Managing your IT environment and infrastructure can be one of the most challenging and time-consuming things you do in your business, particularly with the growing number of security threats.
That’s why outsourcing might be the right route for you.
When you outsource your IT management, it allows you to grow your business while specialist architects and engineers take care of monitoring, management, alerting, and remediation of server and network-level issues. A managed IT services provider can also provide remote user support and on-site service.
Below are six key things to know about IT managed services and why you might want to explore this option for your business, so you can focus on growth.
1. What Is Managed IT?
A managed IT service is provided by a third-party contractor. A managed services provider takes on responsibility for the proper functionality and security of IT service and equipment. A customer then usually pays a monthly fee for those services.
While there are different specific scenarios, the focus of managed IT services is to take the burden of maintaining an IT infrastructure of the customer.
2. What Are the Most Popular Services?
As was mentioned, the services themselves in a managed IT relationship can vary depending on the needs of the customer. Remote monitoring and management of services, mobile desktops, and devices are common. Remote monitoring is actually one of the most foundational components of managed IT.
Managed security services are also popular.
Because of how much cloud computing is used in the modern business world, some managed IT service contractors include cloud-related services.
3. What Is Pricing Like for Managed IT?
Service providers will frequently charge using an all-inclusive model, but there are also per-user and per-device models.
With all-inclusive pricing, there’s a flat fee for everything managed by the service provider.
Then, the customer under this model would be billed regularly in the form of a monthly fee.
A lot of businesses prefer this because the expenses are predictable.
Within the flat fee model, there are often tiers. The higher the pricing tier, for example, maybe the more automation you get or, the more management.
4. Managed Services Reduce Infrastructure Expenses
There are many benefits of managed IT services, one of which is the fact that it reduces infrastructure costs.
When a managed IT provider is in control of your infrastructure, you can reduce what you need onsite. That means you can save on hardware because you’re using the service provider’s data centers. You can also reduce your expenses because you need less energy since you aren’t housing as much hardware.
There are also often cost savings that stem from licensing, consulting, and training, particularly when you use a monthly pricing model.
It’s not that you’re eliminating these services, but instead, you’re streamlining everything and paying a single provider.
5. The Upfront Investment is Minimal
When you use managed IT services, you don’t have a huge upfront investment, which can in and of itself hold appeal for many business owners. It helps offset your initial technology investments. You are paying through a monthly investment. That way, it’s characterized as an operational expense instead of a capital expenditure.
6. Scalability
One of the primary objectives a lot of business leaders have when growing their organization is that they want it to ultimately be scalable. Scalable businesses have a strong foundation, and they’re poised for rapid growth.
Managed IT services fit within that concept of scalability.
With managed IT, you have the support structure that can grow along with you. No matter how many employees you bring on, for example, your managed IT services will be able to continue meeting your technology needs.
Other Benefits of Managed IT Services
Along with what’s highlighted above, managed IT services have an incentive to do a good job, and they want to meet key metrics. They’re going to operate efficiently as part of that.
You’re also probably not an IT expert, and that can be worrisome if you don’t have someone who is. Even if you do have IT, professionals, you might want them to focus more on strategic goals.
With managed IT services, you also receive the benefit of strategic planning on their end. Managed providers act in a proactive way, and they’re going to make sure that you’re maximizing opportunities and minimizing risks.
Finally, without managed services, IT management often tends to be reactive, and that can mean you face viruses, crashes, and downtime, which can sometimes be difficult to overcome.
