If you work in a small to medium-sized business, chances are you have pondered over whether to manage your IT solutions internally, or if you should hire a consultant or external service provider. Having a third party to manage all your technology offers a number of advantages in ensuring your IT is managed both effectively and efficiently – particularly for companies that may not have the technical know-how or financial capital necessary for in-house IT experts. If you’re trying to decide on the best approach for your business, keep reading for everything you need to know about managed IT solutions.
What are Managed IT Solutions?
Managed IT solutions refer to the external contracting of critical IT management to a third party. This service provider is expected to take on your business’s IT by supporting operations throughout the organization. Their responsibilities may include infrastructure management, data backup and disaster recovery, cloud storage, and network monitoring and security. Additionally, the managed service provider (MSP) is typically responsible for maintaining the organization’s wireless and mobile devices, as well as managing both software and cloud configuration.
What are Managed IT Cloud Solutions?
Suppose your business is looking to move pertinent data to the cloud. A managed IT cloud solution is one curated to offer your business partial or complete management of cloud resources. For this kind of solution, the third party service provider takes care of the migration, configuration, optimization, security, and follow-up maintenance.
A managed cloud service provider (MCSP) is the third-party vendor that essentially replaces the in-house cloud IT expert. In some cases, however, you could have the MCSP simply supplement the in-house team by helping them through the different functions mentioned above.
The benefit of exclusively settling for an MCSP is that your business ends up with greater resource optimization. These professionals can help you choose which cloud services best fit the needs you currently have. What’s more, they can provide you with unbiased reports and performance metrics on existing resources. This provides you with a unique opportunity to improve the configuration that you currently have.
An additional advantage of an MCSP as a managed IT solution is that your business benefits from integrated cloud services. This is particularly useful in a remote or hybrid working environment. These experts take on both the on-premise and cloud resources, thus ensuring everything runs smoothly.
Why Should You Consider Outsourced Managed IT Solutions?
Outsourced managed IT solutions promise a number of advantages for small to medium-sized businesses. Rather than undertaking all of the management involved in the efficient running of your IT infrastructure, outsourcing this responsibility will free up internal resources for other work. When you avail of a third-party service provider, you can also expect cost savings and increased access to a wider range of experts than you may have in house.
4 Benefits of Outsourced Managed IT Solutions
Regardless of the organization’s size, businesses can reap a number of benefits from outsourced managed IT solutions. These include:
1. Efficiency
You free up your in-house IT team when you outsource to a managed IT solution. This means they can then direct their energies and expertise towards revenue-generating tasks that improve your profit margin. Besides, by expecting your IT department to take care of all of your IT needs, you risk overwhelming them and taking a significant toll on their productivity.
2. Better Management of Uptime
When you outsource your IT management, you basically hand it over to a team that is not tied down to the same schedule that your in-house team is. This means that the management of said functions can still go on during holidays and off-hours. That translates to no delays when it comes to system updates or maintenance, and can help eliminate any loopholes that a hacker might intend to exploit.
3. Less Pressure to Find IT Talent
IT is a critical department for any business. It could be argued that it holds all business operations together. In view of this, you want to invest in the very best IT talent available. Unfortunately, this can be quite expensive and time-consuming. Going with a managed IT service means that you do not have to find the best of the IT talent pool yourself – you simply gain access to a skilled team from day one.
4. Predictable Spending and Cost Efficiency
Most MSPs provide you with a tiered subscription system that breaks down the different costs that you pay depending on the range of needs your business has. This means that your business is able to predict just how much you will end up spending for your specific requirements.
What is the Difference between IT Management Solutions and Hiring a Consultant?
Understanding the difference between IT management solutions and hiring a consultant will help you determine the best IT support for your business. With IT consulting, you hire a third party that will provide you with advice on how best to improve the productivity, communication and efficiency of your IT department and infrastructure during the period of the contract. In many cases, a consultant will be brought on for a short time to support or lead a specific IT project.
On the other hand, management solutions evaluate the overall function of the business, with the intention of providing both short and long term improvements that are expected to bring about greater operational efficiency. When you hire an MSP, you essentially get a partner who provides you with solutions after they have diagnosed any problems you might have.
Concisely, managed IT services remotely monitor and manage all of the business’s IT hardware and infrastructure. Usually, the service provider is in charge of configuring, monitoring, and managing cloud services. What’s more, this IT management solution can provide security services, monitoring, penetration testing, threat hunting, and incidence response in a world where small and medium-sized businesses are consistently being targeted by cybercriminals.
Electric Powers Managed IT Solutions
Outsourcing managed IT solutions offers extended benefits to small and medium-sized businesses. At Electric, we have created structured solutions to meet your business’s IT support and security needs, whether in the office, in a remote working environment, or under a hybrid model. Contact us today and let our experts walk you through our range of modern IT solutions.