Information Technology is a fundamental part of any business. Over the years IT systems have progressively become more complex due to emerging technologies such as cloud computing and virtualisation becoming the standard. As time passes, managing technology has become more and more difficult.

Increasingly businesses are struggling with not only addressing their immediate technology needs to run the day to day operations, but are losing money and stifling business growth by not embracing the digital transformation journey.

Partnering with a mature IT managed services team, you don’t have to worry about dealing with your IT needs internally – we take ownership of it and give you the rocket fuel you need to drive your business forward.

What are Managed IT Services?

At its core, IT Managed Services allow growing companies to unleash the capacity of an enterprise grade IT team on a continuous basis. Constant network availability and monitoring, expert support, and IT services allow businesses to punch above their weight class when it comes to IT maturity. Organisations can choose which services they want managed by the Managed Service Provider (MSP) and which they choose to keep in-house.

At the heart Managed Services is a comprehensive and focused approach towards service excellence and continuous improvement hand in hand with the overall business strategy.

Unlike the traditional break and fix model of IIT support, the MSP provides overall management, monitoring, and proactive support of the enterprise network and any hardware and software components that the customer desires. This includes acting as the liaison with 3rd party support vendors for specific hardware and applications as needed.

An MSP can also look for ways to optimize the overall performance of the entire system. For example, the MSP may recommend moving a software application to the cloud (private or public) to eliminate an out-of-date server that is slowing down business operations.

An MSP looks at IT systems as business tools, the same way management would, looking for cost savings and optimization in every functional area. The focus is on the lifecycle of the IT infrastructure, now and in the future.

Once implemented, the Managed Services solution allows you to focus on strategic business goals knowing that the MSP has their IT needs taken care of.

Enhanced compliance and security, a proactive approach to maintenance, cost savings, and freeing IT staff to work on strategic projects are the reasons organisations are choosing Managed Services.

The availability and reliability of IT services can be the difference between generating or losing business.

Managed Services is an end-to-end solution for companies to provide the needed resources and oversight to the IT operations as well as ensure the technology choices they make will not get in the way of growing their business.

Why Managed IT Services?

1. Increased efficiency and reliability of IT operations

More often than not, organisations maintain over-burdened IT staff with employees who are generalists and may lack the specialized skills and training required for critical systems or simply can’t carry the whole of the company’s IT operations on their own.

When it comes to outsourcing IT, you don’t just benefit from having an expanded team of IT experts who can tackle issues as they arise, but rather you’ll benefit from access to the latest technology and business-grade solutions that maintain uptime and profitability, such as remote monitoring and management (RMM), backup and disaster recovery (BDR) and cloud computing, in addition to areas of specialized expertise that a small team doesn’t have the capacity for.

2. Enhanced IT security & compliance.

Today, in order to safeguard a continued future for businesses, security needs to be at the forefront when it comes to organisational and operational priorities. Devices present in a workplace environment, including Laptops, desktops, smartphones, applications, tablets, servers, operating systems, browsers, and wearable technology all transmit data and thus require strict security measures, both from a business process and technology management standpoint. No organisation wants to become the next headline in a high-profile data breach or data loss incident.

The importance of working with an IT solutions provider who understands security not only from a technology perspective, but also from a legislative perspective (including such regulations like GDPR, PCI & ISO) cannot be understated.

3. Proactive approach to maintenance.

Most organisations don’t want to have to think about their daily IT operations. They don’t want to have to second-guess the reliability and speediness of their network connection. Similarly, they don’t want to have to worry about the state of their IT environment when they commute in to work each morning.

Organizations choose to work with an MSP because of the ability to provide 24/7/365 coverage. Services like RMM and managed security services detect potential disturbances and vulnerabilities, allowing solutions to be presented and implemented before problems can develop into more critical threats.

Having a fully managed IT support could often troubleshoot and remediate glitches of bugs before your organisation is made aware. A CEO doesn’t have the time to verify that the backups his company made have actually worked. That’s where Managed Services comes in. In working with the right MSP, key executives can take advantage of proactive BDR solutions that offer business continuity by combining RMM intelligence with regular, encrypted backups, cloud computing capabilities, and IT virtualization.

Source : https://www.comptia.org/resources/4th-annual-trends-in-managed-services

Having an MSP gives you access to network management resources, cloud storage, and highly trained IT experts without having to make the large upfront investment.

4. Cost savings.

Believe it or not, for most companies, cost saving are one of the most critical benefits associated with managed services. Apart from the cost of hardware items, your company is likely to have an ongoing IT labour expense, which can be volatile over-time. A common problem amongst many organizations is the need to reduce the size of their IT department due to rising costs. In most cases, employees are forced to compensate by performing technical tasks that are outside of their core area of expertise, slowing productivity and preventing business growth.

