While 2020 certainly took its toll on businesses worldwide, a recent study shows around 45% of small businesses survived and thrived at this time thanks to technology.
For many, this wouldn’t have happened without managed IT services to see to their needs remotely.
IT management services aren’t only designed for unusual times, though. They’ve become an essential service for anyone who wants to grow their business.
Keep reading to discover the many benefits of managed IT.
What Do Managed IT Services Offer?
Companies hire managed IT services to support, manage, and maintain a business’s tech infrastructure. This includes both hardware and software components.
They deliver assistance when it comes to aspects like major updates as well as the minor issues that can plague uninformed employees.
They typically offer a portfolio of services, including:
- Network monitoring and maintenance
- Data backup
- Data and network security
- Help desk support
- Disaster recovery strategy
Managed IT services aren’t always applied remotely, although they do have the technology to deliver the majority of their functions from a distance.
When you initially sign up with one of these vendors, they might spend a lot of time retroactively dealing with any problems that arise. As time wears on, the aim is to adopt a proactive approach to prevent these unwanted issues.
Of course, you can set up teams within your own business to deal with all these aspects. This brings us to the most important benefit of IT management services.
A Managed IT Service Provider Saves You Money
The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists the average annual salary of an IT manager at $151,150 as of 2020. That’s a lot of money when compared to the average cost of hiring an external IT services provider.
Plus, when you hire an IT team, you’ll need more than one IT expert to handle all your business needs. Most companies nowadays work with a host of technologies daily.
These include:
- Websites
- Bookkeeping programs
- CRM software
- Word processing packages
- Networks
- Antivirus software and firewalls
It’s unlikely that a single IT manager can cope with every one of these functions. If they could, you’d have to pay them a lot more than an average salary.
Apart from salary costs, you also need to provide benefits like paid leave for your IT team members.
Unless you’re an IT guru yourself, it’s difficult to know if you’re hiring the right person for the job when you interview candidates, too.
Few business owners know the intricacies of every IT qualification. Most have no idea where to start when it comes to hiring an IT team.
A small business might use multiple IT platforms in their daily operations, but not enough work to justify hiring a technician to see to each one.
Managed Services Offer More for Your Money
Managed IT services employ the full range of IT professionals, so they can offer every service needed by their clients. Each client pays only a portion of these employees’ salaries according to their needs.
This means they can provide a full range of IT services at a fraction of the cost. Each team member has the necessary qualifications to perform their task.
Your MSP also ensures all its employees receive ongoing training in accordance with industry standards. So, they’re always up-to-date and can offer your business the best service possible.
If you already have an in-house IT team, you don’t need to fire them all in favor of an external service. Your in-house team already has insider knowledge of your systems, your goals, and your employees.
In this light, there’s no reason why an in-house team and an external team can’t complement each other. That’s because managed IT services offer abundant flexibility in their services.
IT Services Offer Scalability
Since IT management companies cater to every size of business, they scale their offering accordingly.
Most of them can offer a range of services to provide only for your current needs. When your business grows, you can move to the next level of service as required.
That means you can outsource those tasks beyond the capabilities of your in-house team, and they can offer support to your outsourced provider when needed.
If one of your team members resigns, you can upgrade your managed IT package to fill in the gaps, without going through the arduous process of hiring someone new.
IT Service Management Doesn’t Take Breaks
Managed IT service providers operate around the clock every day of the year. So, help is at hand whenever you need it after hours.
If you had to call on your in-house team every time one of your employees encountered a hiccup working late, you’d need to pay them a hefty sum in overtime wages. With managed IT, after-hours service is a part of the deal.
Troubleshooting aside, this always-on capability allows them to perform time-consuming backups after hours when they won’t disrupt your operations.
In this way, they can save you and your employees a lot of time, while ensuring you’re always running the best versions of your software. Outdated software is a major security risk and can seriously hamper your teams’ productivity.
From a proactive point of view, around-the-clock monitoring means your MSP will detect any problems with your system early on before they become major issues.
There’s one more reason why constant vigilance is so important to modern-day businesses.
Enhanced IT Security With Managed Services
Security breaches are becoming ever more frequent across the globe, with serious consequences for the businesses involved.
According to CNET, security breaches reached an all-time high in 2021, increasing by 68% from the year before.
Your clients trust you with their confidential information. A security breach will destroy their confidence in you and could lead to lawsuits, too.
You probably have some business secrets you’d like to keep to yourself, and a security breach could expose that secret recipe or winning formula you’ve safeguarded for so long.
