What Are Managed IT Services?
This is a process of IT management and support that moves the organization in the direction of IT development.
Through the use of best practices, strong planning, and fast reactive support, organizations are able to build a predictable IT foundation upon which they can expand technology. This is how IT can have its impact on the business it solutions, improving operations, enabling success, and providing greater technological awareness to everyone.
Signs of Bad IT Management
Many executives and managers find that when IT performance is slipping, managing IT takes more and more of their time. In fact, it takes up a lot of everyone’s time. For the employee, this translates into decreased productivity.
For managers, they see that their focus continues to be from higher goals because they have to pay more attention to what is happening with IT.
You would think that if IT isn’t doing what the IT team would be sitting around doing nothing, but the opposite is true. They are very busy. They’re not just obsessed with the good stuff and here’s how it shows in your business:
- You are the victim of a cyber-attack.
- Mechanical problems are never fixed.
- It takes forever for IT to respond.
- Remote workers are treated in an empowered position.
- You cannot use technology as a competitive advantage.
How to Evaluate a Managed IT Services Company
Knowing what you are looking for in an IT company is one thing, knowing that these qualities exist when you are evaluating them is another. Here are some talking points you’ll want to include in your conversations to evaluate managed IT services companies.
What is your approach to IT management?
- Why would your approach give us different answers than we are getting now?
- Tell me how you will work with us to develop an IT strategy.
- What IT products do you have on your bench? Any certificates for your company or other people?
- Tell me how you’ve helped other companies develop technology.
- Are your security practices and third-party practices validated?
Benefits of managed IT services
Many businesses turn to managed IT services because the benefits have a positive impact on their business and they respond to their IT needs. These include:
#1: Managed service providers provide redundancy
As we discussed earlier, one of the features of T managed services is always giving you access to IT support.
Whether it’s a weekday, weekend, or holiday, if you have an urgent IT need, an MSP engineer will be there. You don’t have to go without service.
This waiver continues even if the engineer you normally work with is sick, on vacation, or leaves your MSP. By employing multiple engineers, your MSP always has someone to respond to your IT emergency.
#2: Managed service engineers with technical knowledge
Msps have the resources to employ engineers who can solve even your most complex IT problems.
Without an agreement with an MSP, this level of skilled engineering is often not available for small or medium-sized businesses to hire. This means that even if you have an in-house engineer, you can still outsource complex problems.
Not only do MSP engineers have the knowledge you need to solve any problem, but they are experts in everything.
By serving a variety of businesses, msps get to know about the different technologies available and what problems they solve.
If your IT problem requires a unique approach, our service engineers can rely on their knowledge and experience with other customers to find solution it for you.
#3: Managed IT services are affordable.
We will finish the entire chapter on cost, but for now, we want you to know that managed services offer the most cost-effective options.
This means for the amount of skills you receive, you spend less compared to other options.
Most managed IT services contracts cost similar to the salary and benefits of tier 1 or tier 2 engineers. However, unless you can afford a tier 3 engineer or higher, they won’t have the expertise to solve all your problems.
Managed services provide the professional engineering we discussed earlier and do it for the same price — or less, depending on the size and needs of your community — as a non-professional engineer.
#4: An MSP is easy to get.
If you’re still not convinced about the value of contracting with an MSP instead of finding an internal engineer, consider the recruiting process.
If you have the budget to hire a professional engineer you will need to properly handle your IT needs, you will want to find this agent.
This can be difficult to do as these engineers not only command high salaries but are also difficult to find.
Managed IT Services Costs
A major benefit of using a managed services company is trading up and down costs for a predictable monthly payment.
The cost should include all of the proactive, reactive, security and strategy activities you discussed, probably between $125 – $200 per user per month.
Other factors that affect your rates include:
- Whether you have cloud or onsite servers.
- The level of security services you need.
- Type and configuration of your personal data.
- Either the monthly fee is per device or per user.
