Your company’s IT infrastructure is indispensable for business collaboration and continuity. Properly managing the IT department allows employee operations to streamline their responsibilities more efficiently, helping to develop a productive work environment.
However, supervising your IT department employs companies that outsource managed IT services to cover a wide array of the infrastructure’s parts, from backup to security. Recent PwC research shows how businesses that adopt managed IT services outperform their competition since they access talent and technology while reducing costs and driving innovation.
Employing managed IT services will enhance your business model by introducing opportunities for network collaboration, value chain dynamics and customer co-creation. Therefore, innovation can easily be achieved by approaching these services. Unfortunately, you may face several challenges on the way, so here’s how providers solve them.
Incompatibility with your company’s IT infrastructure
Although we live in the internet era, many companies still lack digital literacy, leaving them behind in tech developments and requirements to compete. Therefore, their infrastructures are lacking, hindering complete compatibility with the managed IT service provider. However, outdated technology is holding back innovation.
These companies need advice for developing a holistic culture of technology and continuous support for standardizing processes. In most cases, managed service providers can ensure guidance towards this goal, especially if the company’s success stands in this aspect. If you’re looking for an MSP in Los Angeles, make sure the services include approach cybersecurity, a 24/7 IT help desk and cost-effective solutions if you’re an SMB. These factors will ensure a seamless migration experience.
Misaligned support and communication
Navigating the migration, implementation, and maintenance process, as well as constant upgrades of your IT department, isn’t easy, especially considering the different approaches between companies and providers. However, you must trust the MSP because even if they operate remotely, they can hop you on the latest industry trends of regulatory compliance and cybersecurity measurements.
Unfortunately, not all teams can work together adequately, which is why you must research MSP
in your area thoroughly before deciding on one. It’s best to take your time, and if a provider aligns with your company culture, your teams must also be flexible enough to learn and implement the newness in the IT department. For instance, experts at Cyberduo leverage a straightforward workflow and value fast communication, which is essential to developing projects.
Mishandling of IT environments
Regardless of the industry in which your business thrives, you use various gadgets and technologies to get the job done, including computers, laptops, and even IoT devices. These ecosystems hold a vast amount of data essential for the company, which teams should always keep organized. Still, handling such massive databases isn’t easy, leading to mistaken data handling during migration.
This is known as data sprawl, which happens when SaaS systems store a lot of data that your IT department must handle. Otherwise, data sprawl can lead to non-compliance and security breaches, which is why an MSP benefits the company. It can help manage data accordingly so you can avoid cybersecurity risks and unnecessary databases.
Managed IT services serve multiple purposes
Managed IT services are broad and may seem confusing to departments, but they can pinpoint the exact problem of a company since they target multiple areas, such as the following:
- Remotely manage servers, workstations and mobile devices;
- Provide on-site IT services, such as cabling or installation;
- Assess cloud services, such as consulting or migration;
- Provide communication services, whether uptime messages or VoIP licenses;
- Monitor hardware and offer updates and support of printing products;
Of course, these are only a few of the things managed IT services can do as their areas of expertise expand to multiple company needs. That’s why the benefits are considerable, and more businesses are adopting them.
Why do companies assess managed IT services?
Companies who value performance are using managed IT service partnerships as a strategic advantage over the competition, as they provide the following benefits:
- Close the skill gap in the company by introducing expertise and experience;
- Deliver services and IT assistance seamlessly;
- Improve IT productivity through counseling or assistance suggestions;
- Help save money through variable cloud expenditures;
- Ensure 24/7 IT infrastructure support;
At the same time, outsourcing your IT infrastructure needs will compensate for the time spent assessing these tasks, and you’ll be able to focus on other company needs, such as product development or marketing the brand image, which is as important as the IT department.
Be wary of inefficient MSP vendors
Collaborating with an MSP partner might seem easy as they come with expertise and knowledge, but you must work together to ensure a seamless experience. Look out for these red flags of an MSP provider:
- Their service-level agreement (SLA) terms are vague and not well-implemented, making them difficult to work with when it comes to sharing metrics or system data;
- They don’t pay attention to your company’s needs, so their strategic planning lacks vision, meaning their contribution to the IT infrastructure will be meaningless;
- They don’t have prior experience in the market, which downgrades their abilities to adapt services depending on the company culture and requirements;
- Their lack of cybersecurity expertise is evident, which will expose your business to cyberattacks, considering their operations will dwell in your systems;
- They’re not fully transparent with costs and expenditures needed for every operation agreed on, leading to various disagreements;
Have you considered working with an MSP for your business?
A managed IT service provider can greatly benefit your company’s systems by enhancing data organization and employing cybersecurity. Outsourcing this service has become more common among businesses as they find it useful in navigating innovation and development while focusing on the company’s other needs. At the same time, organizations choose MSP services to close the skill gap and save money, as expertise is brought in and expenditures on hardware and software are better assessed. However, be wary of certain signs when choosing a provider because not all have experience in cybersecurity or are willing to adapt their processes per your business needs.