With the managed services business model, companies are able to predict their IT costs on a month-to-month basis, with the peace of mind that all the skills they need to enable their business are available and up to speed. Freeing up more staff time to devote to higher value projects they’re properly equipped to manage.

5. Free IT staff to work on strategic projects.

It doesn’t make sense for you to pay a full-time employee with little-to-no experience to migrate their on-premise Exchange servers to Microsoft Office 365 when they could outsource the same task to an IT support technician with the appropriate level of skill and experience, at a fraction of the cost. Additionally it also empowers your senior IT team members to better allocate their efforts towards strategic IT projects and initiatives, as opposed to boggin them with break and fix user requests.

Managed services can help your company maximize employee productivity and satisfaction. Having a dedicated team of outsourced business professionals will help utilize the individuals’ IT talents, increasing operational efficiency and decreasing employee turnover.

6. Business Value.

Managing the IT services of an organisation takes a wide array of skills and tools. One of the most appealing reasons for using an MSP is the access to network management resources coupled with a team of highly trained IT experts without having to make the large up-front investment. A strategic MSP is always asking the awkward questions to senior management to ensure that the business is addressing the most important projects and issues whilst planning the right investments in line with the business growth and strategic plan.

7. Innovative Technology.

The value that MSPs provide to their clients is highly reliant on their technical abilities and key strategic vendor partnerships – and as such MSPs have the latest network management software, hardware resources, virtualization capabilities, cloud and other technologies that are made available to you should you require them. This allows businesses to enjoy access to the latest technology without maintaining the systems themselves.

8. Peace of Mind.

An MSP is responsible for providing service availability and/or the support response an organisation needs. MSPs will typically have redundancy for critical systems to maintain high availability of services and assure continuity of business operations. For example, Data can be backed up and stored off-site in multiple physical locations allowing services to be rebuilt onto a virtual server if there is an outage.
This helps to ensure that disaster recovery takes minutes instead of hours and customers are still able to conduct business.

Are Managed IT Services right for my business?

Managed Services solution are a great fit for many businesses looking to enable their operations and free up their resources to focus on their core business value, however there are a few telltale signs that indicate that businesses have reached the right level of maturity to be able to fully benefit from a managed services relationship.

As with any business decision, it is prudent to analyse the current state of your organisation and make an informed decision.

Key indicators that the time is right for a managed service provider include:

• Your business operates in real-time to meet customer needs and cannot tolerate extended downtime.
• Growing IT operations costs are an issue you need to tackle to better predict cost modelling.
• You’re looking to centralize services and make them available for branches and remote workers
• Securing data, transactions, communications, and devices is a priority for your organisation.
• Your business is struggling to recruit or train IT staff on the myriad systems your business uses.
• Managing and maintaining current IT infrastructure is a headache, especially when it comes to lifecycle planning.
• You’re not sure of the best strategic direction when it comes to upgrade the existing infrastructure.
• The scope or volume of business operations is shifting, and you need your organisation to be as agile as possible.
• Your current IT just isn’t hacking it, and an increased level of IT service is required.
• New technologies are needed to enable your business growth.
• You’re looking at expanding into new markets, and need robust systems to support the move.
• You need to stabilize the IT budget and plan for costs across the year.
• You need your existing technical resources focused on critical business functions rather than network management and first level user support.

How to choose Your Managed Services Provider

Once your organisation has decided to invest in managed services, the next step is to pick a provider that is right for your business. The MSP must understand your business requirements to ensure that they can provide the right solution. As with all sectors, there are MSPs and MSPs, and it is important to choose one that matches your level of organisational maturity and can support you with the challenges that modern growing businesses face.

Factors to consider when choosing a managed service Provider

• What relevant technical certifications and vendor authorizations and partnerships does the service provider hold? Will they add value for our business?
• Does the service provider have the ability to track network and systems performance and present metrics to show performance levels? Do you get full visibility?
• Does the service provider offer real-time network monitoring with fault detection?
• What levels of availability does the provider offer and what steps do they take to ensure continuous operations (redundancy, failover, etc.)?
• How quickly can the provider react to a change in business requirements?
• What are the options for disaster recovery plans and can the provider cater for different DR scenarios?
• What are the procedures for reporting troubles and how quickly can a response be expected?
• Does the provider have a demonstrated track record of adding value to large and complex service oriented organisations?

Get IT done, the right way with ICT Solutions

Here at ICT Solutions, our focus is on servicing all your IT needs so that you can focus on your business.  Technology should not be as a burden but rather a catalyst.

Our managed service is designed to help you increase your operational efficiency, drive your business forward and improve your user’s experience.

Our proactive approach allows us to prevent major disruptions by constantly monitoring and analysing your IT infrastructure and fixing any issues before they affect your end users. Our team is there to assist you up until you are 100% satisfied with our solution.

Don’t take our word for it, hear more from our happy customers here