Managed IT services enable companies to outsource IT tasks to a vendor as contracted or subscription services. These services can be used to lighten the workload of in-house teams, supplement teams that are unable to meet IT demand, or to replace in-house teams.

Managed service providers (MSPs) can be useful for ensuring 24/7/365 coverage of IT duties and can contribute specialty knowledge or expertise that may not otherwise be available.

There are numerous benefits that organizations can gain from the right managed IT service provider.

Your MSP moving forward will be your trusted advisor to any projects that are upcoming. They will talk with vendors for you and with you to be sure that you are getting what you need and not more. In addition, plan if needed to get things up to par before your upgrades. Then can make arrangements for installs or upgrades with the vendor so you don’t have to.

Managed services enable you to set contractual terms for IT tasks that include service level agreements (SLAs). This means you don’t have to spend time recruiting, hiring, or training your own IT staff. This allows you to pay only for the coverage or services you need. It makes budgeting uncomplicated. Also, there is no need to call an outside vendor (who knows nothing about your system) to come in and learn on the fly just to make a change.

Outsourcing IT tasks to a MSP free your inside staff to focus on what they were hired for. These providers will also often provide guidance or recommendations to help you optimize the performance of your infrastructure. This can lead to productivity increases.

Managed IT service providers are not tied to the same schedule as your other employees. This means providers are often able to perform system updates and maintenance during off-hours or weekends. When MSPs have flexible schedules to work around your own, you see greater uptime and fewer workflow disruptions.

On average, technology doubles about every 18 months. Your MSP can help you strategically plan infrastructure upgrades, configuration changes, and additions. This means providers need to not only understand your current infrastructure but make efforts to manage it with respect to your business goals and objectives.

Taking a thorough assessment of your current IT needs and costs is the first step to finding an MSP. You need to understand what infrastructure and workflows you need managed, what resources you currently have, and what your business goals are. Some MSP’s assessments are Free of Charge (Ours are).

Once your plan is in place, you have unlimited support with your MSP who should be very familiar with your network and be able to respond to your issues very quickly. It keeps you running very efficiently without having to worry when things go wrong. You will always know who to call.