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In the last five years, technology for businesses has changed dramatically. Today’s companies are faced with more technical choices, challenges, and requirements than ever before. Technology touches every aspect of your company, from communication to accounting. If you have an existing IT infrastructure, having it maintained and streamlined properly will save you money. If you don’t have an IT infrastructure in place, it’s likely costing your company money.
It’s important not to cut corners on your annual IT budget, but it’s equally important to spend your budget more effectively. Below we’ll outline how a Managed IT Service can help you get the most out of your annual IT budget.
What is a Managed IT Service?
Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are outsourced Information Technology experts that specialize in handling all of a company’s technology responsibilities. Unlike the traditional break/fix IT model, the goal of an MSP is to be proactive at keeping your systems running and not waiting until they break. Managed IT Services are more effective at keeping your systems maintained through cloud computing and remote monitoring. This allows an MSP to service your infrastructure more effectively and faster than in-house IT or break/fix services.
How An MSP Can Save You Money
If you could have a staff of IT experts at the fraction of the cost and be more effective than just one in-house IT person, would that interest you? The average in-house IT employee makes $62,000 a year before benefits. The cost of a Managed IT Service with a full team is approximately 81% less than the cost of one in-house employee. For example, an IT staff of four would cost $248,000 a year. That’s an incredible cost/benefit ratio.
The advantages of having an Managed IT Service are many, and it’s all about time. And time is money.
- Monitoring network and applications remotely to prevent downtime = money saved
- Prevent virus and malware infections = money saved
- Experienced knowledge set that can recommend the lowest cost, best hardware and software = money saved
- Data Security = money saved
- Automation = money saved
- The ability to scale up and down as needed = money saved
These problems are time consuming and your business will suffer when these problems happen. And they will happen. IT experts have known for years that the old Murphy’s Law cliche of “If something can go wrong, it will…and usually at the worst time” is true.
Other Benefits of Managed Services
Secure Pricing
Using an MSP for your company needs will allow you to budget with predictable pricing packages and flat monthly fees rather than the unpredictable costs that can happen with the break/fix solution.
Consistent Infrastructure
There are many benefits when you standardize your hardware and software. If your company has identical PC and operating systems, you can take advantage of bulk discounts when purchasing and make it easier for your staff to learn your systems, thus cutting costs on employee training.
Cloud Technologies
Subscription based cloud services conserve IT budgets by eliminating costly expenses and investments in servers and data centers that are based in-house. Cloud technologies also eliminate the costs of installation, maintenance, securing, and upgrading in-house data centers.
Another plus of shifting to the cloud is the protection of your data from costly natural disasters such as floods or fires.
General Peace of Mind
MSPs provide top-level security and uptime. Your systems will run smoothly and allow you to focus on your business rather than worry about constantly having to put out fires and finding ways to resolve computer and network issues.
Cost Savings Studies
CompTIA is a non-profit organization and one of the world’s leading tech associations. They conduct independent research and studies for IT professionals to assess current technological trends. According to a recent survey of 400 businesses that recently switched to a Managed IT Service:
- 96% agreed that MSPs save them a substantial amount of money annually.
- 184 of those businesses experienced a reduction of IT costs of 25% or more.
- 58 reduced costs by 50%
- 89% of those companies surveyed say they were very happy the expertise and experience of their Managed IT Services provider. They cited increased security, ease of use, access to reports, and increased up-time as major factors.
Internal IT Staff
If your company has an in-house IT professional, another CompTIA study found that more than half of companies that use an MSP said they have kept their IT staff. 15% of companies said they had no in-house IT staff and that using a Managed IT Service was how they brought in technology expertise to their operation. Only 6% removed their internal staff as a result of transferring to an MSP.
In many companies when a Managed IT Service is contracted, the internal IT staff is freed from routine responsibilities such as network maintenance, data backups, and help desk support. This gives them the time to focus on technology strategies that can increase revenue.
