When it comes to business IT support, there are a lot of various options out there. You could attempt to deal with it yourself, hire an in-house technician, contract a break/fix technician, or work with a managed IT services provider (MSP). All these options has its own pros and cons.
But within this blog post, we’ll tackle why you’re best partnering with an MSP to handle your company’s IT support requirements.
Guaranteed service levels
Before formalizing the relationships, most MSPs provide and allow you to sign a service level agreement (SLA). This document contains pertinent information like:
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- Duties and responsibilities of the MSP and also the client
- Specifics of the IT services that the MSP will provide (and what’s not included)
- How usually the MSP will provide these IT services (e.g., 24/7 IT support)
- Guaranteed response and resolution times
- Escalation procedures
The SLA is important because it protects both you and the MSP. It guarantees that the MSP will give you certain services inside a specific timeframe. This means that, for example, in case your network goes down or you’re experiencing any other type of IT issue, you know someone will be exist for you resolve the issue as quickly as possible. And because MSPs normally have a group of IT professionals on staff, they are able to often resolve issues much faster than you could by yourself or with the help of a single in-house technician.
And when the MSP cannot meet their guaranteed service levels, you will find usually penalties in position. This enables you to relax understanding that you’re getting what you’re paying for which the MSP is held accountable for their actions.
Proactive maintenance and monitoring
An MSP proactively monitors your network, enabling these to quickly spot and immediately resolve potential problems before these cause any major disruptions to your business operations.
MSPs also conduct routine upkeep of your IT systems to keep these running optimally and prevent any costly unplanned downtime from unexpected equipment failure. They regularly patch software vulnerabilities increase your systems before hackers exploit these. By keeping your systems up to date and secure, you are able to avoid costly downtime and data breaches.
Improved employee productivity
Partnering by having an MSP can help enhance your company’s overall productivity. How? Well, if you have a dependable IT support team in your corner, you are able to avoid the stressful and time-consuming procedure for coping with IT issues on your own. This frees up your employees to pay attention to their core job duties helping keep everyone’s stress levels down.
Plus, if you have an MSP your network maintenance and monitoring, there is no doubt knowing that your IT systems will always be up and running optimally. This minimizes the chance of unexpected downtime helping keep the employees productive during the day.
Predictable IT cost
MSPs typically charge a flat monthly fee for his or her services, which gives you predictability and reassurance when it comes to your IT budget. Which means you won't have to bother with unexpected (and frequently expensive) break/fix bills.
Cost savings
Working by having an MSP will save you profit the long run. Since MSPs proactively monitor and keep your systems, they are able to help you avoid costly downtime and data breaches.
In addition, MSPs can frequently provide discounts on software, hardware, and other IT-related services and products. And because they have economies of scale, MSPs gets better deals from vendors than smaller businesses can.
Wide range of services
In accessory for the core services that most MSPs provide, such as 24/7 monitoring and maintenance, many MSPs offer an array of other IT-related services, including:
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- Help desk support
- Cloud computing
- Data backup and recovery
- Disaster prevention and recovery
- Security
- Virtualization
MSPs can also provide custom services which are specifically designed for your business. This means you could possibly get all the IT give you support need from one provider, that is easier and cost-effective than working with multiple vendors.
Scalability
MSPs possess the resources to scale up or down as the business needs change. For instance, if you notice a sudden influx of customers or clients, an MSP can quickly add more ability to your network to accommodate the elevated demand. And when you have to downsize for any reason, an MSP will help you reduce your IT costs by scaling back the help they offer.
You can also enjoy each one of these benefits should you partner having a reliable MSP, so be sure to carefully choose one for your company.
