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Managed IT services help companies with a variety of needs, from helpdesks and the smooth running of your IT infrastructure to asset management and lifecycle management. Managed services are ideal if your company does not have a dedicated IT department, but they are also extremely effective when working in tandem with an existing in-house team.
It doesn’t matter whether you choose a full managed service or just want to outsource your helpdesk, a managed IT service will improve your bottom line in two important ways.
If you do not have dedicated IT staff in your organisation, responsibilities for IT and IT issues usually fall to employees who do have a certain level of knowledge but are not experts. They will do what they can, but their main focus is elsewhere, and working on IT issues could result in them not being as productive in their primary role. They will also be spending a disproportionate amount of additional time on IT as they will not be as familiar with the issues as a professional and therefore will spend longer getting up to speed. IT professionals will deal quickly and effectively with any issues, which they will typically encounter on a regular basis.
If you already have an in-house IT team, the chances are they spend most of their time firefighting low-level issues, leaving little or no time to work on strategy. By outsourcing the lower-level tasks to a helpdesk, your team will be able to use their time more productively on strategy, and researching and integrating tools and applications that will be advantageous to your business and enable your staff to be more productive.
If your IT team is, in fact, just one person, there will be times when you have no IT cover at all, such as when they are on holiday or off sick. With an outsourced provider, your company will always have access to support whenever it is needed. An additional advantage is that your employees will not have to wait in turn – unable to get on with their work – while your one person works through a list of multiple IT issues.
One of the responsibilities of an engineer working for a managed service provider is to keep up to date with new developments and applications. Their research and knowledge, combined with their experience, enables them to keep your company running smoothly with fewer breaks in continuity.
Depending on the provider you move to, a managed IT provider could potentially save your company money because they will be able to leverage economies of scale, at the same time as increasing service levels. If your fee earners are undertaking some of the IT tasks, or your IT team is spending all its time ‘keeping the lights on’ tackling helpdesk issues, your managed service provider will free them up to be more productive and efficient in their own tasks. And those fee earners that have previously been sidetracked to help with IT issues will increase revenue by having more time to undertake billable tasks.