The managed services industry is expected to become a $257 billion industry in the next three years and for good reason. Managed IT has many salient advantages for business – especially startups and small companies which are expected to perform at the same level of technological sophistication as entrenched industry giants.
Managed IT services should be a serious consideration for every business. Here’s why, and what companies can do to leverage the outsourcing of tasks in the most strategic way possible.
Manage the Business, Not the Network
The average company has a complex web of technological connections and lines upon which they rely to do business. From internal networks to phone lines and an internet presence, keeping everything up and running is a full-time job. Fortunately, IT departments exist to take care of most of this.
However, the level of digital technology prevalent in most businesses means that it’s also easy to get overwhelmed. When things go wrong, one thing can lead to many things quickly because the average office has a highly interconnected IT infrastructure. For example, consider how easily a virus can spread across an insufficiently protected company network, potentially infecting dozens of machines before it’s discovered.
Therefore, managing risk is no longer as simple as putting a password on everything then trusting employees to be diligent and careful. IT infrastructure is dynamic, complex, and often succumbs to risk much faster than human personnel can detect. Likewise, unlike people, digital infrastructure doesn’t have business hours. It’s always on, and it needs to be managed continuously.
Managed IT services (also known as managed network services/MNS or managed technology services/mts) are invaluable because they take certain aspects of the workload off the shoulders of company employees or even an internal IT department. Such elements typically include:
- Repetitive, labor-intensive manual tasks which are often low value and low impact but still necessary.
- Complex problems for which the internal IT department doesn’t have adequate time, resources, knowledge, or skills.
- Management or monitoring which needs to occur continuously, even outside of employee working hours.
- Finding the right tools that work for a given situation or set of parameters.
In other words, managed IT services simplify the job of an internal IT department. The business benefits as a result in two significant ways.
Eliminating the Time Suck of Repetitive Labor
Repetitive labor is a reality of the modern business environment due to the nature of data. Data needs to be moved, sorted, and manipulated. Until the last few years, automation hasn’t been able to address the issue adequately. As the technology matures, however, these repetitive, data-related tasks have firmly entered into the crosshairs of innovators seeking new ways to apply automation or outsourcing to the marketplace.
Repetitive tasks, such as data entry, voicemail taking, software patching, server backups, and disaster recovery processes all need to happen. Many of them have little if any effect on daily operations when everything runs smoothly. However, the business will nonetheless feel it over time if they do not occur. For example, a lack of regular backups can spell fatality for a company following a disaster.
Outsourcing tasks both frees up the internal IT department from needing to take care of these tasks and ensures that they get done when they need to. Often, managed IT specialists have access to the automation technologies which the budget for a smaller business might preclude. It is a win-win situation. These repetitive, low-value, but potentially high-impact tasks get done, and internal IT benefits by getting to focus on more significant projects.
The Importance of Time-Saving Initiatives
The digital age has ushered in tools to allow businesses to move faster than ever. The pervasive presence of technology in society has also shifted consumer expectations. The internet is always on and always connected. Businesses are expected to be, too.
Time-saving initiatives—such as strategies to outsource critical tasks—help a business keep pace with the market and its customers. Manual processes, particularly when handling digital technology, are not realistic to perform.
Get Up to Speed with Managed IT Services
So, how do you improve your performance at work? Take advantage of tasks which can be outsourced to managed IT services. These specialists are trained to handle the IT tasks that can slow down or overwhelm an internal department.
Get up to speed with managed IT services today. Contact one of our experts in Springfield Illinois or any of our nine locations throughout Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri to learn more about how outsourcing IT tasks can benefit your IT department.
