In a tech-driven business world, staying on top of your IT infrastructure is a job in itself. A job that requires time, knowledge and constant attention. As a busy manager or business owner, you’re focused on success in your industry and need to dedicate all your attention on realising that success. You don’t have time to take on your business IT responsibilities too.
That’s where a Managed Service Provider steps in. An MSP becomes your off-site IT team, coordinating and running all your IT systems and networks. Their professionalism, knowledge and technical expertise become tools for your organisation. Tools that help achieve your goals in many ways, from impacting your bottom line to ensuring seamless client communications.
Today we’re going to look at ways in which an MSP helps you achieve your business goals. A good managed IT services provider will be involved in more than just your IT. They become your business partner, fundamentally engaged with the success of your organisation and determined to facilitate it. They help you kick business goals. Here’s how.
Performance Monitoring
Using high-end and reliable remote monitoring software like Connectwise Automate, an MSP will be able to monitor your endpoints, network and computers. This allows them to see when IT performance is being adversely affected, allowing for prompt action to rectify the situation. As the software is remote, a technician doesn’t have to be present on site, and issues can often be fixed without anyone coming to your office.
With performance monitoring, problems are usually picked up on before they affect the running of your business. This leads to a significant reduction in downtime, so the stellar service you provide your customers isn’t negatively affected at all.
Reallocate Resources
Before signing up with an MSP, a large portion of your working life may have been committed to ‘putting out fires’ in your tech space. When something goes wrong, problem solving and troubleshooting are suddenly your responsibility, and you have to assign the necessary resources to overcoming the issue.
With a managed service provider on your side, the IT issue becomes their problem, not yours. This reduces the strain on your team, your resources and your time.
As your IT partner an MSP will also be able to strategise with you on how to effectively use your IT assets and resources in the pursuit of your business goals. IT projects are effectively executed, allowing you to divert precious resources to other areas of the company where they can be used for business growth.
Up to Date IT Assets
When you have the latest versions of your IT infrastructure assets on hand, you can be assured of heightened reliability and security. An MSP will always ensure updates are installed and hardware replaced if required, saving you the time and effort of not only remembering to update but also performing the update itself.
A managed service provider also brings its own set of cutting-edge technology to the table. By putting this to work for your business, you avoid the massive cost of purchasing it yourself. Additionally, you can rest assured they will maintain this technology of theirs to the latest version.
As your trusted partner, your MSP will also ensure compliance of your organization to the industry specific laws and regulations that apply. This is a very important legal consideration that is often overlooked by companies undertaking their own IT management.
Cybersecurity for Peace of Mind
One of the most important functions an MSP provides is high-level cyber security and protection from online threats. Businesses are particularly vulnerable to the attention of hackers simply because they have so much at stake. Client data, company information, stakeholder information and operation details, amongst much more, needs to be protected at all costs.
With a good MSP you can enjoy multiple layers of cybersecurity protection, giving you and your team complete peace of mind. Robust defences like firewalls, anti-virus applications, two-factor authentication, password management, network monitoring and filtering all work together to keep your data and processes safe.
In the event of some kind of breach or disaster, your MSP will have cloud based and other backups of your data and applications. This means resumption of normal activities and operations can resume within a short timeframe.
Cost Efficiencies
When it comes down to running costs, having a managed service provider as your business IT partner makes a lot of financial sense. Not only do you save on the massive outlays of equipment costs, but you also don’t have to pay the salaries of full time IT staff.
MSP’s operate on a fixed monthly payment, where you get a predetermined amount of services for a specified cost. This is extremely useful for budgeting purposes. You will also find you waste less money with IT downtime, and less expenses are spent on recovery. Financial benefits really do create a strong case for enlisting an MSP.
Brisbane managed service provider Smile IT has successfully provided managed IT services to businesses across Australia for many years now. If you’re got any questions about how our business IT solutions can help you achieve your organisational goals, please get in touch. We have a team of tech experts waiting to help, and we’d love to talk about being your trusted IT business partner.
When he’s not writing tech articles or turning IT startups into established and consistent managed service providers, Peter Drummond can be found kitesurfing on the Gold Coast or hanging out with his family!