Key Takeaways:
- Cost Efficiency: Managed IT services allow businesses to save significantly by outsourcing IT needs, reducing the expense of full-time in-house staff.
- Enhanced Security: MSPs provide advanced cybersecurity solutions, helping protect businesses from data breaches and cyberattacks.
- Access to Expertise: Small businesses gain access to cutting-edge technology and a team of experts, ensuring better system uptime and compliance with industry regulations.
Large businesses often have a dedicated IT staff on hand. With the amount of information running through the business and the need to maintain a large infrastructure, having on-site IT professionals both day and night makes sense.
However, as a small to medium-sized business, this is not something you need. Your company simply does not generate the kind of data volume to need a team of IT specialists on-site.
And yet, you still need someone to help maintain your network, including handling Internet security, performing updates, and even recommending software to enhance your user experience.
Paying a full-time employee to do this doesn’t make sense, as they likely won’t have a ton to do throughout the course of an average day, so paying a salary, plus benefits, social security, and other expenses, can quickly add up.
A far better alternative involves hiring a managed service provider (MSP).
WHAT IS A MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDER?
Managing your network isn’t necessarily a full-time job. You may only need help at points throughout the day or possibly even a few times a month. And paying for a full-time staff member to handle such occasional tasks just doesn’t make sense.
And yet, you absolutely need to have IT solutions within the realm of your business. It’s one of those areas that you don’t need until you really need it. When things go wrong with the network, whether it’s from failing software to a cyber attack, having an IT professional on your site is of critical importance.
That is where a managed service provider (MSP) comes in.
Managed IT service providers essentially handle all your company’s IT infrastructure off-site. Usually, the company will manage dozens of smaller businesses, providing assistance and insights whenever needed.
In essence, you receive the same kind of services as an in-house IT professional without the hefty cost of paying a professional to remain on-site at all times.
THE BENEFITS OF MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERS
Managed service providers deliver several critical benefits that can make small businesses far more competitive.
1 – CUTTING COSTS
As the owner of a small business, costs are probably a huge concern for you. After all, you don’t have unlimited funds, and you need to make sure you have enough money to keep your business afloat.
Many small business owners worry about the cost of IT support services. However, the truth is that managed services often offer major savings for small businesses.
If you’re currently paying an hourly rate for IT staff, you can expect to save a significant amount of money by switching to managed services.
Best of all, you will likely end up getting more in terms of value. First of all, you could be in a situation where a managed service provider (MSP) delivers 24/7 support services that would be prohibitively expensive to achieve in-house.
And when you do end up with a more significant system failure, you could have a team of engineers and analysts dealing with the problem.
If you want to determine how much you can expect to save, take a look at your current expenditures and ask our team for details of what replacing and enhancing that service would cost you.
Your costs may drop by 50 percent or more.
2 – ENHANCED SECURITY
If you choose managed IT services for your small business, you will enjoy better cybersecurity. As you have probably seen in the news, hackers are becoming increasingly skilled at conducting data breaches.
Every few months, a company is all over the news about a data breach involving the illegal access of thousands, if not millions, of records.
In many cases, these records consist of sensitive data, putting customers at risk. Choose a managed service provider so that your company will be protected by the most advanced cybersecurity measures. That way, it will be less likely that your data will be stolen.
The service offerings of managed IT providers also deliver a lot more protection as these teams encounter far more cyberattacks due to the number of businesses they help protect.
3 – COMPLIANCE
Various legal requirements, such as those spelled out in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), can be difficult to understand.
Modifications to existing laws and the introduction of new regulations that impact consumer and data privacy can become overwhelming. And even when you understand the full implications of such regulations, you have to figure out what that means for your IT infrastructure.
Managed IT services providers can help keep organizations in compliance with legal requirements and shift this responsibility away from the organization’s staff.
The main advantage is that internal staff can focus on other responsibilities related to their roles and expertise in-house. IT management services can also ensure your firm’s systems and processes are up to date with the latest security measures.
