These days, it's not just large enterprises that rely on technology to push their business forward. Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are also leveraging the latest technological trends to enhance their processes. However, maintaining one’s IT infrastructure is a different story altogether. If you run an SMB, you'll need highly trained IT professionals who can quickly resolve any problems to prevent downtime or disruption.
Unfortunately, most SMBs don't possess the resources to hire an in-house IT team. Without one, they can fall behind on important updates and overlook critical cybersecurity measures, making them vulnerable to equipment failure and cyberattacks. This is where managed services can help.
What Is Managed Services?
Managed services is a model that allows you to delegate your company's IT operations to a third-party managed IT services provider (MSP). Signing a service level agreement (SLA) with an MSP usually means letting them handle most, if not all, of your company's IT infrastructure, including management, monitoring, and repair.
How Can Managed Services Help Your Business
Before the days of managed services, businesses relied on the break/fix method to resolve IT issues. The problem with this method is that technicians provide service only when something in your system goes wrong. MSPs provide proactive monitoring and support services that protect your network from potential issues before they happen. Here are some other reasons why you should partner with an MSP:
- Save time and money
Many SMBs and startups can't afford to hire their own IT team. Everything from recruiting, training, and paying an in-house IT staff costs a significant amount of money. But if SMBs and startups don't invest in IT management, they won’t have anyone who can step in when IT issues occur, which can lead to downtime and additional expenses.
Outsourcing your IT needs to a reliable MSP like Charles IT will save your business time and money in the long run. For a flat and minimal monthly fee, we will provide your business with expert IT support services to ensure your system is performing optimally.
- Enjoy 24/7/365 support
Hardware and software issues can occur anytime, even during off-hours and holidays. If a security incident occurs when your IT team is not around to fix an issue, you may experience prolonged downtime. MSPs provide IT support services all year round, ensuring your network is operating smoothly even after business hours and holidays.
Some MSPs like Charles IT even offer remote support. Our technicians can assess and resolve your IT issues from our office, eliminating the time that can be wasted driving from our office to your business. If you take advantage of our virtualized computing resources and migrate your applications and hardware to our cloud platforms, you won’t have to worry about hardware and software issues disrupting your operations.
- Benefit from experience and expertise
Even if you have an in-house IT staff, implementing new hardware and software is oftentimes accompanied by novel problems that they might not be able to resolve. In addition, some IT personnel lack proper training and experience to tackle various types of technical issues that might cost your business a lot of money. Working with an MSP gives you access to highly trained experts with multiple certifications and years of experience handling various IT problems.
- Experience minimal downtime
Equipment failure, natural disasters, cyberattacks, and human error can lead to costly downtimes, especially if you lose all your data. Here at Charles IT, we will regularly back up your valuable data so when a problem occurs, all your files can be restored as quickly as possible. Another way you can keep your data safe is with a cloud service. By migrating and creating a backup of your data in the cloud, you’ll be able to recover lost information after a disaster, allowing your business to recover faster.
- Maintain compliance
Your business stores data subject to various regulations designed to keep private information safe. Violating these regulations can result in fines and reputational damage that can put you out of business. With the help of an MSP, your staff doesn't have to sift through various standards and regulations to see which ones apply to your business. An MSP will conduct risk assessments and audits to ensure your organization complies with the latest security standards and regulations.
- Be focused on your goals
When your IT staff is busy helping other users with basic tech issues, your company's productivity drops significantly. Meanwhile, having an MSP by your side frees up your IT team to focus on key tasks and projects that will push your business forward.
Partnering with a trusted MSP like Charles IT is a cost-effective way for SMBs in Connecticut to experience the IT services and support only found in larger enterprises. If you want to learn more about how outsourcing your IT can boost your company's productivity, download our free eBook today!
