In today’s information-driven world, businesses depend heavily on modern technology to deliver products and services to the market and improve the efficiency of their operations. Currently, there is a virtually limitless variety of digital business solutions from ERPs and e-commerce platforms, to analytics tools. The one thing that all these modern solutions have in common is that they require a robust IT infrastructure to enable their functions.
Organizations are willing to spend a sizable percentage of their revenue on installing modern IT systems. However, in most cases, setting up the initial infrastructure is the easy part; the hard part is maintaining and running the IT systems. This is where managed IT services come in.
What is the role of managed IT service providers?
A managed IT service provider is a third-party contractor who assumes the responsibility of maintaining a client’s IT infrastructure. The service provider is responsible for ensuring the functionality, availability, and reliability of the client’s IT systems.
There are many types of managed IT services. Some providers specialize in managing cloud-based resources, hardware, network facilities, and others focus on consumer end-products such as websites and apps. But with all the various service providers, the goal is to relieve businesses of the burden of servicing, maintaining, and running IT resources. Here are some of the typical roles of managed IT providers:
How do businesses benefit from managed IT services?
Here are some of the most attractive benefits of outsourcing your IT services to a managed IT services provider.
Cost savings
Information technology resources are a hefty investment, and investments are all about ROI. A managed IT service can be the best way to realize the full potential of your IT investment.
Unlike employees, managed IT providers are paid in either annual or monthly subscriptions. Hiring a managed IT service instead of an entire IT department can lower your labor costs profoundly. This also gets rid of redundant employees in your workforce. In addition, since you don’t have to train a managed IT provider, you save more money on onboarding costs and also time.
Access to professional IT services
Managed IT service providers are highly skilled and experienced professionals in their respective fields. And to be brutally honest, these are the kind of people you need operating your valuable and sophisticated IT systems. Some service providers, particularly in demanding and sensitive areas such as cloud computing, come with unique skills and internationally recognized certifications for service delivery. Such credentials are reassuring and let you know that your enterprise is in capable hands.
Improved IT efficiency and reliability
You never have to worry about things like server downtime and system failures with a managed IT service. This is especially essential if your business is entirely dependent on the full-time availability of your IT infrastructure. An e-commerce enterprise can suffer untold losses in just a few moments of downtime. Most managed services guarantee 100 percent service availability, and even have fall-back strategies in place should anything go wrong.
Reduced IT risks
Every day, businesses face the imminent threat of cybercriminals looking for every opportunity to exploit security loopholes in digital systems. Protecting your precious data and IT system should be your top priority. And not just because modern legislation demands it, but also to protect your business and customers.
A majority of businesses that fall victim to malicious cyber-attacks never fully recover. It’s a saddening prospect, but luckily, managed IT security services can help provide the much-needed cybersecurity. Many businesses look to managed IT services for compliance with data protection and privacy policies and also to safeguard their systems from misuse and unauthorized access.
Increased overall productivity
Information technology is directed at improving business productivity. Businesses use IT resources to collect, store, and process data efficiently and also to automate mundane and complex business processes. With a reliable, up-to-date, and adequately managed IT infrastructure, you can take full advantage of every ounce of processing power and a bit of memory at all times. Plus, it’s important to note that unreliable systems can be frustrating to both your employees and customers, which can be damaging to the reputation of your business.
What’s the bottom line?
It’s no use having an expensive IT facility if you can’t make proper use of it. Information technology performance is a critical competitive factor in the modern business environment, not to mention the efficiency and time-saving benefits of business automation. The only way to unlock the full power of your IT infrastructure is through care and maintenance.
Hiring a managed IT service not only guarantees exceptional system maintenance but also transforms your business by reducing the operational cost and guaranteeing the availability of essential IT services.
