‘Managed Services’ as a term is often confused with the much aligned term ‘outsourcing’. We’re not talking about shifting your operations overseas just to cut costs or firing your trained, in-house staff for cheap labor. We’re talking about hiring a specialist to help manage the many moving pieces of your IT infrastructure so you can stay focused on the big picture of running your business.
There’s a growing trend in businesses of all sizes to relocate some of their internally run business operations. What’s causing the big push for people to give up control of their more operational functions? Here are a few factors driving the shift.
Time Spent Wisely, Not Wastefully.
Business owners fear giving up control of their operations because no one can run their business like they can, right? But smart decision makers know when they are wasting time, not investing it. You may be pretty handy when it comes to printer problems and computer glitches, but what activities are you not getting to while you’re spending time fixing your hardware malfunctions? Managed Print and Managed Service Providers can monitor your systems remotely for performance issues, keep them running longer through regular maintenance, order supplies, and respond to help desk calls so you don’t have to. As a business owner, freeing up your time to focus on strategic decision-making is a good thing.
If you have an in-house IT staff, allowing some of the functions they are responsible for to be moved off-site can free them up to make your systems and networking more efficient. It allows them to be more proactive when it comes to growth and expansion instead of reactive.
From an article quoting Carolyn April, Senior Director, Industry Analysis, at CompTIA on CIO.com, “It elevates the IT staff and brings them out of the shadows within the organization. It allows them to focus on a custom app dev project or cloud initiative — something highly strategic.”
“That also highlights that the reasons that organizations turn to MSPs have begun to change. In the past, cost savings were seen as the primary benefit of MSPs. Now cost benefits are considered table stakes and customers are looking for additional benefits like generating revenue and helping the company become more efficient. Even security has evolved from being considered a roadblock to using MSPs to a reason for doing so. Companies have shifted their views over security as it has become clear that security problems are often the result of human error by internal staff.”
Security Concerns Are Growing
Every day there are more reports of new security breaches on networks both small and enterprise-sized. Cyber crime is not going to slow down as our interconnected world keeps expanding. Ransomware, Wi-Fi Attacks, constantly evolving malware, internal security breaches are becoming commonplace problems. Monitoring, getting ahead of, and responding to these constantly evolving threats is a full-time job, maybe even several full-time jobs. MSPs are specialists in security. They stay up-to-date on all the threats to your network, and they keep your security systems updated too.
Increased Adoption and Understanding
Monkey see, monkey do. As more businesses realize the potential gains they get from handing over the reigns on some of their IT functions, their counterparts and competitors do the same.
Using Managed Services isn’t about giving up control of your business. It’s about leveraging your time to take control of your business and focus on growing it in a strategic way. When you’re ready to consider Managed Services, contact the experienced providers at Great Lakes Computer.
