In past blogs, we have discussed the “high level” reasons that managed services are a means to transformation. (Read: Utilizing Managed Services to Transform Your Environment) But to really understand the value, we need to dig into the benefits – cost savings, higher productivity, scalability, and enhanced security. Here are the top 7, in no particular order.
1. Low capital investment
Cloud-based managed services reduce infrastructure costs (hardware, software, networking, etc.). Cloud service models eliminate the need for businesses to fully invest in hardware, full suites of software packages and infrastructure tools. Businesses can access these resources as needed through the cloud. And managed services providers should offer the latest and greatest in infrastructure solutions.
2. Predictable monthly costs
Managed services are typically contracted at a fixed rate, either monthly or annually. Often a pay-as-you-go arrangement is available. A fixed payment means you know what you’re going to get and how much it’s going to cost over the contract. No unexpected upgrade charges or changes in charges. Most MSPs have repair and service work already built into the contract, along with the ongoing maintenance already taking place. A well-defined service agreement is critical.
3. More uptime, higher productivity
A managed services provider monitors your network 24/7/365 and will notify you immediately when a potential problem arises. This can be an invaluable feature because the earlier an issue is realized, the earlier it can be resolved. 24/7 monitoring allows for most issues to be realized and proactively resolved before they become major problems resulting in significant downtime.
4. More strategic in-house IT
Managed IT services are a cost effective method and more strategic way to manage your infrastructure. Utilizing managed services allows in-house IT staff to focus on more strategic objectives and process improvements.
For the small business just getting started, you may not need to hire IT staff in house. A MSP works as an extension of your team and can handle all of your IT needs, either on site or virtually. Having an IT department in house can be costly when you have a diverse infrastructure requiring many skill sets and levels of expertise.
A study conducted by CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the IT industry, finds that companies using IT managed services are seeing significant cost savings. According to the CompTIA study:
- 46 percent of managed IT service users have cut their annual IT costs by 25 percent or more.
- 50 percent of managed IT service users have cut their annual IT costs up to 24 percent.
In the same CompTIA study, more than 50 percent of the companies surveyed reported they use managed IT services so that they can free up their own internal staff to work on revenue-generating projects. Providing relief to over-worked and underutilized IT staff means that those strategic projects to enhance customer retention can be started. Also, this will also lead to higher job satisfaction for your IT staff. Companies using managed IT services are saving money up front and making money on the back end with more dedicated staff to work on business-related jobs. Not surprising that 62 percent of those surveyed by CompTIA said they plan to increase their commitment to managed services.
5. Ability to scale
With a MSP, you have a team of IT experts on hand to help solve IT problems as they arise, no matter how big or small. More importantly, when utilizing cloud services you can scale up and down as business processing demands fluctuate. Again, the pay-as-you-go feature is nice for flexible work loads.
6. Enhanced security measures
Security is another benefit of using managed services. While resistance to managed services for many is due to the fear of having someone else manage data security, turning to a cloud-based security service provider can actually provide better security than in-house efforts. And there’s one simple reason for that, in most cases a security service provider has more and better security expertise on staff than you do.
7. An often overlooked benefit… Infrastructure Analytics
With managed services, it’s not just a flip of the switch and your MSP takes over your data center. Any credible, experienced service provider will conduct an in-depth analysis of your existing infrastructure prior to engagement. Full disclosure is your first step in cost savings and operational improvement.
The infrastructure analysis can identify:
- Low or high-level processor utilization
- Over-provisioned VM environment
- Inferior memory utilization of older server consolidations
- Workload balance issues
- Lack of adherence to CPU, memory and disk utilization specifications
- Firmware that falls short of current industry levels
- Lack of consistent fault tolerant systems and requirements review
- Ineffective in-house monitoring and managing of networks
Schedule a consultation today to learn more about how Flagship can make a difference for your business.
If you liked this blog, you might also like: To Manage or Not to Manage – That is the Question
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Flagship Solutions Group can deliver efficiencies across hybrid infrastructures with a broad range of capabilities. We offer clients theflexibility to select the degree of support they want for each layer of infrastructure — from basic monitoring and management to long-term arrangements based on an innovation path designed to replace an aging or inflexible infrastructure with new technology.
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