We all have areas where we shine, right? Maybe it's changing the brakes on a car, crafting innovative recipes, or managing tax filings as an accountant. Whatever it is, your expertise and experience enable you to perform at your best in that field.
As a business owner or employee, you rely heavily on information technology to run your business each day.
However, is information technology your core expertise? How experienced are you or your other employees at managing your business technology needs?
Do you outsource specific projects or job tasks at your company, such as a marketing agency or a project management team? Have you ever thought about outsourcing your IT?
Before deciding if you need to (or want to) outsource your IT needs, it's essential to understand what managed IT services are and how they can support specific tasks, job functions, and business goals.
Managed IT Services: A Quick Summary
In a nutshell, managed IT services are a way to outsource the day-to-day management of your information technology needs. The specifics of the services provided by managed IT services providers vary.
Some service providers offer an “a la carte” choice of services, while others offer a complete, interlocking suite of core services.
For example, some companies offer network monitoring and alerts only (your internal IT must fix the issues) and additional services for complete monitoring and problem resolution. Other companies, however, can monitor, alert, and resolve your issue as an all-in-one service.
The type of pricing model you choose is entirely up to you and the needs of your business and your employees.
Managed IT Services Providers
As you search for help managing your IT needs, you’ll probably see the terms “Managed Service Provider (MSP),” “Managed IT Service Provider,” or “Managed Network Service Provider” appear in your search.
Regardless of the particular phrase, any of these companies can manage your IT infrastructures, such as servers, backups, networks, document management, computers, and telephones, for a flat fee via a subscription model.
To learn about the different types of managed IT services pricing models, read our article, “How Much Do Managed IT Services Cost?”
A subscription model is a pretty big move from an IT break-fix model. This model allows proactive management of your IT, making it easier to budget, plan for the future, refocus internal resources, and prevent IT issues from occurring.
Primarily, an MSP can be your IT department or supplement your IT department for a vCIO (virtual CIO).
A Chief Information Officer is responsible for providing strategic insight into how technology drives your business forward. They are the bridge between an organization's technology and business sides and link the two to meet its overall objectives and goals.
A vCIO manages IT resources and budgets, makes recommendations on purchasing equipment, manages IT resources, plans and develops policies, evaluates security, and calculates how to make additional profits using the business's technology.
They are responsible for the company’s technology roadmap and ensure the company stays up to date on system updates and upgrades. A vCIO can be an attractive offering to any growing business that can’t afford a full-time CIO and only needs one part-time to oversee its IT strategy.
Learn more about the importance of a vCIO and its benefits by reading our article, What's a Virtual CIO (vCIO) — How Can it Benefit Your Business?
Your Current IT Challenges
Doesn’t it sometimes feel like there’s always something wrong with the technology at your office? When your IT systems are performing well, it almost seems like magic.
The ability to video chat with someone around the globe is fantastic. Even though it’s second nature to us now, the ability to email is still a massive leap in communication capability.
However, keeping your technology systems up and running isn’t the easiest challenge to conquer, especially daily. Here are a few challenges you’re probably familiar with that can be solved with the help of a managed IT services company:
- Network overhead (staffing, infrastructure) is expensive, and services must increase as your business grows.
- Backing up your information and documents daily (to multiple locations or drives) to help with disaster recovery or business continuity
- Patching and upgrading applications for security measures
- Continual monitoring of your network and phone systems
- Employee troubleshooting that’s time-consuming, preventing your IT staff from focusing on improving your business
- Lack of time to research new technology, much less the time it takes to install and implement it
- Managing, maintaining, and upgrading network infrastructure and management systems
- Keeping your telephone systems running, especially voice over IP (VoIP) and call quality versus network bandwidth
- Supporting remote offices (remote data backup and printing) and employees that work out of multiple offices of your business
- Finding staff with the skills your business needs to succeed – much less the need to provide continual education on the technology products your company uses
What To Look For In Managed IT Services
Keep in mind that a great managed IT services provider is your business partner. Like any other partnership, you want a managed IT services company that helps you identify how IT can be used to achieve your company’s overall business goals.
If we could give you the top five services you should look for in a managed IT services company, these would be them:
1. Proactive support: Continuous monitoring enables a managed IT company to fix small issues before they blossom into huge ones and provide regular maintenance of software and hardware.
2. Data security & backup: A robust disaster recovery strategy starts with regular backups—daily or hourly when needed—to multiple secure locations. This proactive approach ensures your business is prepared for unexpected events that could disrupt operations. A well-qualified managed IT team also focuses on protecting your company files and sensitive data by implementing a secure firewall, reliable servers, and comprehensive malware and antivirus solutions to address security threats before they become an issue.
3. Vendor management: You, your employees, and your customers will all get peace of mind when you can monitor your contracts and ensure all deliverables are met.
4. Onsite support: Most technology issues can be resolved remotely, and your company's downtime can significantly decrease by having a monitoring system in place to address issues before you’re even aware of them.
5. Virtual CIO (vCIO): Planning for the future and continual monitoring ensures your company can take advantage of current IT best practices and how to reach your individualized business goals.
“Do I Need Managed IT Services?”
Ask yourself this: Are your technology needs being met? Is your in-house IT department (or IT guy) spending too much time troubleshooting network connectivity, patching and updating virus protection, and struggling to include security for mobile devices like smartphones?
Giving up control of your organization's heartbeat to a third party (your IT) may make you a little squeamish, but the benefits can provide you with much-needed heartburn relief.
If your answers to any of these questions left you slightly uneasy, a network assessment can help determine whether managed IT services are a good fit for your needs.
Your Next Steps: Finding The Right IT Partner
Now that you better understand managed IT services, you can start thinking about finding an IT partner who can meet your technology needs.
One of the most critical steps in this process is exploring local IT companies near you so that you can learn what each one offers, how experienced they are, and what their prices and services include.
Here's an article that can help you do just that: How to Find The Best Managed IT Services Company Near Me.
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