10 Ways Managed IT Services Could Transform Your Company

Managed IT services are basically an outsourced IT department—a third-party service that oversees a company’s IT operations.

It’s a cost-effective alternative to managing all your technical needs in-house, and may include 24-hour monitoring, technical troubleshooting and issue resolution, cloud services, disaster recovery, demand planning, data center management, and more.

Number 1: By Making a Dedicated IT Team Financially Feasible

For many smaller businesses, hiring a dedicated IT pro or having an IT department may sound fantastic—but they just don’t have the budget for it.

Managed IT can make these services financially accessible to smaller companies that wouldn’t be able to afford a dedicated employee or team to handle their IT needs.

This means smaller businesses can benefit from the added flexibility, reliability, and competitive advantage that having a dedicated IT team provides—and compete against much larger and better-funded competitors.

Number 2: By Freeing Up Your Time

If you run a small business, you take on many roles out of necessity, especially in the beginning. But as your business grows, so will demands on your time—and you’ll have less availability to handle the technical needs of your company on your own.

By asking a pro to step in and handle your IT needs, you free up your time to handle other aspects of your business—the ones you enjoy most, and those that boost your bottom line. 

Number 3: By Improving Your Capacity and Competitive Advantage

If you’ve hit a plateau in your business’s growth and earnings, outdated technology may be to blame.

Your company’s technical capabilities often make a huge difference in the amount of business you can take on, the amount of product you can manufacture, the number of dedicated leads you can handle, and how competitive you are in your industry.

With updated IT systems, increased efficiency, and up-to-date software, you can increase your company’s capacity to do business—not only improving your competitive advantage, but expanding your company’s ability to grow its bottom line.

Number 4: By Reducing the Number of IT Emergencies

The old “break / fix” model of IT service—where you call in a professional only when something is broken—is outdated, and not the most effective way to handle technical issues.

Your technological platform and business-critical software should be constantly available and as efficient and cost-effective as possible—and it should support and drive your team’s productivity. Waiting until something breaks means that you have to wait for the problem to be fixed—which affects uptime and your team’s productivity.

In addition, calling an IT company only when something breaks won’t get you the best service.

That’s not because IT pros working in this model are not as good at what they do; but because they’re being paid to fix one particular problem, not apply ongoing preventative measures to ensure technical issues happen less frequently and your system is performing at top capacity.

When you hire a managed service provider, IT professionals are now keeping an eye on your systems and software on an ongoing basis—applying preventive maintenance, assuring 100% uptime, and heading off problems before something breaks.

This means that you’re much less likely to experience delays and reduced productivity due to technical emergencies in general, and your IT is more reliable.

Number 5: By Improving Your Security

These days, cyber criminals don’t just target large companies. They also go after small and mid-sized businesses, and there’s a good reason for that—smaller companies often don’t have the expertise or ability to stay ahead of emerging cyber security threats, so they’re easier to take advantage of.

All companies, no matter how small, have to be vigilant against cyber-security threats. But if you’re not an IT professional yourself and you don’t have one on staff, that may be difficult or impossible to achieve.

With Managed IT services, you’re not an easy target. You have a dedicated team of professionals focused on protecting your business.

Number 6: By Enhancing Your Disaster Recovery

Many small businesses don’t have appropriate disaster recovery measures in place—and have few resources to recover if a natural disaster or cyber-security attack wipes out important data.

There are lots of options for building redundancies into your system—from dedicated data centers to cloud-based and hybrid solutions. Managed IT services can ensure your data is safeguarded in case of calamities, both natural and manmade. 

Number 7: By Making Your IT Costs Predictable

When you’re only paying for IT services when emergencies crop up, your IT budget is unpredictable.

But Managed IT services are usually paid for on a fixed monthly subscription basis, making your monthly budget easier to forecast—even when emergencies crop up. This means you don’t get hit in the wallet every time there’s a technical issue.

Number 8 By Improving Your Team’s Efficiency

As their businesses grow, many small business owners start allocating IT tasks to the most technically savvy employee—even if that employee was hired to do something else.

No matter how knowledgeable and efficient that employee is, technical tasks will be a drag on that person’s time. Typical IT maintenance tasks like fixing printers and peripherals, defragmenting hard drives, or performing routine software updates are time consuming and sometimes frustrating for someone who was hired to do other things.

Bringing in a professional team to handle these tasks frees up your employees from having to manage these tasks in addition to their other jobs.

Number 9: By Providing 24/7 Support

Technical issues can occur at any time—including nights and weekends. But if you run a small business, you may not have the resources or staff to ensure there’s always someone on call to handle things if they go awry.

A managed service provider can ensure that someone is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to handle any technical issues that come up—so you never walk into work in the morning to an unwelcome surprise.

Number 10: By Helping You Avoid Risks

Handling your own IT risk assessment can be challenging if it’s not in your background. But it’s essential, especially as a company grows, to have someone with the right expertise assess the technical pitfalls ahead.

A managed service provider can help identify industry-specific threats that exist for your company and design or recommend solutions that defend against those threats—before they become an issue.

Questions About IT Managed Services? Ask An Expert From IT Help Atlanta

Outsourcing your IT issues to a fully-managed service provider may be one of the best decisions you can make for your business.

IT managed services can enhance your company’s stability, capacity, and competitive edge, while guarding against natural disasters, cyber security threats, and other impending risks.

Call IT Help Atlanta today at 770-847-9611 for a free, confidential consultation and recommendations that can take your business to the next level.

Rick Higgins

Rick spent his career in technology before starting TeamLogic IT in 2015. He and the team live out our philosophy to stand up, be bold, and live the truth, even when it’s not the easy choice.

As a part of TeamLogic IT and a small business owner himself, Rick focuses on bringing solutions to businesses ranging in size from solopreneurs to 1,000 employees.

He lives in Atlanta with his wife and two sons and enjoys staying active and volunteering at his sons’ schools.