IT Managed Services Are the Best Choice for Most Upscale Businesses and Individual Entrepreneurs
Every company needs a sound information technology infrastructure to ensure it functions effectively and without frequent breakdowns and interruptions. To achieve this, most companies these days prefer to outsource their IT departments rather than invest heavily in setting up and maintaining their own. There are different packages one can opt for when outsourcing.
For example, a company can choose managed services or opt for hourly packages or even ad hoc services. Managed services are outsourced IT support services on a retainer for a fixed duration, mostly based on annual contracts.
Responsibility for IT Management Systems
When you opt for managed services, the entire IT infrastructure, and support services fall under their responsibility. This includes help desk support, reactive visits, proactive maintenance, and troubleshooting day-to-day user IT problems. By outsourcing your IT support services, for one, you can be assured your service providers are equipped with in-depth knowledge of the latest software, hardware, and processes.
However, you must ensure you have outsourced to a reputable and qualified IT support made up of expert consultants. Also, if you intend to set up an in-house IT department, the cost could be rather high. Also, very often, your in-house employees may not be abreast of the latest developments. It may not be effectively able to handle all your company’s IT needs. In view of this, you may have to deal with downtime while the employee tries to figure out the problem when something shuts down. You can then incur extra costs if you call in another person to do the job.
Benefits of Outsourcing
When you outsource to managed IT support, the experts monitor your system around the clock. Thus, there is less of a chance that a major problem will occur. You also enjoy only one single point of contact for all IT related needs and support issues. This will enable your company to save time, money and resources by not having to deal with multiple vendors and hiring additional IT support staff.
Managed IT also provides you with a team of experts in multiple knowledge areas, enabling you to access the latest IT solutions at a cost you can afford. Online security is more important to a business than ever with companies now accepting many forms of payment. These include credit cards, gift cards, debit cards, e-checks and more.
With the number of breaches and hacking that go on, your business needs up-to-date firewalls and security standards. This is often too much for a company to handle on their own. Therefore, managed IT support means your company will be reducing the risk associated with credit card numbers, client data, and other sensitive information that is meant to be private.
IT Managed Services – Edge Over Ad Hoc Services
Similar to managed services, hourly IT managed services is based on a retainer concept defined by a fixed amount of man-hours. If you opt for this arrangement, you would need to estimate the amount of IT support servicing man-hours you might need for your company as services are charged based on man-hours.
Ad hoc services, on the other hand, differs from the first two models as this is not on a retainer. Ad hoc support may be ideal when it is just a small operation. You pay for what you use when you use it, and there is nothing complicated about your operations. Their charges are mostly based on an hourly rate or even the scale and complexity of the ad hoc task. Once they have resolved the identified problems, their job is complete.
