Managed Services Providers (MSPs) can significantly reduce costs while improving IT infrastructure management. Many SMEs struggle to afford large IT teams, relying on a few individuals to handle complex tasks. However, the rapid pace of technological advancements makes it tough for small teams to keep up. MSPs play a key role in efficiently managing IT, improving security, productivity, and reducing downtime, while cutting operational costs. Let’s explore MSP best practices that help companies achieve these outcomes.
1. Minimize the operational complexity
One of the key MSP best practices is to simplify IT operations by reducing complexity. A business involves several tasks to be handled by an IT department, such as IT infrastructure monitoring and maintenance, backup and recovery system, security and governance, etc. Too many things on a single plate can make things clumsy, complex, and inefficient. This situation also raises inefficient and burdensome business processes that reduce productivity. An overloaded internal IT department can be a road blocker to getting the maximum benefit of your expense on having an IT team.
Hiring an MSP can help you standardize your business processes, ensuring stable, long-term productivity by removing complexity. An MSP can take charge of your regular system monitoring and maintenance tasks, cybersecurity, backup system, etc. They follow standard processes and routines to minimize your operational complexity and maximum efficiency.
By enhancing focus on core business operations and outsourcing non-critical ones, businesses can be more productive and satisfy their customers better. Every company should focus their efforts on providing excellent services and products, which helps in revenue generation.
2. Advantage of reduced in-house IT management staff
Hiring additional new IT staff members is expensive. Besides the remunerations, companies need to spend extra bucks on the hiring process, training, and other perks. Training involves the expense of money plus time. When you partner with an MSP, you can get two advantages. First, you don’t have to hire internal staff for IT infrastructure management and experts for every cutting-edge technology. Second, usually, training remains included within the services package provided by MSPs. So, your in-house staff will get training on the latest technologies and methods of handling IT-related activities without additional costs. Additional perks of hiring MSPs instead of internal staff are:
- Your IT managers have to handle less number of overheads, which allows them to manage their team better and keep their work processes streamlined with other business operations.
- With a small team to focus on, your managers can ensure all IT processes are being carried out to their utmost potential. It will help in reducing money loss due to unintentional errors.
- The regular training facility will keep every team member up-to-date with all newly included tools and technologies and operational practices.
3. Managed IT Services help in reducing unexpected IT issues
MSP follows best practices in predicting and addressing IT challenges, ensuring downtime is minimized, and costs associated with unexpected IT issues are reduced. Managed IT services to disaster recovery problems, cloud computing transfers, CRM issues, etc., can provide the best possible solutions ASAP. They use a proactive approach to predict all potential challenges and help organizations to be ready with realistic solutions that help to eliminate downtime. For instance, MSPs always suggest maintaining a regular and efficient backup system. So, in case of accidental data loss, organizations will be able to recover maximum data.
It is wise to hire an MSP instead of going for a ‘break-fix vendor’. Break-fix vendors will fix a particular problem and charge you a one-time fee. That fixation cost can vary a lot depending on the complexity of the error. Moreover, they will not provide you with the continuous monitoring facility that an MSP can provide. On the other hand, MSPs can predict any IT issue quickly and accurately resolve it. So, a managed service contract investment will offer you a more efficient outcome than spending money on break-fix remedies.
4. Access to Premium Tools
Another essential aspect of MSP best practices is the access to the latest technology and tools, which can be vital for business growth. They can provide you required advice and help to incorporate the best technology and tools to influence your business growth. An MSP can provide you with adequate support to integrate tools and train your staff to utilize them. This support will allow your in-house teams to use them enough and get the optimal value.
A trusted MSP will help you acquire the best outcome of the cost you invest in having the latest infrastructure tools. They will also appoint the best talents to deploy and maintain them on your behalf.
5. Maximizes Uptime
Unplanned downtime is really frustrating, especially when you have important deliveries under process. Such sudden disruptions can derail the entire schedule and staff morale. It can also hamper your market reputation.
Recruiting MSPs can help you avoid such unplanned downtimes. Through their round-the-clock proactive preventative maintenance and monitoring system, they can detect anomalies and potential red flags before becoming actual issues. They also take necessary steps to prevent downtimes and save companies from time and money loss.
6. Improves your security
Security is a crucial aspect of today’s business environment. Every organization need a professional industry-grade security system to protect its business. Besides 27/7/365 monitoring your network and notifying you of threats in your system, your managed service partner also keeps your system updated with the latest security patches and remain compliant with regulations. An MSP takes all essential steps to protect your data from cyber threats, hackers, and data breaches.
7. Zero hardware/ software/ security investments required
If you plan to upgrade your infrastructure, your MSP can help you minimize capital expenditure to near zero. Your managed IT services partner can provide you with the latest and most relevant hardware, enterprise management software, servers, backup solutions, and security solutions to make your upgradation affordable.
Conclusion
An MSP can help you reduce your overall business expenditure in multiple ways. They focus on improving your business’ cost efficiency by reducing the internal workforce and improving work efficiency and productivity. Your managed IT services partner can also offer expert guidance on your current and future IT needs. They can help you get your desired infrastructure in affordable ways to drive the business results you want to see.