This helps prevent data theft, unwanted intrusions, malware, and cybersecurity-related incidents. Vendors with IT expertise are also poised to stay on top of the latest security threats and can provide 24/7 monitoring to help protect your organization from becoming liable for unauthorized access to sensitive data.
4 – PEACE OF MIND
Peace of mind is another reason you should use managed IT services if you own a small business. When you outsource IT support, may it be for hardware or software, you will always have an expert on hand who will be able to help you.
To prevent loss of productivity and revenue, your managed IT services provider will pinpoint bugs before they get the chance to impact your systems.
Instead of resolving a problem after it wreaks havoc, it is the job of the managed service provider to fix the issues before they cause chaos.
And if you want to keep your data secure, your business should have the knowledge of industry experts and the best technology available. You and your employees would need to constantly remain current when it comes to relevant industry standards.
Unfortunately, you may not have the resources or time for this.
Recruiting new staff for the purpose of securing your data can be challenging, frustrating, and time-consuming. And if you aren’t an expert when it comes to IT, it can be difficult to know which specifications and skills to look for in a potential employee.
The last thing you want is to hire people who lack the specialized knowledge and technical skill set necessary for the job. Fortunately, if you outsource IT services, you don’t have to worry about any of this.
5 – ACCESS TO NEWER TECHNOLOGIES
Many small businesses have IT staff who are overburdened or lacking in terms of skills and training needed for the management of the entire network. In general, these small businesses recognize the advantages of forming a partnership with a third-party managed services provider.
IT outsourcing is advantageous because it will give your small business access to an additional team of IT experts for troubleshooting and fixing the issues that arise.
Clients benefit because they enjoy access to the latest technology and top-notch solutions that boost profitability and ensure uptime. Some examples of such technology and solutions include:
When you invest in these tools, the reliability of the IT infrastructure of your small business will increase significantly.
The business model for IT managed services helps address the issues associated with labor constraints. It can also help internal IT departments that don’t have the resources or time to always remain up-to-date on the latest technology, like cloud services.
6 – BETTER UPTIME
The final advantage of managed IT services for small businesses is better uptime. Every business, no matter the size, needs to be prepared for both natural and man-made emergencies.
Some examples of these emergencies include power failures, data loss, security breaches, hurricanes, and earthquakes. It is essential that businesses are prepared for these emergencies to ensure business continuity and uptime.
IT managed services often include backup and disaster recovery with very attractive service level agreements.
If you want to ensure the safety of the data and overall IT infrastructure of your business in any emergency, you need professional help to plan for all those eventualities.
A managed service provider will be able to help you pinpoint and prevent the damaging impact that an emergency can have on a business.
OUTSOURCING DONE RIGHT
Outsourcing has a negative connotation attached to it, and in some instances, it isn’t desirable for the American workforce. However, this type of outsourcing isn’t sending jobs to cheaper international markets.
It is keeping all of the IT jobs right here.
IT services like ours allow you to take advantage of improved network security and all the benefits of an IT professional without the huge cost, which means you have more money to invest back into the company, which may mean bringing on additional workers.
When outsourcing your IT needs locally, you create jobs. And at Charlotte IT Solutions, the entire staff is located right here in metro Charlotte. This way, the money you spend on a managed service provider remains in the community, helping your neighbors and others who call the region home.
PROTECT YOUR BUSINESS TODAY
You run a great risk when not protecting your business with an IT technician. Trying to stay on top of network security and upgrading software and hardware around your company is probably not something you thrive at.
And even if you enjoy it, you don’t have the time to fully dedicate yourself to staying up to date on the latest news and information in the world of cybersecurity and networking (because if you did, your business would be in the world of IT).
So, instead of leaving your company at risk of external threats, you need to do what you can to protect it, your employees, and your customers, all at the same time.
The best way to do that is to connect with a locally managed service provider.
Call our team for a free consultation, and we’ll guide you through all of our managed services options.