The continued health and maintenance of your business IT infrastructure is of paramount importance. IT is typically the second-largest budget item in a business, making it a vital investment to protect. Find out why outsourcing the management of your IT is the ideal solution to help you achieve maximum results from your hardware and software.
The central role of IT management in business success
Technology has become central to business functions and success. Tools like customer relationship management (CRM) software, social media schedulers and payment processing tools help businesses track leads through their sales funnel, build brand visibility and better manage cash flow. Productivity tools link employees across space and time and increase real-time collaboration, even in a remote work environment. With the central role that IT has come to play for so many business functions, robust, reliable networks and rock-solid IT systems have become essential for both internal and client-facing sides of the business.
Managed IT services include any information-technology service and support handled by an outside firm. These information technology solutions often provide round-the-clock monitoring of your systems, along with proactive support, and timely troubleshooting and repair services—often before your in-house team may realise there’s an issue.
Apart from the advantages inherent in a service dedicated exclusively to ensuring infrastructure health, there are also significant cost savings associated with allowing a managed services provider (MSP) to handle such operations. Additionally, having all of your technological resources fully available at all times means there is no lost productivity due to IT-related downtime.
Some examples of managed IT support include:
- Remote monitoring and management of your network
- Firewall management
- Desktop and Laptop management
- Server management
- Cybersecurity measures
Eight reasons to outsource IT management
1. Reduced Costs
Partnering with a managed IT services provider helps to save costs on hiring in-house IT staff and investing in their continued training around emerging technologies and security measures. Further costs are saved on office equipment and office space.
2. Predictable IT expenditure:
Managed IT services can help your business scale without requiring further investment in IT staff. As systems are proactively maintained, unexpected IT costs should be limited. With a proactive management plan and standard level agreement, you get peace of mind, dedicated focus and predictability.
3. Asset management:
A dedicated Managed IT partner takes the focus of asset- and hardware-warranty management and reporting off your hands. The MSP will focus on all the necessary license management and reporting in a proactive and focused manner.
4. Remote support:
As many clients work in the hybrid work from home model, having a managed services partner enables support of remote staff without the additional infrastructure and licensing costs.
5. Proactive management & monitoring:
With a proactive support model, you Managed IT service provider monitors your systems 24/7 to identify problems before they happen and keep downtimes to a minimum. You get to focus on your business operations and planning and leave the rest to a team of professionals with an interest in keeping your infrastructure and network in good health.
6. Dedicated and specialised personnel:
Outsourcing your IT management to a dedicated service provider means that you have access to a team of technology engineers who are dedicated and specialized in specific IT fields and are continually training and learning the latest industry trends. This ensures your IT infrastructure is maintained using industry best practices and issues are fixed quickly.
7. No personnel single point of failure:
A good MSP will have a team of engineers. Knowledge about systems and processes are distributed across the team, and therefore not limited to a single person that can leave or get sick at any moment.
8. Reduced HR:
Finally, partnering with a dedicated IT management service provider frees up your human resources from challenges associated with recruitment, on the on hand, and the retention of skills and competencies within the company, on the other.
Proactive IT management in your corner
Most IT-related problems can be avoided. Ensuring that all workstations and servers are equipped with regularly updated, industry standard Antivirus and malware software help to prevent systems from breaking down. In the event of a disaster, a structured backup and recovery plan should in place to ensure that all systems can be recovered in the shortest period.
With a Managed Service Plan, like the ones offered by Adept, you’ve got an IT-provider who’s on your side. They’ll do whatever they can to stop your systems and technology from breaking in the first place and keep it running in perfect condition. It is in your managed IT providers best interest to ensure that you have optimal performance and minimal downtime in your IT infrastructure. The more your stuff breaks down, the more work they will have to do. In other words, they will do whatever it takes to make sure your technology keeps running the way you want it to. Because you pay a flat-rate for maintenance, it is in their financial benefit that you have as little as possible downtime.
If you require an experienced partner for outsourced IT management, then contact us directly or visit our Managed IT Services page to learn more.