Benefits of Managed IT Services

Managed IT services allow a business to delegate their IT operations to a third-party team of experts (MSPs) for a fixed monthly fee. The exact responsibilities of an MSP are usually specified in a service-level agreement (SLA).

And the global market for managed services is expected to grow by $150 billion over the next 5 years.

With many businesses considering outsourcing their IT, here are seven benefits of IT managed services and why managed services may be right for your business.

Top 8 Benefits of Managed IT Services

1. Reliable Network Performance

According to Gartner, IT downtime costs an average of $300,000 per hour. While this varies depending on the type of business, most organizations agree it’s over six figures.

Even if you have internal IT staff, they can often get overburdened with issues or lack the resources that are necessary to resolve IT challenges.

MSPs work in conjunction with your internal IT team to determine which tasks can be handled in-house, and what should be managed externally. This collaborative approach helps alleviate the burden from the internal team, better equipping them to resolve issues going forward.

Studies show that switching to an MSP can reduce total network and server downtime by over 85%.

2. Stringent Security

The way we communicate, work, and do business has undergone a drastic transformation in the last 10-15 years. Remote access has become a standard, allowing us to stay connected through a variety of desktop and mobile devices.

While this has numerous advantages, it also comes with increased security risks. The way we store and access sensitive data makes businesses vulnerable, especially ones that are not up-to-date on the latest cybersecurity trends.

Security breaches are not only financially crippling, but companies can face lawsuits, revoked licenses, and a damaged reputation as a result.

An experienced MSP can provide around-the-clock network monitoring, a multi-layered cybersecurity strategy, and the latest software to protect your most important assets.

3. Return on Investment

According to an IDC study, organizations spent an average of $274,326 per 100 users on a leading service provider. They saw a return on that amount within 6 months and a 224% ROI over a three-year period.

With stats like that, it’s hard to deny the advantages of managed services.

4. Proactive Maintenance

The last thing any business owner needs when trying to grow their company is a distraction caused by tedious network issues. While infrastructure integrity is vital, a CEOs’ time and energy are better spent elsewhere.

An external MSP can utilizes teams and toolsets to provide:

• Patch management
• Security updates
• Constant threat detection
• System and data backup
• Maintenance requirements
• Performance monitoring and optimization
• Real-time tracking to detect emerging threats and concerns

Managed IT support keeps your business on the front foot, resolving most bugs and network issues before they even become a concern.

5. Quick Response Times

UC Irvine estimates that it takes an average of 23 minutes to focus back on a task following a distraction.

When your employees are interrupted by minor technical issues, it’s detrimental for the business to have them waiting for help or going back and forth with the support team.

IT Services vs. IT Consulting: What's the Difference?

 IT Services Are Less Strategy-Based Than IT Consulting

When you sit down with an IT consultant, it’s for the purposes of creating or upgrading your company’s tech strategy. You’ll have a short-term or long-term plan with many elements that must be achieved, and your IT consultant will work with you until you check off every last one of your boxes. 

Compare that to IT services. These services can be about creating a strategy, especially when you use IT consulting in the realm of IT services, but not all the time. For the most part, when you train your staff on a new software, that’s not really part of an overarching strategy. It’s mostly so your employees can continue to work productively.

That’s not to say IT services aren’t involved in IT consulting as part of your strategy, as that can most certainly happen. Data security measures and cloud computing are two areas where that’s especially true. Just as easily though, if you need helpdesk assistance because your computer’s Wi-Fi is down, that’s an IT service and not really considered part of a strategy. As you can see then, it can go both ways.  

An IT Consulting Plan Lays the Groundwork, Whereas IT Services Bring the Plan to Life

IT consultants are trained in areas like technical language and advisory language, but they’re more business-minded than experts at tech. Areas of management and communications are where they mostly excel. Thus, while they can certainly help you plan what your IT strategy may look like and oversee the progress of your strategy, they cannot always carry out every last element of said strategy.

For example, through the guidance of your IT consultancy firm, you may realize that your company needs cloud computing because your computers are old and your hard drives are full. Or perhaps your consultant suggests data security after several breaches have affected your company within the past year. 

Rather than always supplying those services themselves, your IT consultants may work with third parties, such as freelance IT services, to get you the services you need. If you used IT services for IT consultancy, they could both create a plan for you and carry out the aspects of that plan, as we mentioned. 

IT Consultants May Be More Limited in What They Can Do

The above shows then how IT consultants cannot necessarily do every duty necessary to achieve your company’s tech advancement plan. This limit may be due to having more business than tech skills, which is the case for some (but not all) IT consultancy firms. 

That said, while they can’t do it all, IT consultants can always point you in the direction of someone who can, and a trusted firm or individual at that. 

IT Consultancy Is More About Building Relationships

The last area in which IT consultants and IT services differ is in their level of relationship building. 

An IT consultant must establish a good working relationship with you, the client. This bond should be cordial and warm, as you need a positive rapport with your consultant. After all, they want to be the person you call when you have a tech question or concern, not a third-party IT services pro. 

If the relationship between you and the consultant is rocky, then not only will you not want to reach out to them when you need help, but you’ll discount the help they try to give. As things continue to sour, you’ll wonder why you hired the consultant in the first place. You may just discontinue using their services.

That’s not to say that IT services don’t involve building professional relationships, as they can. If you have one trusted IT pro at your company or a small team you rely on, then you of course want to be able to trust in them with all your tech problems. You’ll also expect that they’ll be available when you most need them.

However, IT services don’t depend on building relationships to the extent that IT consultants do.