Managed Services
Assessing the Need
Today, IT managers are under significant pressure to meet the performance, operational expectations, and security needs of the business while trying to keep costs down. Most of the financial experts would suggest in these conditions to switch to a predictable cost model, like that of a managed service. A company that provides such services is called a Managed Service Provider (MSP). The best time to consider speaking with a MSP is when you are setting future strategic goals or deploying new services to your IT environment. Many times, a company’s existing staff may not be experienced with a new technology or able to maintain new services or applications. Hiring contractors to provide the service may be more expensive and provide less value in supporting your company’s ever-growing performance goals, given astatic or declining budget. This is often true for small, medium and large companies alike.
Managed Service models have evolved over time, and the seasoned providers have perfected their delivery. It is very effective for a business that:
- Relies on their IT Infrastructure to properly support their daily business processes
- Do not have sufficiently trained staff or time to formally deal with proper maintenance, updates and repairs
- Want to pay one monthly, flat fee for services to provide a high level of service quality to the business
For most business services, IT underpins the business engine. From software to hardware and the skills required to keep the service running, a company could invest significant capital in building and maintaining the in-house support staff. However, given the maturity of the managed service models and the shift to virtualization and cloud, the need for on-site IT staff can be limited to the exceptions where operational sensitivity justifies it. To ensure greater IT cost predictability amid uncertain requirements, a company may consider leveraging managed service experts.
Benefits of Managed Services
Managed services offer a variety of benefits.