Data-driven technology is one of the most significant assets in today’s business world. Technological advancements make way for improved efficiency and constant innovation in all industries across the globe.
As technology has advanced, its complexity and support overhead has increased, as have the threats to businesses’ security and data integrity through their IT networks. For small and medium businesses (SMBs), keeping up with increasing IT complexity and security, the ability to attract and retain the IT skills needed to manage these networks is becoming a challenge.
Luckily there is a viable alternative, Managed IT Services.
Managed IT and technology services can provide expert support and service for your network, so your employees can focus on running and growing the business.
This article provides a detailed overview of what’s included in Managed IT services, along with everything there is to know about managed service providers (MSPs).
What is Included in Managed IT Services?
Before we get started with what’s included in Managed IT services, we need to be aware of what Managed IT services are in the first place.
For a well-detailed understanding of Managed services and MSPs, refer to our guide on Managed IT services .
Each MSP has a unique set of services that may or may not align with an organization’s list of outsourced IT tasks. As an organization, it’s crucial to stay informed of what services are available from a managed service provider.
Here is a brief overview of the most common IT challenges that can be handled by managed IT services
- Network provisioning or virtualization
- Connectivity and bandwidth issues
- Network testing and monitoring
- Risk mitigation and Network Security
- Implementing software patches
- Providing Web and cloud hosting services
- Performance monitoring and reporting
- Providing help desk technical support services
- Managing installations and upgrades
Why Use Managed IT Services?
1 – Focus on core IT objectives
Your IT needs will increase as your business attains higher milestones of growth. Even with a highly skilled IT team, they can only do so much when handling the growing day-to-day repetitive tasks that take a toll on your employee engagement rates.
Outsourcing these mundane routine tasks to a managed IT services provider enables your employees to focus on the core IT project objectives for which they were hired to your organization.
2 – Get the Right Expertise
The average hiring cost for new employees in the IT sector is estimated to be around $1886 per employee for training alone. Also, many skills must be re-certified every few years to keep training certifications current.
Outsourcing to a Managed IT services provider gives you access to an entire team of trained, certified IT experts at a flat monthly rate. Some MSPs offer a customized approach where you can add or remove team members or skill sets as the demands and requisites for each project change.
3 – Flexible Scaling
As your IT infrastructure evolves, it is critical to scale your system to accommodate and cater to the growing technology requisites.
By offering cloud-based resources, MSPs can ensure your infrastructure can respond to changes in demand in real time, enabling you to scale up or down as per the system requirements. System downtime is minimized as the MSP manages infrastructure in the cloud.
4 – Helpdesk Support
With Managed IT services, your organization can leverage help desk support and assistance for routine technical issues that may arise.
Most MSPs offer flexible service level agreements that include on-call options and weekend support, so you can always rely on having the right level of assistance at any hour of the day.
When searching for the perfect MSP partner, choose a company that can support multiple time zones and offers round-the-clock support if that is a requirement for your business.
5 – Avoid Expensive Downtime
The ongoing costs of outsourcing IT services may seem high, but the reality is that managed IT services can save your business a significant amount of money in the long run.
By using remote monitoring and management tools, MSPs proactively identify potential problems, so they can be identified and fixed before they ever have a chance to cause disruption to your business.
MSPs also have the expertise and resources to resolve any IT issues that arise quickly, so your business can stay up and running.
What Are The Types Of Managed IT Services?
Let’s now look at some of the different categories where the services provided by MSPs are fully effective.
Cloud Computing Services
Managed IT services can help with the allocation of resources to the right cloud service for your needs (AWS, Azure, Google) and ensure the reliability and efficiency of all components.
MSPs can offer support and advice on how to get the best out of cloud computing resources, making them an essential partner for any business that wants to make the most of this transformative technology but does not have the skill set in-house to manage it.
Data Security Services
Probably the most challenging area of IT for most SMBs is IT security. While the importance of data security is often debated, there’s no denying that it’s one of the most critical aspects of any business. Many SMBs have been victims of Ransomware to lock them out of their IT systems or to steal data. A range of security services is core to the offerings provided by every MSP.
MSPs can secure a company’s network and identify events that could pose a threat to IT infrastructure, such as viruses, malware, and Ransomware and provide awareness training to staff to identify Phishing scams.
Operational Monitoring and Management
Managed IT service providers (MSP) do more than provide simple break-fix solutions for your organization’s IT Infrastructure.
Many MSPs offer comprehensive operational management and monitoring solutions that can keep your business secure, running smoothly and efficiently day in and day out. Monitoring solutions provide real-time visibility into the health and performance of your system so that the MSP can quickly identify and resolve any issues that arise.
Mobile Device Management
As more and more businesses rely on smartphones and tablets to conduct business, it’s essential to have a reliable and secure way to manage these devices, especially if these devices are personal (BYOD) and not provided by the company.
With mobile device management, businesses can determine the level of access, remotely control and monitor connected devices, and keep track of data usage and battery life. This helps to ensure that employees are always connected and productive and that sensitive company data is never compromised.
Improved Communications
Managed IT services providers can help businesses leverage browser-based and hybrid video conferencing systems enabling employees and clients to stay connected using voice and video collaboration applications.
What are the Benefits of Using Managed IT Services?
Preventive Approach
By monitoring your IT infrastructure around the clock, when something breaks, in most cases, the issue can be quickly diagnosed and remediated remotely.
With data and IT networks, the consequences of unplanned downtime can quickly make a big dent in an organization’s budget if anything breaks. Most SMBs do not have large IT budgets if any at all.
When you have an MSP to manage your IT infrastructure, the stress and hassle of dealing with break/fix issues go away. MSPs employ a preventive approach, proactively monitoring your system to identify potential problems that may arise and address them before they can escalate into a full-fledged catastrophe.
Data Compliance
Depending upon the type of business, storing personal, financial or health-related data is governed by federal or provincial regulations. The business can suffer severe consequences if protected data is leaked or compromised, including hefty fines and reputation damage.
Sifting through current standards and regulations and trying to figure out which ones apply to your company can be daunting. Partnering with a reputable Managed IT services provider can make navigating the regulatory compliance landscape much simpler.
The MSP can handle the complexities of compliance and auditing, so you don’t have to worry about violating any data security or other regulations. They can run reports and conduct audits to demonstrate that your organization is meeting all requirements, saving your in-house staff time and giving them peace of mind.
Constant Visibility
By leveraging the resources of an MSP, centralizing your network applications and servers into one single data centre has become easier than ever before. This can be a physical data centre, cloud infrastructure or a hybrid of both.
Centralization allows for increased speed and accessibility for all staff, regardless of location. With a centralized managed infrastructure, your employees now have greater access to company data.
A centralized system also provides facilities such as secure web access points so employees can work anywhere.
Where Can I use Managed IT Services?
MSPs like CG Technologies have built a reputation for reliability and dependability with many long-term clients. The Managed IT services they provide are particularly helpful for SMBs to help them manage all their business IT systems, including workstations, laptops, servers, network infrastructure or cloud deployments.
How Can CG Technologies help?
Outsourcing some or all of their IT management to CG Technologies has helped many small and medium-sized businesses grow and thrive in a crowded and competitive market. CG Technologies has developed a range of managed IT services, so you can leave IT to us.
Cost-effectiveness. Reliability. Practicality.
Three words define our Managed IT services’ impact on small and medium-sized businesses. With over 25 years of experience and a passion for top-tier service, CG Technologies is your trusted partner for delivering the best ROI from Managed IT Services.
Need the same results for your organization? Contact us today.
