When Do Managed IT Services Make Sense?

Here are 6 ways that businesses who are curious about the managed IT service model can know if it’s a good fit.

Many businesses are embracing the proactive, strategic approach to technology that the managed IT service model provides. But how do you know if your company is ready? We’ve designed this list of signs, signals, and red flags to help businesses understand when they’ve outgrown their existing IT support, and when it’s time to enlist the help of a managed IT service provider (MSP) to take control of their technology. 

Managed IT services make sense when:

1. Your Company Suffers from Poor IT Response Times and a Lack of Accountability

Network downtime is the enemy of the modern, connected business. According to research from Gartner, even just a few hours of network downtime costs the average midsized organization tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Companies are relying more and more on technology to facilitate work from home and drive greater productivity. This reliance means that when a serious network problem occurs, it’s critical that you can rely on your IT support team to restore productivity quickly.

Thankfully, there are effective ways to measure the quality of your IT support and help you identify areas of improvement. Are you tracking metrics like average time to resolution, average response time, and cost per ticket at your existing help desk?

If you’re not happy with your current IT support metrics, you’ll likely benefit from partnering with a reputable MSP.  They’ll have a documented set of processes and technology to bring your network to >99% uptime and availability. Curious about what that entails? Read more about the managed IT service model.

2. You Can’t Afford a Well-Staffed Internal IT Team

For many businesses that have outgrown reactive IT support, the next logical step is to look at hiring internal IT staff. What they quickly discover is that the hiring process is complex and expensive.

Here’s what you can expect to spend on a single, mid-career IT engineer. The following don’t include profit sharing, retirement packages, and other benefits:

New York, New York: $77,382
Charlotte, North Carolina: $73,532

That’s a significant cost, and as companies scale, it only gets bigger.

While small companies can function with a single “IT guy” to maintain their network, as companies grow their IT needs become more complex, which of course makes IT staffing an even greater burden. For a general guideline on how many IT technicians your company will need, you can refer to this study from TechAmerica called, Organizing for Results: IT Structure and Staffing.

3. You’re Having Trouble Managing IT Internally

Even companies that have an internal staff may discover that they’re not managing those teams properly. Motivating and directing technology staff toward full productivity presents some unique challenges, which non-technical management are often unprepared to meet.

Here are some of the questions we’ve seen companies struggle with as they run IT operations in-house:

• What’s the best way to set an appropriate workload and detect early signs of overwork or burnout?
• How do you keep them motivated toward bigger IT goals as they work to manage day-to-day problems?
• How should IT and other departments communicate so that business and technology are working in lockstep?
• How much autonomy should you allow IT to budget and make decisions? Is there someone in your executive team who can interface with IT on strategy and speak their language?

Working with a managed IT service provider eliminates these issues. A qualified MSP like Complete Network provides you with dedicated teams for daily IT help desk support and technology strategy and planning, in addition to a management team, to make sure each element is working together like clockwork.

4. Your Internal IT Team Stumbles on Project Work

What will your company do if you need to migrate software from an old server to a new one? Do you ask your in-house IT team to put down their tasks for the month and work on the new project, or do you start searching for an external consultant to help?

Neither are great options. The first could lead to reduced productivity and morale as your team neglects important maintenance work. The second choice involves months of proposal gathering, vetting potential vendors, budgeting, and meetings.

Partnering with an MSP puts your business on a strategic, proactive footing with this type of IT project work. Your IT partner will help you identify which initiatives you’ll need to complete in the short, medium, and long term, while also providing the planning and personnel you need to ensure those projects are completed on time, without disrupting operations.

5. You’re Struggling with Cybersecurity Concerns

Cybersecurity is a source of great uncertainty for small and midsized businesses. With the cost of in-house IT expertise now out of reach of most companies, and a significant nationwide shortage of cybersecurity specialists on the job market, more and more businesses are realizing that the best way to deal with the uncertainty of cybersecurity is to partner with a managed cybersecurity partner.

What makes the right MSP an ideal security partner? Flat-rate expertise and 24/7 support. For a single monthly fee, a veteran MSP will design and manage a comprehensive security strategy to secure all your important data, applications, and devices.

Take, for example, Complete Network’s process. We draw on best practices and leading cybersecurity resources, such as the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework, to guide our clients toward optimized cybersecurity.

This methodical, high-touch approach to security ensures controls are optimized for your business and technology.

6. Turnover in Your Helpdesk or IT Staff Has Become a Problem

What happens when an IT person with years of accumulated knowledge about your company’s technology leaves? You’re forced to find a replacement and spend months training them on your systems and goals. Dealing with churn and loss of institutional knowledge can present a serious problem for IT teams.

MSPs provide consistency and dependability that hiring in-house can’t. A veteran MSP attracts and trains top talent so that your company always has the technical expertise it needs, without any of the staffing headaches.

According to IT management software provider Continuum, about 593,500 IT jobs in the U.S. remain open for 90 days or longer, resulting in about 50,000,000 days of lost IT productivity each quarter.

Complete Network: High-Value, High-Touch Business IT Support

Is your company curious about the benefits of the managed IT service model? Contact us any time at 877-877-1840 to speak with our friendly, helpful team. We’d be happy to learn more about your business and answer any questions you have. We’re passionate about helping businesses in Albany, New York, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Bluffton, South Carolina discover IT confidence, and we hope to speak with you soon!