Imagine this: Your IT team is bogged down by many support requests and is failing at resolving them in a timely manner. The network is slow, but your IT team can’t face it due to the support requests that they must manage first. On top of it all, they need to troubleshoot applications that they barely have expertise on. You start looking for an on-call IT support consultant but is only available at their most convenient time. And the cycle repeats time and again…
Sounds familiar? This scenario is very common among small to medium businesses. It’s because SMBs recognize the importance of having a healthy IT environment but is challenged by either finding the right talent or cost of hiring. These hurdles can be resolved by turning to a managed service provider (MSP) and here are some of the top reasons why:
#1 Cost savings and predictable monthly spend
The cost of hiring a full-time highly specialized IT support professional with monthly salary and benefits are typically more expensive than partnering with a managed service provider. MSPs can provide you with fixed monthly service fee for a more predictable IT spend. Best of all, you can count on round the clock IT support, that will be far more expensive to replicate in-house.
#2 Proactive and innovative approach to IT support
MSPs have far greater experience with providing user support, following established framework on IT service management. They have service level agreements (SLA) and escalation procedures that they adhere to which you can rely on to provide you with the support that you need at the time you need it the most. MSPs can share best practices, IT strategies and sound technical and business approaches to IT support. Even if your business is small, you deserve to have access to this wealth of knowledge to ensure a healthy and secure IT environment.
#3 Quick recovery in cases of a disaster.
Any small business that manages its own IT environment know that backing up your data can be challenging without the tools, skills or resources to effectively perform it. Recovering data if your system crashes down or in an event of a cybersecurity incident is an expensive service to pay for and can be unsuccessful at times. MSPs ensure that your business data is always backed up and recoverable.
#4 Instant access to specialized and knowledgeable professionals.
MSPs have a dedicated team of in-house experts who live and breathe the application or systems that they support. Unlike an on-call IT consultant that most SMBs typically hire to complement their internal team, MSPs have a diverse set of specialists that can cover application support, security, network and infrastructure and more. They can help fill the skills gap you may currently have, without having to hire full-time employees.
Do you replace your existing IT team with a MSP?
This is perhaps the most common misconception and mostly feared by in-house IT personnel. MSPs are not intended to replace an existing IT team but rather, to complement them with skills and expertise that they currently do not have. MSPs can help minimize or even eliminate the endless cycle of handling overwhelming support requests. They can provide your current IT pool with the opportunity to focus on more
revenue-generating and strategic projects for the company.
What now?
Bottomline is, working with a MSP is a win-win situation for both the business and your people. You take advantage of the business benefits while your IT team can pursue more strategic initiatives.
MSPs such as Systema Solutions has been servicing SMBs to provide round the clock support services at very competitive rates.
You can check our Managed Service offerings here for more information or you can contact us here to learn how we can help.