitoring software for employees to track their productivity.
As the third party is busy taking care of your IT infrastructure and services, your team’s efforts can be reallocated to more valuable initiatives.
This way, you can delineate between mission-critical IT tasks and routine ones.
Instead of having your developers patch up routine code, for example, you can outsource that. They can then focus on crafting new products that deliver a competitive advantage.
Your top talent can become highly efficient while the nitty-gritty duties are still taken care of.
6. Meaningful Vendor Relationships
As your firm’s IT needs to grow, there will come a space in time where you will need specialized support from a vendor.
It may be that your company desires to deploy a critical feature that calls for a vendor to develop a custom-made option.
Whatever the case, you will gain an advantage if you have working relationships with IT-managed services companies. These firms possess pre-existing relationships with the vendors whose support you may need.
Through working with the outscoring, you will be able to secure favorable terms for your custom-made solution, unlike if you were to go it alone.
7. Cost Savings
MSPs take a load off your firm’s back, which often translates into tangible cost savings.
Renting out servers has the overall effect of cutting down your infrastructure costs. It would be more expensive to own and run your in-house data center.
Outsourcing Video-On-Demand (VOD) services to help foster collaboration saves on research and development costs.
It also benefits not to distract or burden your team with a no-core assignment. The endpoint is that they collaborate cohesively to add value.
Your firm can gain a competitive advantage by systematically utilizing MSPs to trim overall costs.
8. Better Customer Experience
Today’s customer lives in a digital world where product personalization is the norm. As a result, customer experiences are now laden with unique features that your customers expect you to deliver.
MSPs can help you structure and execute your IT strategy to ensure that you give customers a memorable experience.
A medical practice, for example, can engage an MSP to design and manage its patient management software. A restaurant must develop and monitor its iPad reservation and ordering service.
MSPs help open a world of solutions for your firm to differentiate itself from the customer.
9. Strategic Planning
When your business is not big enough to warrant hiring a dedicated strategy and growth officer, MSPs can help you plan.
You can outsource not just your IT infrastructural needs but also your planning as well. Your MSP can help you craft and deploy an IT strategy that will add value to your firm.
Don’t Be Left Behind
As technology solidifies its position in the business world, more and more firms seek managed IT services to stay ahead.
Working with third-party outsourcing partners offers key advantages companies are keen to utilize.
If you want to read more on tech and business, check out our blog.
Yvan Lebrun is a trusted expert in the field of product & service reviews. With over a decade of experience analyzing and comparing services online, he shares his valuable experience with readers at GoodSitesLike so consumers can make educated decisions before making a purchase.
