What Are the Top Benefits of Managed Services?
Within the modern business landscape, the vast majority of operations occur digitally. As such, ensuring that all aspects of a company’s information technology are running smoothly is a major concern—whether it’s networks, applications, infrastructures, data storage, or cyber security management.
Despite its importance, many enterprises lack the requisite infrastructure, resources, and know-how to properly manage all aspects of their IT operations. Plus, the ever-evolving—and ever-present—threat of cybercrime only exacerbates the difficulty of handling these types of complex digital concerns in-house.
This is why an increasing number of businesses are turning to managed service providers.
If you’re considering following suit and would want to know more about the different types of managed services, let’s take a closer look at the top benefits of managed services.
What Are Managed Services?
A managed service provider (MSP) is an outsourced, third-party expert tasked with the remote management and delivery of IT services. Depending on the MSP and the client’s desires, this may include security, network, infrastructure, and application management, amongst other services.
In that capacity, the MSP assumes complete responsibility for various non-customer-facing services. They leverage their expertise to assess the client’s IT environment and then determine the optimal MSP tools and processes necessary to ensure that it’s running smoothly and securely at all times.
Typically, the client will outline their specific wants and needs. From there, the MSP will be granted total freedom to decide the best course of action to achieve the desired end results. As CIO notes:
“An enterprise might contract an MSP to handle support calls to a certain level of satisfaction and response time. As long as the managed service provider meets those metrics, it doesn’t matter whether it uses dedicated staff, automation, or some other system to handle calls for that customer; the MSP decides.”
The areas of the business that are outsourced will vary from client to client. That said, their primary task is to ensure that systems run smoothly, stay secure and up-to-date, and that technical issues are dealt with immediately.
Top Four Benefits of Managed IT Services
So, what are the benefits of managed services? Consider four of the most attractive advantages below.
#1 The Ability to Focus on Your Core Competencies
Whether you’re a manufacturer of widgets, a healthcare entity, or an auto dealer, chances are, information technology isn’t your specialty.
Even if you do have an internal IT staff, they probably can’t provide 24/7 coverage. And their time would likely be better spent on tasks directly related to daily operations.
By outsourcing this task to experts, you can free both your IT team and other employees to focus on core competencies that tangibly benefit the business. This empowers them to be more productive and not waste time on tedious tasks.
On the other hand, if you don’t yet have an IT team but are considering hiring one, outsourcing IT allows you to avoid sunk and operational costs associated with hiring, salaries, and benefits. There’s no need to hire, train, and manage an entire IT staff. Plus, outsourcing to a managed IT service provider can also give you a financial benefit. Working with one helps you save money by establishing a more predictable OPEX spend that only scales as needed.
#2: Expertise Your Business Needs
Do you know the most recent compliance and regulatory IT issues impacting your industry? Are you aware of the best practices or the top IT tools on the market?
The right MSP will have answers to such questions.
In a competitive landscape, an MSP must stay up-to-date with all things IT—whether it’s emerging cyber threats, new technology, or policy changes. To excel at their job, they must keep a finger on the pulse. Additionally, the right MSP partner will have the requisite experience to align your company with industry best practices.
Instead of having to find and then hire high-quality IT professionals, you get immediate access to qualified experts who have the skills, technologies, and tools necessary to ensure that your IT environment is operating at full capacity.
#3 Comprehensive Security Support
One of the most significant benefits of managed services is that an MSP can help instill the necessary measures to monitor and secure your IT environment—because all it takes is a single data breach, power outage, or catastrophic event to jeopardize your business and its reputation.
Under MSP supervision, you receive round-the-clock security support for a number of business-critical tasks, including:
- Proactive monitoring – An outsourced IT team deploys tools to continuously monitor your IT and cloud infrastructure. Their goal is to catch issues early on before they can develop into significant threats.
- IT compliance – Whether it’s PCI, HIPAA, SOX, or HITECH, an MSP can work with a business to understand its regulatory requirements and then align its data practices so that you remain compliant.
- Patch management – An MSP can provide active patch management to shore up weak points via proactive measures, such as predictive patching, vulnerability scanning, script customizations, and automated patching.
- Data protection – Without the proper data recovery protocols in place, a catastrophic event could be disastrous for business operations. An MSP can work with the business to instill robust backup and recovery plans.
#4 Low Costs
Working with a managed services provider is the most cost-efficient solution for growing businesses. By outsourcing the task, you save money on:
- Capital investment in technologies and tools
- Licensing
- Consulting
- Recruiting, hiring, and training
Additionally, another cost-saving benefit of managed services is that a high-quality MSP will equip you with the necessary measures to prevent costly cyber security incidents that can lead to even more costly consequences, such as data loss, downtime, and reputational harm.
Syncro—A Modern MSP Platform
In the digital age, an MSP serves a vital role. They can act as either an extension of an IT department or completely eliminate the need to maintain an in-house IT team altogether.
There are myriad benefits of managed IT services, but for them to be as effective as possible, an MSP must equip itself with the best tools for the job.
This is what Syncro was designed to do.
Our modern MSP platform combines the power of remote service management and monitoring (RMM) with professional services automation (PSA). Boasting deep, integrated tooling, our award-winning platform empowers managed service providers or MSPs to provide better service and make more money.
Want to try it for yourself? Check out our free demo today.
Sources:
CIO. What Is a Managed Service Provider? Strategic Outsourcing for IT Services Explained. https://www.cio.com/article/189082/what-is-a-managed-service-provider-strategic-outsourcing-for-it-services-explained.html
Security Intelligence. Ponemon Institute Cost of a Data Breach Study 2018. https://securityintelligence.com/series/ponemon-institute-cost-of-a-data-breach-2018/
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