The Benefits of Managed IT Services
Choosing an MSP is a business decision, and not just because technology costs can add up quickly. It’s also about ensuring your team has the capacity to meet your company’s performance goals.
IT managed services providers like ACS have access to new technologies and are constantly upgrading systems. This saves your business the cost of investing in new technology and provides a higher level of expertise.
1. IT Support
A managed services provider can handle many of the same tasks as a traditional IT department, but on a much larger scale. MSPs staff whole teams of engineers, so they’re always available to help you when the time comes – and they can do it at a fraction of the cost you’d pay for a dedicated team in-house.
Help desk support is an essential part of managed IT services. This is especially important for businesses that don’t have the budget to hire a full-time IT person on their payroll. Instead, they turn to an MSP to manage their IT environment for a monthly fee. They can respond to requests from employees for troubleshooting, software updates and more.
Many MSPs offer remote monitoring and management (RMM), which enables them to keep an eye on your IT system even when they’re not at your office. They can keep an eye on your network for any signs of potential threats and proactively nip them in the bud, helping you to avoid costly outages and data breaches.
MSPs can also assist with project-specific technology support. This could be anything from consulting on a major SharePoint build or Salesforce implementation to ongoing technical assistance for business applications. Generally, this type of support isn’t the focus of most MSPs, but it’s an option that can be useful for certain organizations.
While it might seem counterintuitive to outsource IT tasks, it allows your internal IT team to focus on projects that can actually drive revenue for your organization. This is particularly true for law firms, which may have a limited amount of bandwidth to devote to improving their IT infrastructure. Instead, they can rely on managed IT services to take care of these duties and free up their time to focus on innovation and other initiatives.
2. Monitoring
When it comes to IT management services, monitoring is a large part of what the service provider does for the client. It can be as simple as checking for any suspicious activity, or it can be more involved, such as proactively monitoring for security threats and other IT performance issues. The point is to make sure that the IT infrastructure of the client’s business is performing at its best, and that any problems are dealt with before they become bigger issues that can impact productivity.
This is a good fit for organizations that do not have the time or resources to manage certain IT processes internally, or want to prioritize other initiatives instead. A well-executed managed IT services strategy can allow teams to focus on innovation without getting bogged down in routine tasks.
In many cases, a managed IT services provider will also provide advice and suggestions to help improve the overall efficiency of the organization as a whole, in addition to IT support functions. This may include assisting with reorganization of processes and workflows, or even the introduction of new technologies.
Another advantage of leveraging managed IT services is that companies can often save money by outsourcing these functions. This can be especially helpful for SMBs, who do not always have the budget to hire full-time IT staff. Instead, an MSP can handle the responsibilities of the IT department for a small monthly fee, which can free up resources to be put toward revenue-generating activities.
MSPs also often have a wider scope of knowledge than an internal IT team, and they can be a good choice for organizations that need to comply with regulatory and industry standards, or those that face particular security threats. This is because MSPs are experts in these areas and can provide a depth of knowledge that might not be available in-house.
Ultimately, managed IT services should be seen as an essential operating expense for any business that wants to stay competitive in today’s fast-paced and technology-driven world. By partnering with an MSP, businesses can be assured that their IT infrastructure is being properly maintained and monitored, so they can focus on their core mission of delivering quality products and services to their customers.
3. Security
The most obvious benefit of managed IT services is that they provide security, whether through monitoring, patch management or other measures. This can be a huge relief for teams that don’t have the internal resources to handle such duties on their own. Additionally, it can be a boon for companies in highly regulated industries like financial services or healthcare who must comply with strict data storage and privacy regulations. An MSP’s in-depth knowledge of things like sensible cybersecurity policies and industry compliance along with practical experience can help mitigate your company’s risk.
Another service that MSPs often offer is Software as a Service (SaaS). SaaS applications are available on a pay-as-you-go subscription basis, so you don’t have to worry about buying licenses or installing hardware. They are usually cloud-based and allow multiple users to access them at once. An MSP can help with implementation, configuration and monitoring of SaaS software apps.
Other services that MSPs may offer include voice over IP telephony, which allows you to use a phone system that runs over an internet connection rather than through a traditional landline. It offers a variety of capabilities that analog landlines can’t, including video conferencing and mobile device integration. It’s becoming a popular alternative to analog landlines for businesses of all sizes, and an MSP can offer you a VoIP system that’s customizable to your business needs.
All of these services can be beneficial to any company that relies on technology, but not every business can benefit from managed IT services. A good fit for an MSP is a team that sees how they can improve their business by advancing their technology, and that’s willing to pay for that expertise. Choosing the right MSP for your organization will save you time and money, allowing you to focus on your core responsibilities without worrying about technological problems. That’s why more and more organizations are choosing to outsource their IT support – the most common reason that US companies seek to do so is to free up resources to dedicate to more critical responsibilities.
4. Backup
Backup is a process of creating copies of data files to use in the event the originals are lost or destroyed. This is often a critical component of IT infrastructure and may be governed by a company's data protection policies. Backups can be used for a variety of reasons, from restoration in the event of a data loss to long-term storage and records retention.
Many IT services providers offer backup and recovery as a standalone service or bundled into other managed IT services such as network, security and cloud computing. This service involves the secure storage of backups in case of data breaches or disaster events and developing a plan for recovering data that has been lost.
When a backup is created, the copies of data are stored on a separate device to the primary source in the event that the primary source fails. This may be a hard disk or solid-state drive in a RAID system or on tape. The frequency of backups is dictated by data protection policies and can be either full or incremental. Full backups copy all data, while incremental backups only copy data that has been changed or added since the last backup activity.
Backup solutions should support scheduling and automation, to enable backups to be conducted at a predefined time or interval. They should also allow for the management of backups, including how many are stored and their retention periods. In addition, backup solutions should provide partition selection, which allows you to create a backup of a specific partition of a drive.
When deciding to use an MSP, companies should consider their business goals and needs. The right MSP can help them achieve their IT goals, while reducing costs and increasing productivity. The cost of an MSP is usually less expensive than the expense of hiring and training in-house IT staff to handle the same duties. In addition, using an MSP can be much more predictable, which is useful for budgeting purposes. For these reasons, many businesses choose to outsource their IT functions to a third-party company that specializes in these services.
Choosing an MSP is a business decision, and not just because technology costs can add up quickly. It’s also about ensuring your team has the capacity to meet your company’s performance goals. IT managed services providers like ACS have access to new technologies and are constantly upgrading systems. This saves your business the cost of…