What are Managed Services?

Outsourcing business functions isn’t a foreign concept for business owners. Business process outsourcing has been incredibly popular with companies ranging from Fortune 500s to startups over the last two decades. From accounting and legal work, to equipment maintenance, small businesses have been outsourcing for a long time. With technology being an essential business-enabler in current small business landscape, outsourcing this vital function makes a lot of sense for many businesses.

Managed Services are outsourced technology services. At its core, managed services are a technology department that you couldn’t otherwise afford. A managed service provider will have all manner of technology-focused employee on staff and at your disposal, for a monthly fee. Managed technology services include things like remote help desk, remote monitoring, cybersecurity, cloud back up, technology strategy consulting, infrastructure, application selection, license management, and more. Managed IT services transfers the burden of technology from your company to a third-party partner.

Benefits of Outsourcing IT Services

When you outsource your IT to a managed service provider, you’re getting a partner who will be there to ensure your technology is no longer a headache for you to handle in isolation.

Here are some of the top benefits:

Cost Control. All outsourced IT providers can afford you the advantage of offering a whole team of specialized experts for the same price of one in-house IT tech. Your an in-house IT person will have their strengths and weaknesses like anyone and won’t be able to offer the same quality and availability as an outsourced IT company can. We have worked with many in-house IT staff members who were competent, but they just lack the knowledge base and skill set of a larger integrated team that a Managed Service Provider could offer.

The potential cost savings is only the beginning of the cost control and reduction. When you work with a Managed Service Provider, you will also have access to applications and toolsets that would otherwise be quite expensive for you to implement. Your technology consultant will also work with you on a technology strategy built to help you reach your goals while keeping your technology up-to-date. Through your tech consultant, you will realize cost savings in many small places you may not have known existed.

According to Information Weekly, companies who choose to outsource save as much as 25% – 40% on technology costs.

Flexibility. A Managed Service Provider allows you a certain level of flexibility that you may not have otherwise. If you’re growing rapidly, a Managed Service Provider has the ability to scale your technology as you grow, with less growing pains. From onboarding new employees and ordering their hardware to scaling your infrastructure, adding more seats to your communications platform to updating your applications, it’s all taken care of so you can focus on growing your business.

Increase productivity. Instead of constantly having to be in IT firefighting mode, you can stay productive and focused on your business. If there is a problem, an outsourced provider, such as ZCloudNova, can minimize downtime so your employees can get back to work faster. ZCloudNova offers managed services to keep your business up and running. When you have more time for business, you’re able to focus on your goals knowing your technology is not only running smooth but supporting the same goals you’re working towards.

Increased productivity can also come in the form of the right selection of applications. Through your Managed Service Provider, your strategic consultant can take your goals, business alignment, and other details and match you with the right applications to ensure you and your employees have the right tools for the job. This could come in the form of implementing slack or Microsoft Teams for increased communication, Power BI for reporting and dashboards, and so much more.

Risk Management. When you outsource your IT, your technology risk is mitigated as your technology partner is there to help ensure your process risks are reduced.

Experienced staff. When you partner with a Managed Service Provider, you get an entire team of technology experts. From the C-level technology officers to the service desk members, the consultants and account managers to the onsite engineers, you’ll have a level of expertise even higher than most fortune companies. At ZCloudNova, our engineers and technicians are always up to date with the latest trends in technology. Among others, we are Cisco, Microsoft, Citrix and VMware certified, further fortifying our place as your IT solution provider choice. When you partner with a managed service provider, you add an entire team to your staff.

Level of Customer Service. When you partner with a Managed Service Provider, you’re partnering with a company who has a human resources team built around finding smart tech professionals who are also great with people. Managed Service Providers can afford to be picky on who they hire, able to ensure they find individuals who will provide an excellent level of customer service.

In the technology arena, turnover rates are really high, right now. If you rely on one or two internal people to take care of your technology, you could be left holding the bag. With ZCloudNova, you work with the same team without worrying if you’ll be left with no one to help with your technology.

Who Should Outsource?

ZCloudNova works with small-to-medium-sized businesses where businesses are typically becoming large enough that IT needs to be robust, organized, and a well-oiled machine. However, at this size, companies usually don’t have the resources to bring in enough competent full time IT people to really run the IT department successfully. For companies who are at that level, or approaching it. It’s time to consider outsourcing.

Companies that don’t want to staff an entire team of IT professionals and need to clean up their budget, Managed Services could be the right fit.

Companies that have a fantastic IT person who needs a little more support are also great candidates for outsourced IT. The reason is, your internal IT person knows your landscape intimately, but they may not have the capacity or skillset to take on the growing needs and demands of your company.

How Do You Know when it’s Time to Outsource?

This can be tricky. You might have a techy savvy person on your payroll who has been able to handle it up to this point. Although tech may not be their primary job function, they’ve been able to juggle their responsibilities with the few IT needs and requests that came in. You might even have a dedicated IT person who has managed just fine, as far as you’re concerned. For many businesses, however, there is this tipping point when it becomes too much for the internal staff to handle. It’s a moment where they decide to invest more in their internal team or to bring in a third-party, to either supplement the personnel they have, or take over completely.

If your technology has felt like a burden, a black hole, confusing, or overwhelming, it might be time to learn more about outsourcing. If your technology is hard to budget for and you’re not sure what you need to support your team, it might be time to learn more about outsourcing.

Locally Outsourced IT

Locally outsourced IT has many benefits, including contributing to your local economy. Beyond that, if many locally outsourced managed IT companies offer on-site services, meaning, one of their engineers spends time at your office at regular intervals or as needed. This allows you the benefit of having that person in-house that you can come to with your issues. A locally outsourced tech provider will never be too far away to come in an emergency, either.

The benefits of outsourcing IT are plentiful. From the cost savings realized to the team of experts, it can’t get much better! If you’re interested in learning more about managed services, contact us!