Because your main objective is to grow your business, it can be burdensome when you also need to allocate time to manage your IT assets - even if that can also translate into business benefits. The good news is that there’s a way to grow your business and manage your IT assets without spending much time on the latter. It’s called managed services.

This isn’t an article for explaining what managed services is. We’re assuming you already know what managed services is but are still looking for a good reason to hire one. This post should take care of that. In this article, we’ll discuss some of the major benefits of working with a managed services provider.

Let’s begin.

1. Improve business continuity

   

   When a managed services provider (MSP) takes charge of constructing and/or maintaining your IT infrastructure, you can significantly reduce downtimes. Here’s why. First of all, a network architected and built by the highly experienced professionals of an MSP will be less susceptible to performance and availability issues caused by misconfigurations, faulty network devices, and other causes associated with poor network design and implementation.

   Secondly, an MSP will be able to devote more time monitoring your network and will also know exactly what to look out for. As a result, current and potential issues can be detected and addressed before they escalate. In turn, business operations can run with very minimal (if any) interruption. Lastly, if a major disruption due to uncontrollable circumstances (like a natural disaster) does occur, an MSP will know how to achieve full recovery in the shortest possible time.

2. Gain regulatory compliance

   

   In addition to day-to-day business challenges, some UK companies also have to deal with regulations like the Data Protection Act or the PCI DSS. Unfortunately, regulatory compliance activities can be a major disruptor. These activities demand time, talent, and technology that you likely don’t readily have. Addressing these deficiencies will require a considerable expense if you decide to do it on your own. You can be in a much better position if you work with a managed services provider.

   In addition to day-to-day business challenges, some UK companies also have to deal with regulations like the Data Protection Act or the PCI DSS. Unfortunately, regulatory compliance activities can be a major disruptor. These activities demand time, talent, and technology that you likely don’t readily have. Addressing these deficiencies will require a considerable expense if you decide to do it on your own. You can be in a much better position if you work with a managed services provider.

   An MSP can fully take care of the ‘time’ and ‘talent’ components, while assisting you in acquiring or setting up the needed technology. MSPs have people who are well-versed in both information security, the intricacies of various IT-related regulations, and the technical solutions involved. They can look into your current infrastructure and business practices to identify gaps, recommend courses of action, and implement the needed solutions.

3. Reduce TCO

   

   The total amount you spend on an IT asset always goes way beyond that asset’s purchase cost. An IT asset’s TCO or Total Cost of Ownership will usually consist of installation, deployment, administrative, maintenance, and upgrade costs as well as other unpredictable indirect costs. For an enterprise-class hardware or software, the TCO could shoot up even higher when you’re forced to hire someone with the required skills or send out in-house personnel for training.

   TCO can be substantially reduced if you subscribe to a managed IT service because the people who’ll be managing your IT assets are already highly skilled professionals who can get the job done at a fraction of the cost of a skilled employee, whether newly hired or trained. You’ll also be able to bring down certain unpredictable costs, like the cost of downtime, since your networks will be configured optimally and issues will be resolved more promptly.

4. Increase ROI

   

   Not all IT investments are able to produce optimal ROI. These are the investments that fall short of expected benefits. For example, the amount of time saved, level of customer satisfaction, accuracy of forecasting, number of errors, speed of response times, and so on, are nowhere near whatever was advertised. While some of these might be due to false advertising, others will likely be simply due to the lack of in-house talent who could harness the investment’s full potential.

   By partnering with a reputable IT services provider, companies can increase the ROI of their IT acquisitions because the experts who’ll be managing their hardware and software will know exactly how to maximise those products’ capabilities. These professionals can draw from their vast experience so that the advertised benefits can be realised.

5. Improve IT-business alignment

   

   Ideally, IT investments should be able to support business objectives. Unfortunately, many of these investments fail to meet that idealisation. Either the investments are not used properly or they’re not the right investments to begin with. If you want to align IT with your business objectives, you need to have a deep understanding of both IT solutions and your business.

   You certainly know your business. But you likely lack the technical know-how required to map IT capabilities with specific business practices and processes. Fortunately, managed services providers can help you in that regard.

   These providers of IT support for businesses understand not only the technical aspects of IT solutions, but also how these solutions can best be leveraged to achieve business objectives. Guided by the principles of widely accepted IT management frameworks like ITIL and COBIT, reputable managed services providers can help you improve IT-business alignment in the most cost-efficient way possible.

Aside from the benefits we mentioned, there are other benefits we already discussed in a previous post. If you want to learn more about those other benefits, read the the blog post “Your IT Support Provider Plays A More Critical Role In Your Business Than You Think”.