Managed services providers (MSPs) outsource various non-core functions following a strategic method in order to improve operations by cutting expenses. This is organized via a subscription whereby the client (e.g. a business) has oversight of the system being managed while the MSP acts as the service provider.
MSPs offer several benefits for businesses, especially smaller businesses as they can reduce the amount of time they spend solving problems in-house. The global-managed services market is growing massively as smaller businesses are turning away from investing in expensive and highly generalized recruitment and training for their staff. A wide range of functions are being outsourced to managed services.
Here are some key reasons to considering MSPs for your business.
Greater Efficiency and Reliability
MSPs improve the efficiency and reliability of IT operations by contracting an outside team with proven skills, training and access to the latest technologies such as cloud computing and remote monitoring and management. Outside experts can troubleshoot and address issues that arise instantly, in teams as large as the problem demands. Their skills are focused and scale well as they have a well-defined, pre-advertised set of tools and processes.
Their expertise covers a wide range of highly specialized areas in several fields such as data storage and systems management, so that you don’t have to spend any extra time training your staff in several narrow domains that you may only require once or twice.
Enhanced Security
MSPs also confer enhanced security as they offer protection for the countless devices storing and transmitting sensitive data in and between firms, be they laptops, smartphones, servers, browsers or wearable technology. Data breaches are becoming more disastrous as nodes are increasingly interconnected, so compliance is essential in order to maintain strict standards, especially as regards the PCI security standards involved in e-commerce.
A proactive approach to maintenance is essential for your clients to feel free to go about their daily IT operations without fear of an unexpected compromise of the speed or reliability of their network connection. Their IT environment should be stable when they commute to work or access it remotely. A fully managed it service ensures that glitches or bugs can be solved remotely before they present themselves as issues to the client, giving them a worry-free experience. MSP infrastructure is highly proactive and reliable because they compete with one another over which of them can be the earliest to detect and solve problems as well as the most independent in handling them.
Cost Efficiency
MSPs are typically very cost effective because they offer predictable pricing, i.e. flat fees for different service levels in well-specified contracts. Greater cost savings come not just from predictive prices but also because business IT services and solutions allow businesses to lower their cost of labor by freeing up staff. Staff can avoid laborious, time-wasting endeavors retracing every one of their steps looking for the source of some problem – as well as mundane tasks like resetting passwords – in order to focus on higher value projects. This increases overall productivity and ensures that your business delivers on its highest priorities on time and within budget.
Additional Advantages
There are plenty of additional reasons to use managed IT services. Being larger companies, they can more easily hire the best people to work for them and have very little turnover. This can save you the trouble of finding the right person, you can offload your hiring pressure and risk to a company with more resources and experience in hiring whilst you build your business.
MSPs have a thorough understanding of their platforms since their whole business model is predicated on building and integrating systems on a large scale. Their systems more efficiently allocate resources, talk to each other remotely and are good at exporting data. They stay reliable into the future as their business model is built on retaining customers. They allow you access to new technologies, including certain features which are prohibitively expensive for small businesses.
Consult several sources to find out whether MSPs are for you, but be aware that several analyses of MSPs are sponsored by companies offering MSPs and industry-independent evaluations are hard to come by. Go over your yearly expenses, considering the relative time invested in each operation, and consider how many of them could be done more cheaply and efficiently by a third-party: the result may surprise you. If you’re looking for greater reliability, security, cost efficiency or just hoping to offload hiring stress, MSPs may be for you.