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An increasing number of businesses are looking to outsource their IT support needs to managed service providers \u2013 dedicated IT support services who specialise in providing tech support for businesses who can\u2019t \u2013 or don\u2019t want to \u2013 manage their IT in-house.<\/p>\n
Like most business decisions, there\u2019s no right or wrong answer in terms of whether a managed service provider is going to be ideal for your business \u2013 but there are a few questions that could lead you toward the right answer for you.<\/p>\n
Here, we\u2019ve listed a handful of IT considerations businesses have, and provided a few details about how a managed service provider could help you tackle the issue at hand \u2013 and how they might compare to the in-house IT team alternative\u2026<\/p>\n
Finding the right core staff for your business is often difficult \u2013 and that\u2019s with the experience you already have in your chosen sector.<\/p>\n
Recruitment becomes a double-problem when you\u2019re looking to take on specialists that lie outside your realm of experience \u2013 and, for most people, IT is firmly out of their comfort zone. What should you be looking for from network engineers? Does an IT manager<\/a> need the same skills as other managers? What kind of experience should your candidates be displaying? How much should you be paying for an in-house team?<\/p>\n The questions are endless \u2013 and you stand to make mistakes before you get it right. If you want a short-cut to a team that will deliver exactly what you\u2019re looking for, a managed service provider is a great alternative to rolling up your sleeves and trying to recruit a team. A managed provider has an experienced team already in place \u2013 and they\u2019ve been put there by someone who knows exactly what\u2019s needed to deliver an outstanding service for your business.<\/p>\n Of course, taking on a contractor or third party company to deliver a service for you always represents something of a risk \u2013 but with an IT network provider, that\u2019s enormously reduced \u2013 and it\u2019s all down to the way they agree their services.<\/p>\n Your business requirements are unlike any other company\u2019s \u2013 so there\u2019s no off-the-shelf package or price that\u2019s going to immediately meet your needs. Instead, working with a managed service provider will involve sitting down and talking about exactly what you do \u2013 and what you need to support those processes and systems.<\/p>\n When you have a mutual understanding \u2013 your service provider will commit to the support they can provide by putting together an \u2018SLA\u2019 \u2013 or \u2018Service Level Agreement\u2019<\/a>. This document will, essentially, be a contract that outlines what they\u2019ll do for you \u2013 and what you\u2019ll pay in return.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve got systems that just can\u2019t fail \u2013 or sites that must be connected at all times; this is the place you\u2019ll outline exactly what you expect. These are just examples \u2013 and a good managed service provider will help you work out what you needs are \u2013 but when they\u2019re committed to an agreement \u2013 that\u2019s exactly what you\u2019ll get, meaning you can rest easy knowing your IT systems are fully looked after.<\/p>\n The service level agreement we\u2019ve just covered doesn\u2019t just cover what you\u2019ll get from the managed service provider \u2013 it outlines they cost they\u2019ll expect from you \u2013 and this is both important and reassuring for businesses.<\/p>\n When you\u2019ve got an in-house team, there\u2019s every chance you\u2019re going to come up against problems that require some outside support. Inevitably, outside support comes with a price tag \u2013 so your in-house team are somewhat limited by their current level of experience \u2013 and your budget is far from protected.<\/p>\n With a managed service provider, you\u2019ve got a team who have made a commitment to keep your systems running in the way you need them to. If that means they need to commit extra resources or seek outside help, that\u2019s their issue to deal with \u2013 and won\u2019t impact your monthly payment.<\/p>\n As you\u2019re already undoubtedly aware, a predictable cashflow is vital when you\u2019re running a small to medium sized business \u2013 so this kind of predictable cost is a big feather in the cap of the managed service providers.<\/p>\n The increasing popularity of managed service providers owes a lot to huge steps forward in cloud-computing and an increased business interest in software-defined wide area networks (SD WAN)<\/a>.<\/p>\n Both of these technological developments allow managed service providers to configure, monitor, maintain and manage your network remotely; often predicting issues and making changes before they\u2019re needed.<\/p>\n This represents a significant benefit for managed service providers when compared to in-house teams. Quite simply, an in-house team is unlikely to be able watch your IT network around the clock \u2013 at least, without significant staffing spend on your behalf. A managed service provider, however, is going to be able to keep virtual hands on your network around the clock \u2013 and that can prevent issues before they happen.<\/p>\n If you\u2019d prefer your Monday morning to involve an email from your service provider telling you about an issue they\u2019ve helped you avoid \u2013 instead of an email from IT saying your systems are down, the finding a managed network provider who\u2019s got the means to stay one step ahead of problems could be an enormous investment in your company.<\/p>\n As we stated at the very beginning \u2013 there\u2019s no right or wrong answer as to whether a managed service provider is going to be right for your company. Some companies prefer to keep IT in-house \u2013 and that\u2019s fine \u2013 although it is almost always the more costly option.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re not sure about whether a managed provider could meet your needs \u2013 or you\u2019d simply like to get an idea of price to hold up next to recruitment projections, then seeking some recommendations is a good next step. Look for a provider who deals with companies of your size \u2013 and, possibly, companies in your sector. Most service providers will be delighted to meet with you entirely free of charge \u2013 and discuss whether or not your companies would be a be a good working fit moving forward\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An increasing number of businesses are looking to outsource their IT support needs to managed service providers \u2013 dedicated IT support services who specialise in providing tech support for businesses who can\u2019t \u2013 or don\u2019t want to \u2013 manage their IT in-house. Like most business decisions, there\u2019s no right or wrong answer in terms of… Is a Managed Service Provider a Good Fit for Your Business?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":4202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4201"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4203,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4201\/revisions\/4203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How do you know you\u2019re getting the right service for you?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Can you predict your IT costs?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Do you handle IT issues proactively \u2013 or reactively?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What\u2019s right for you?<\/strong><\/h2>\n