If you aren’t well versed in recent technological advancements, the idea of working as a business owner with an IT system can be daunting. You may not know quite where to start, and the many costs associated with the running of an IT system are likely to scare you.
Luckily, if you aren’t sure what to do, outsourcing your IT requirements can be straightforward and hugely beneficial to your business. One excellent way to do this is by employing a managed service provider, or MSP – here we’ll detail what you can gain from hiring the right MSP for your business.
Finding the Right Provider
If you decide to start working with an MSP, you’ll receive IT support designed specifically to fit with the needs of your organisation. You can decide whether you want them to have a hands on approach or more of a light touch, and they can provide a range of services regardless of the current position of your business – whether you’re just starting out, or your business is decades old, an MSP can sort out what you need.
This will all be based around the service level agreement (SLA) that you make with the MSP you choose. Of course, no two businesses are identical, so you should make sure to discuss this thoroughly with any prospective MSP of your choosing.
Saving on Recruitment Drives
It’s never cheap to hire an IT team, and most of the spending begins with the process of recruitment. By using an MSP, you can completely dodge this costly procedure – although you may need to have a few meetings with the MSP, a formal recruitment process is entirely unnecessary.
Though this might not be obviously much of a saving – after all, this is only a small period of time in relation to how long your team will be working – it’s worth looking into the numbers. Studies can back up that the costly combination of background administration, agency fees, and lost director time can cost a business over $10,000 for just one recruitment drive – that’s a loss you could do without!
Dodging the Cost of Training
Even if you’re through the expensive recruitment process, you’ll need to provide your new team with the training and accreditation requirements they need to work with your business.
Your team will only be able to maintain your devices and systems if they hold the right qualifications, which unsurprisingly take a large amount of time and money to achieve, leaving your business with less money and lost employee hours.
Like any other IT team, your MSP will need these qualifications too – the difference lies in the fact that it’s their problem, not yours. Because your MSP will be providing their services based on a monthly cost (according to your decided SLA) there won’t be any additional costs, and the people managing your system will have all the qualifications you need.
Service Whenever You Need It
An MSP can provide your business’s IT system with 24/7 service, and though that might sound excessive, you never know when your infrastructure might need assistance – even outside business hours. Hiring a 24-hour in-house team isn’t a cost that most businesses would be willing to pay, which can be bad news if your system fails at the night or on a weekend.
By working with an MSP, you’ll be able to receive a 24/7 service without this price tag, so if you can’t afford to let your system go down, an MSP is definitely a good investment.
A Never Ending Wealth of Experience
You may not have realised, but there’s a huge difference between an in-house IT specialist and the staff of an MSP.
Essentially, by hiring a new member of your IT staff, you’re preventing them from gaining any more experience than they already have. They will continue to grow and learn as a part of your team, but the experience they gain will be based solely on your systems.
There are some clear benefits to this (your team will know your systems inside and out), but as your grow, it’s good to have as wide a range of experience as you can so that you can find the right direction for your business as opposed to just the most obvious option.
As a business owner, you’ll know that it can be useful to think outside the box, and that’s what working with an experienced MSP can offer you.
Supporting You From Anywhere
While we’ve already outlined the benefits of 24/7 support, your business might not require assistance that is so hands-on. Faults and issues can occur at any time, so it’s a good idea to cover your business and your system with some network monitoring systems.
If you have an SD WAN infrastructure as a part of your system, support from a distance is easily delivered, meaning that network engineers will mostly be able to solve any problems without coming to your site. This means that instead of walking into the office on a Monday morning to an IT system that doesn’t function, you’ll instead receive a notification telling you that the system was down, but was fixed before you even arrived. Naturally, you’ll need to decide who is responsible for the installation and upkeep of such a system – but this is something that can be thrashed out between the IT providers and your in-house team.
A Predictable Service
We’ve talked earlier on about money and the terrifying amounts of it that an IT system can take out of your budget. So let’s look at how an MSP can make these costs less astronomical – in short, it’s all about deciding on the right SLA.
The price you pay for your MSP is entirely based on what you’ve arranged in your SLA. You’ll pay them what they charge, and they’ll provide whatever service you need – a rather rare arrangement in the complex realm of IT. For example, there is an endless list of extra costs that come with hiring your own in-house IT team – think sick pay, holidays, resignations, and more.
By working with an MSP, you always know what you’re getting – a predictable, manageable outlay and a high-level service. It’s good to make sure that as many elements of your business as possible are consistent and predictable – in the notoriously expensive and complex world of IT, this can save you both money and headaches down the road.
