In light of the world’s current pandemic situation, it has become even more apparent how much a business relies on technology every day. Ensuring your network devices and workstations are operating properly at all times, can be an overwhelming and daunting task, but these technologies are a crucial part of any business. For most small businesses, this rang-es from an everyday laptop or desktop computer to more advanced devices such as servers, workstations, and printers.
A Managed Service Provide (MSP) can provide a solution to monitor network devices and services. MSP’s can detect and be alerted to hardware issues for faster resolution. MSP’s can provide a solution for antivirus and backup software, as well as provide system administration and 24/7 re-mote support when you need it. This white paper will discuss what a managed service provider is, what services an MSP can offer and the cost savings of using a MSP.
An MSP can be described as a company that has the ability to manage, main-tain, and support a company’s IT assets, such as network infrastructure and end user systems. This is generally done remotely and on a subscription basis, although they also usually offer a one-time hourly fee. MSP’s are generally able to fully manage a small and medium sized business-es’ IT requirements, but they also capability of managing and co-managing larger business IT needs.
While there may be some benefit for businesses an in-house IT technician or department, MSP’s can generally meet and ex-ceed the expectations of an in-house technician. Take for example expertise. If you have in-house IT technicians and/or a department, you generally need to hire multiple people with different expertise in different areas of IT. With an MSP, you get different people, with different areas of expertise, for a single monthly fee instead of having to pay multiple salaries.
An MSP has highly trained support technicians, network administrators, systems administrators and project managers on their staff to support any IT needs a business may have. Most MSPs will have personnel trained, a lot of times they will be certified by CompTia or Microsoft, in many of the areas that your company is needing to hire personnel for. To hire an in-house IT staff to cover all of the services an MSP can provide will cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. Consider the services below:
• Computer Repair
• Antivirus Protection
• Network Administration
• Network Architecture
• Server Management
• Storage Management
• Backups and Recovery
• Virtualization
• Cloud Solutions
• Network Monitoring
• 24/7/365 Support Options
Everything comes down to cost versus value. IT budgets are comprised of many aspects: hardware costs, software licensing costs, maintenance costs, to name a few. Don’t forget about the expense of IT labor, which can become costly as your company grows and the IT demand of your company grow. Companies have had to decrease the size of their IT department due the cost being far too high. Companies have also not had an IT department and have paid other employees to perform IT duties, taking them away from their hired scope of work, slowing down production. Using an MSP to assist, or completely manage their IT needs, companies are able to create a more accurate budget for the IT needs and also free up any staff they previously had performing those duties.
Here is list of some other benefits, outside of cost saving, to having an MSP fully manage your company’s IT duties:
I. Expertise Access: As stated above, by using an MSP, you will have access to a wide array of experts in multiple areas of IT. No matter the size of the business, expertise of any aspect of IT is at your fingertips!
II. Maintenance Schedule: This is one of the most talked about and appreciated services of an MSP. If using an MSP, they will setup a scheduled maintenance period for all of your hardware and software. A maintenance schedule is comprised of Microsoft updates, 3rd Party software updates. An example of a 3rd Party software would be Adobe reader, or Quickbooks Accounting software. An MSP will also provide 24/7/365 coverage option, although there is generally an extra charge for after hours help.
III. Backups of your data: Most MSP’s offer a backup option, whether it be an on-premise option or a cloud option. If it is the on-premise option, you will need to have hardware onsite at your business, but guess what? You will not need to install it nor will you have to worry about setting up your servers or workstations to backup to the appliance. With a cloud solution, nothing will be on-site and again you will not need to setup the backups to actually work.
IV. Scalability of services: You may be a new startup business with only one employee. They have a solution for that. In 18 months, your business will grow. You now have 15 employees; an MSP can scale their services to your needs. All of this will be done with no loss of productivity and although it will come with a price increase, it will be affordable.
Conclusion: Organizations of all sizes are moving some, and in some cases all, of their IT duties, to Managed Service Providers. By doing so they are freeing up their budget while also getting the IT service that their businesses need. You of course will want to find a trustworthy and reliable company to look after your IT assets. Contact us today to find a solution that works for you!