Many small to medium sized businesses maintain their own IT infrastructure. When doing so they will hire an IT Manager to handle the day to day operations. While some may consider this a viable and economically sound solution, experience has shown that it may benefit the IT Manager, and the business, more to partner with a Managed Service Provider.
You may find your team understaffed at times resulting in an inability to stay on top of situations and procedures. Does this result in your need to hire temp help?
The break / fix model of many teams limits them to putting out one fire and moving on to the next. Conversely, paying staff to sit idly by while waiting for the next crisis hardly seems the best use of their skillset, and the business' capital.
Managing multiple vendors, employees, contracts, budgets, temps, etc. can also become cumbersome, if not overwhelming, at times. Consider the following benefits when partnering with a Managed Service Provider.
Your MSP Is the Only Vendor You Will Need to Manage.
Management of all vendor / supplier contracts are handled by your MSP, thus providing you more time to manage your day to day operations. They can handle all pricing / budgeting aspects and support issues regarding your IT needs all while providing a single point of contact.
The Need for Business Continuity
A quality Managed Service Provider will always take a proactive approach to minimizing downtime. The implementation of disaster prevention measures provide peace of mind and consistent day-to-day operations. However, in the event of any network failure or catastrophic event, predetermined disaster recovery plans immediately become operational. Data is restored from backups, networks are reinstated and your business services become operational in short order.
Trained, Certified and Experienced IT Staff Available 24/7
Throughout the business day, most MSPs provide you with access to experienced and trained IT staff to handle any situation. Your IT Support calls should be answered by a live person and not a canned answering system. But what about after hours or EOD? We all know, from experience, that situations do not always surface during normal business hours. A quality MSP offers you 24/7 access to qualified IT personnel, regardless of the time or situation. Does your in-house solution provide this benefit?
One Source for a Collective Perspective
Overseeing and monitoring all of your IT Services from one source allows for a collective perspective. One that provides an unbiased and consolidated point of view. The information we gather and report on, in real time, allows you and your business to make educated and informed decisions. An increase in overall performance of your business is our objective and is an obvious benefit to our partnership.
Helping the Bottom Line
The economical benefits of partnering with a Managed Service Provider are many. From alleviating the need for full time staff, temp help and disaster recovery, to less down time, more economical vendor pricing and more streamlined and efficient operational procedures.
If you are an IT Manager and are ready to discuss your IT Solutions with us, we invite you to contact us at any time.
