Technology changes at a lightning-fast pace. Technical marvels have increased productivity and collaboration, but keeping up with the evolving landscape can be both challenging and time-consuming.
Additionally, as a business grows, its IT requirements will inevitably change. Allowing a managed services provider (MSP) to shoulder some of the responsibility can help reduce costs, increase efficiency and competitiveness, and provide scalability—enabling businesses to gain a secure and controlled IT infrastructure.
A qualified and reliable managed services provider offers a wide range of benefits to organizations of all sizes. We’ve outlined four of the key benefits businesses are experiencing by outsourcing IT through managed services.
1. Cost Savings
One of the greatest incentives to partner with a managed services provider is its extreme cost-effectiveness. With managed services, organizations can:
- Reduce operational costs
- Conserve capital budget
- Lower IT operating expenses
The majority of MSPs operate on a subscription-based model where clients pay annual or monthly fees for services, allowing them to foresee if it is feasible to remain within their budget. Clients receive a service level agreement (SLA) that’s customized to their company’s precise needs, allowing them to efficiently manage hardware and software, increase productivity and reduce the total cost of application ownership. MSP clients typically pay for the services they require, rather than for expensive packages with extraneous services they don’t need.
2. Focus on Core Business
As a business flourishes, employees may be required to take on an ever-expanding scope of IT responsibilities which fall outside of their original roles. As IT responsibilities increase, it becomes increasingly difficult for employees to focus on their primary job tasks. Furthermore, it may eventually become necessary for them to prioritize those IT tasks to avoid downtime.
To allow both technical and non-technical employees to manage their time better and improve work efficiency, put the responsibility of IT management in the hands of a dedicated team of experts.
Outsourcing can help a firm stay focused on revenue-generating activities and innovation. The Managed IT Services Provider can handle mundane tasks, and the client can get their work done more efficiently without the distraction of technical troubleshooting.
3. Improved Vendor Management
A managed services provider can interface with vendors on behalf of a company, ensuring that any issues the business encounters are troubleshot and resolved promptly. The MSP will serve as the main point of contact for third parties, escalate issues to the appropriate vendor and track the process through to resolution.
Vendor coordination can be a complicated juggling act, and employees without significant experience working with every kind of vendor involved can be easily overwhelmed or caught unprepared.
Outsourcing vendor management to an MSP removes the pain of working with multiple vendors, and having a single, trusted partner as a coordinator streamlines operations and avoids unnecessarily burdening an employee with a task that is best left to subject matter experts.
4. Scalability
Given the rate of technological advancements and the fact that businesses need to scale resources up or down on demand, scalability is vital to supporting business growth and development. As a company expands, it should anticipate unexpected hurdles, one being when technology requirements outgrow available resources. MSPs will supply support and services as needed to handle growth spurts or emerging IT problems.
Because scalable solutions can accommodate rapid changes, they also help firms stay productive, improve system availability and eliminate detrimental downtime. Additionally, MSPs will address their clients’ technical pain points and remain responsive to their needs, both short-term and long-term. High-quality MSPs proactively explore and identify enhancements for improvement in support of the client’s key business objectives.
