Managed IT services are third-party services that are contracted by many companies. This is basically just a way of outsourcing your IT needs to a company that specializes in that kind of thing. You don’t necessarily have to outsource all your IT needs, but many companies find it helpful to seek outside help. There are a number of benefits that come from the use of managed IT services, so let’s talk about those in greater detail.
1. Access To More Knowledgeable Experts
IT is a really large field of study, and there is no way that any one person could learn everything. Thus, most IT professionals end up specializing in a sub-field like cybersecurity or system optimization. That is why you need a team of IT professionals, and it’s best to have a team with a wide range of skills.
What you want to avoid is a moment in which your IT team is stumped and has no idea what must be done. If no one present has the expertise to handle a particular situation, this can easily happen. Working with an MSP gives you access to a larger pool of experts with a wider range of knowledge.
2. Labor-Efficiency Advantages
It is important to hire good IT people, but it’s equally important to make sure that their labor is used efficiently. If you have your best people tied up all day with routine monitoring tasks or minor tech fixes, it will be harder for them to make full use of their talents. The ideal thing is to focus each employee in the area where they can do the most good, and an MSP can make this easier.
When you outsource those routine maintenance and monitoring tasks, your in-house team will have a lot more time on their hands. This is a good thing because that time can be used to accomplish a larger number of tasks. You want the in-house people to work on improving your IT situation, as opposed to maintaining an existing situation. So, to put it simply: The use of an MSP can help your in-house team to be much more productive.
3. Easy To Adjust For Scale
When your business grows, your IT services have to be scaled up as well. This can be a big problem when you are using an entirely in-house team. You will have to take the time to find highly qualified people and vet them thoroughly. Sure, you might get lucky and find the right people quickly, but the odds don’t favor that outcome.
With an MSP, you can upgrade your service plan with a single phone call. Of course, you will need to speak with a representative and rework your service plan to fit the new situation. Needless to say, that process tends to be a lot quicker and easier than the process of hiring qualified IT staff.
4. Cost Savings
We should note that these reasons are not listed in order, otherwise this one would be at the top of the page. This is usually the main reason why companies choose to get MSP services. When it comes down to it, you can save quite a bit of money this way. When you’re in a position where you need to trim the budget, MSP services can be a good way to do so.
First, you can save money on labor costs. Chances are, you want to hire top-level IT people with tons of credentials and experience. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough of those people for every company. Thus, the most talented individuals can command very large salaries. On the other hand, outsourcing allows you to get top-level help without paying top-dollar prices. MSP companies can afford to charge less because they are servicing multiple companies. Thus, as long as your MSP does a good job of vetting its workers, you can get the same benefits for less money.
Secondly, you can often save money on equipment costs. IT equipment like computers, cables, servers, routers, etc. has to be upgraded from time to time. You don’t always need to have the latest and greatest, but badly outdated systems pose huge security risks so you must avoid those. Outdated systems will usually have known vulnerabilities that aren’t likely to be patched. Over time, these equipment costs can add up significantly.
Depending on how your service plan is structured, you might be able to save some of that money by outsourcing certain things. For instance, if you don’t want to maintain your own server, you can make use of your MSP’s cloud server. If you don’t want to maintain secure storage for your sensitive files, you can outsource that as well. Those are just two of the ways in which you can leverage your MSP’s technology and save money.
5. A Guaranteed Downtime Agreement
Network downtime is a frequent problem, and it is an even bigger problem for businesses. Even a short outage can result in a lot of lost profits. If you are handling everything in-house, you can’t really expect much help from a standard internet service provider. When they have an outage, they simply inform their customers and dispatch repairmen. The customer then has no choice but to wait for those repairs to be completed.
With an MSP, on the other hand, you can trust that they will do their best to keep you from suffering any network downtime. In fact, any good MSP will offer a service-level agreement to this effect. Such an agreement, usually just called an SLA, stipulates that the MSP is liable for damages if you suffer an extended outage. This will include an uptime guarantee, with companies typically guaranteeing at least 90% uptime per month.
Conclusion
After reading this article, you can probably see why so many companies choose to outsource all or part of their IT needs. If you are in need of competent MSP services, it pays to choose the right one. We would recommend calling PCH Technologies at (856) 754-7500, as they are the most trusted provider in South Jersey.