Maximizing Business Efficiency: How to Find the Perfect Managed IT Services Partner

 

In today's technological era, organizations are becoming aware of their growing IT needs. Therefore, they turn to managed IT services to manage IT elements with the cooperative efforts of service providers and the internal IT department. 

There's no doubt that managed IT services providers have been around for a long time, but their recognition has been a bit slower. 

Benefits Of Managed IT Services

Today, with the growing awareness, businesses have not only grown accustomed to these services, but are turning to them to manage many IT functions, especially those related to customer relationship management applications, email hosting, network monitoring, system security, IP telephony, backup, to recovery and storage. 

With the help of IT outsourcing services, your business can gain several benefits, some of which have been discussed below:

Adapt Latest Technology

Managed IT services providers use advanced technologies and equipment for clients to provide the best possible services. 

The constant upgrading of IT services takes place without any additional cost being charged to the client in order to avoid any financial risk. Service providers ensure that you never have to worry about outdated managed IT services.

Reduced Capital Expenditure

There is no doubt that the investment in software and hardware is expensive, but the service providers deliver superior solutions to customers that are equally reliable. 

Usually, monthly payment plans are fixed, which means the customer knows what they are going to get and how much it would cost over the course of the agreement. No additional charges, including upgrade or change charges, are experienced by customers.

Adaptable Services

Almost all IT outsourcing companies are flexible and offer pay-as-you-go plans to help businesses grow quickly when they need or save costs when they need to improve revenue.

Combined Services

Most IT services are delivered over a single combined connection to save infrastructure costs. Additional productivity and efficiency benefits are also available so that remote staff  can work from home and can access data and voice applications just like head office.

Flexible, Solid And Secure Infrastructure

No one can deny from this fact that compared to the IT department of the company, the network infrastructure and data centers of managed IT services provider’s are much stronger. Management operates the infrastructure 24 hours with standard government procedures.

Service Competence

The staffs from managed IT services providers are specialists in their fields. As some skills are never used again, they provide competent services to companies to help save costs that may be incurred in providing training to in-house employees. 

Basically, IT service providers spend huge amounts on infrastructure which is backed by a 24 hours technical and operational group.

Easy Control

By getting the services from managed IT services vendors,, you can easily control servers and applications from inside managed data centers.
This will allow you to improve the performance of employees, regardless of where they are. If you have access to data centers integrated inside the network, you will be able to access virtual services, backup infrastructure and storage.

Improved Service Levels

Usually, IT departments provide control over performance and service level agreement, which allows you to be sure of the consistency and continuity of the services.

Business Stability And Disaster Recovery

To remain trusted and the best managed IT service provider in the eyes of customers, proper service delivery is essential for these companies. 

Service providers have strong, reliable, flexible, available and redundant data centers and networks to maintain business continuity. Whatever data you want to secure, a managed IT services vendor will keep your data safe. 

How To Find The Right Managed IT Services Provider?

For small and medium-sized businesses, setting up and maintaining a stable, high-performance IT environment can be a real headache. 

In addition to the difficulties in attracting the best profiles, the smallest of these companies generally have to deal with an IT department. And yet, these companies cannot ignore their IT needs. Today, to stay in the race, technology is essential to them.

Also, to overcome these difficulties, SMEs call on managed IT services provider to help them support their infrastructures, and for good reason: managed IT services allow them to overcome deficiencies internally at a lower cost than the salary of a full-time employee. 

There are tons of IT outsourcing companies that offer the same service. So, the question is, how do you choose the right managed IT services provider?  At first glance, all managed IT service providers look alike. But if you dig a little deeper, you will see the differences. Here, 

Managed Services Vs. IT Technical Support

Some companies seek out a managed IT services agreement when all they need is a technical support partner. The nuance between the two types of benefits is often blurred. Here is a quick way to help you choose:

IT Technical Support 

In IT, you can purchase the technical support services in hourly packs. You can request for this service in the context of projects or in the event of problems with your IT environment.

Managed IT Services

On the other hand, managed IT services are provided under the terms of a service level agreement (SLA). The managed IT services provider will take over certain recurring maintenance tasks.
From the customer's point of view, the MSP represents an extension of the management of information systems.

Choose The Right Managed IT Services Provider 

To choose the type of service your business needs, you need to define who you want to entrust with responsibility for your IT environment. 

If you want your internal team to keep control and for some reasons, simply call for a consultant for emergencies to get technical support service. Otherwise, managed IT services is likely to be the best solution for your company to manage your whole IT operations.

So, if you're looking for a managed IT service provider, you must take time to carefully evaluate, and keep the following points in mind:

• Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Meeting the unique needs of each IT environment requires the right managed services agreement. Any managed service provider worth its salt should therefore focus on shaping and customizing its contractual conditions to compensate for the shortcomings of your internal team. 

Nothing prevents you from having an excellent network administrator, and soliciting a second pair of eyes to monitor the performance of your applications.

• Excellent Understanding 

A good managed IT service provider understands that half of what is asked of them is technical, while the other half is customer service. 

• Clearly Defined Policy 

You need to find a managed IT services vendor that will take the time to explain their customer support policy, service level agreements, and communication strategy to your team.
Some customers want monthly or even weekly meetings to cover any major issues and be guided for further operations.

• Communication

What is your goal? Facilitate the establishment of an open and transparent relationship with the managed IT services provider. 

If you are going to entrust them with the keys to your IT environment, make sure beforehand that the communication channels are in place and wide open.

• Incident Notification And Escalation Procedures 

Don't assume that your managed IT service provider will deliver timely alerts that affect your environment. Ask thm, you plan to choose to define the alert procedure. They must also have formalized an escalation procedure. Nobody is perfect. Also, don't be surprised if your MSP isn't able to deal with a particular issue right away. 

What is the contingency plan in this type of scenario? Ask them to describe their escalation process and insist that it be written down in the contract. 

• Experience And Certifications

It may be worth looking at the certifications, awards, and years of experience of a potential managed IT service vendor. As mentioned above, half of the work is related to customer service, the other remains technical. 

One of the main advantages of a managed services agreement is to allow your company to benefit from the experience of excellent IT professionals. So, look for provider who will impress you with their technical skills and have certificates. 

• Technology Partners

Find a partner you can really work with. You are entrusting them with a heavy responsibility that neither party should take lightly. The ideal partner will be: 

• A good communicator who will not be discouraged by problems
• Focus on the process of resolution
• Technically skilled and  ready to dive into your environment
• A customer service professional who will take your issues seriously.