Many businesses are using managed IT services these days, and there are some great reasons for doing so. You may be wondering whether you should be using them as well, so here is a guide to what managed IT services are and how to tell when you should be using them.
Overview of Managed IT Services
When you hear the term managed IT services, this essentially involves outsourcing your IT management to a specialist third party rather than managing your IT in-house.
This can often start with a very basic service, such as a monitoring service, but it can be much more involved than this and can include administrative tasks, backups, problem resolution, and all the other IT tasks that are so vital to businesses.
Many businesses are turning to managed IT support services to help them stay on top of their IT without having to employ an IT specialist. So when might it be the right time to try managed IT for your business?
When to Use Managed IT Services
Outsourcing has many benefits, and there are various situations when it may make more sense for you to hire a specialist managed IT service for your business.
First of all, you may want to hire a service if you do not already have an IT specialist working for you. Some businesses hire IT professionals, but you have to consider that this is often quite costly.
If you do have an IT professional, they may have too much work on their hands. Sometimes having one IT professional is fine for smaller businesses, but if you notice that they are becoming swamped with work, it may make more sense to hire a team.
With software licensing, security updates, upgrades, backups, and more, there is lots to consider, and the work can pile up, so outsourcing these tasks can make a lot of sense. You may want to hire in help for the ongoing daily tasks to free your IT professional up to work on other important tasks.
By hiring a service, you can also help to avoid paying a salary and benefits to an employee, which can be expensive. If you currently have an IT staff member, it may be a good idea to work out how much you currently pay them, and then get some quotes from managed IT service providers. Comparing the two can give you a good idea of which works out as more cost-effective.
You also have to think about the future of your business. One person working on your IT may be fine at the moment, but what about in the future? If your business grows and you face new challenges, a dedicated managed service can make more sense.
Hiring a managed IT service also takes a lot of the hassle out of the process for you. For example, the specialist third-party will be responsible for training their employees to ensure they are always up to date with the latest technology. If you hire your own IT employees, you will be responsible for this.
And then there are other benefits with a managed IT service that can make the running of your business easier. For example, it can be easier to budget when you outsource because you will know how much you are spending on the service each month.
You also won’t have to worry about your IT person going on vacation or falling ill because there will always be someone working for you when you use a third-party service.
Look at your current situation. Do you constantly find yourself hiring emergency IT help? Do you find that there are regular problems that you cannot deal with yourself? If so, it may better to have a service working for you at all times.
Paying for lots of minor problems over time adds up, and it is better to prevent them in the first place. Managed services help to avoid these problems from occurring, saving you time and hassle.
Consider Managed IT Services for Your Business
When you think of managed IT services, look at them as partners. You will have someone working for you at all times to protect your IT systems and ensure everything is running smoothly. And remember, they do not have to replace your internal IT, they can complement it instead.
Having a managed service frees up your IT staff to focus on strategic projects, and this can help you to grow. So let the specialists take over the IT issues, and free up your time to focus more resources on other tasks.
About the author
Zohar Pinhasi, CEO and Founder of MonsterCloud, is a leader in opening the cloud computing market to small- and medium-sized businesses. Zohar has 20+ years of experience with sophisticated technology systems. A leader in the fast-moving technology industry trend of cloud services, Zohar has spent the past 12 years evangelizing for small- and medium-sized businesses to shift to the cloud. A calculated risk-taker with deep tech industry knowledge, he continues to champion cloud services to his enterprise and consumer customers. The foundations of Zohar’s knowledge were established during a long training in an elite military technological unit. Zohar is also the founder of GOLBNET, a telecom company. Zohar’s motto: A dream is a seed. Vision plants it. Imagination nurtures growth. Opportunities create blooms. Thoughts become things! (Donna McGoff)