To keep your business secure, you need several measures in place. These include:
- Data backups
- Advanced antivirus programs
- Anti-malware software
- Anti-phishing software
- A firewall
- Spam filters
- Encryption for sensitive information
- Multifactor authentication
- Stringent access controls
- Ongoing training for your employees
The average business owner has no idea where to start with all these security measures, let alone keeping them all updated.
An MSP will take care of it all for you, ensuring your safety and peace of mind. They’re always up to speed with the latest threats doing the rounds and will ensure your business systems stay locked up tight against them.
Often, your employees can unknowingly inject your systems with viruses and malware by plugging their phones into a laptop, opening phishing emails, or visiting suspicious websites.
Your MSP can provide training for employees to ensure they’re aware of these hazards and learn to practice better cyber hygiene.
You Can Go Backward With IT Service Management
If there’s ever an instance where business owners wish they could turn back the clock, it’s after they’ve lost all their data. This can happen due to a hardware failure or a disastrous event like a fire or flood.
Managed IT providers can help you regain most of your critical data thanks to daily off-site backups. Since this information stays safely offsite, it’s impervious to anything that goes wrong in-house, including a cyberattack.
If you are unlucky enough to lose all your hard-earned information, your MSP can provide you with all your data from the day before, saving your business from disaster.
Enhanced Customer Service
Waiting for updates or trying to figure out computer issues on their own can leave your employees feeling frustrated and dissatisfied with their work environment.
Nobody can meet their deadlines when they’re working on outdated software or slow, virus-riddled computers.
Thanks to their efficient behind-the-scenes service, an MSP can help your employees enjoy greater job satisfaction, and increase their productivity tenfold.
They will also help you install state-of-the-art modern communication methods, both in-house and with your customers.
These methods can assist your teams to streamline their workflows and deal with customer queries or complaints more quickly.
Happy, fulfilled workers are the key to great customer satisfaction, especially when they have the tools to deliver prompt, efficient service.
Great service from your employees means better customer reviews, which in turn leads to attracting more customers and growing your business.
Nowadays, your customers and suppliers expect you to operate according to novel trends and service levels. The more you embrace these IT services and trends, the more you can expect your business to thrive in modern times.
You Can Thrive Thanks to Managed IT
When you first sign up with an MSP, they’ll conduct a comprehensive audit of your business systems. In this way, they can pinpoint any weaknesses and identify areas for growth.
They’ll work with you on a strategy for advancing your IT assets so that your business can grow and thrive.
Thanks to their in-depth industry knowledge, they know all the best software and hardware that can help you increase your productivity and profitability.
Most MSPs provide weekly or monthly reporting to help you measure their progress and yours. In this way, they demonstrate commitment to your success and help you keep track of where you’re going tech-wise.
With a committed MSP by your side, you can slowly upgrade your tech infrastructure in line with industry standards, placing you on an equal footing with your competitors.
Remote Work is a Breeze With an MSP
Now that the stresses of the last two years are starting to wane, many business owners are discovering that remote work offers a lot of cost-saving benefits.
You don’t need as much office space when your employees work from home, which reduces your operational costs considerably.
When you’re starting out in business and every cent counts, remote work can help you grow your business much faster.
Many highly skilled workers have realized they prefer the time and cost-saving benefits of remote work, too. So, it’s becoming harder to find employees willing to work in an office environment.
An outsourced managed IT service provider is key to keeping remote workers up and running. It can help you to expand your business beyond your expectations.
Time To Grow Your Business
The bottom line is that a managed IT services provider frees your time and your mind from the stresses associated with managing your technologies yourself.
When you leave IT to the experts, you’ll have a lot more time to do what you do best. That is, coming up with brilliant ideas to delight your customers, managing your staff, and taking your business boldly into uncharted territory.
Every business needs more advanced tech systems as it grows. Are you capable of and prepared to learn all these new systems from scratch? Nobody has time for that when they’re managing a growing enterprise.
Rather, let a team of qualified personnel take care of all that.
As a side note, fewer technological worries and less stress will help your state of mind and ensure you’re always operating at your best. We should also mention that eliminating stress from your life helps you live longer, too!
Use the Tools at Your Disposal
Thanks to increased efficiency at a reduced cost, managed IT services help new business owners get ahead of the competition from the outset.
With a top-notch IT service by your side, you can spend time growing your business and enhancing your offering without worrying about daily IT issues.
This frees you to try out more of the tools and tactics available to business owners today. Get started by exploring all the best business tips and strategies right here on our website.
