In simple terms, to use Managed IT Services is to outsource your company’s IT-related needs to experts that can proactively anticipate, plan, and fix your IT systems so that you don’t have to think twice about why your company’s email isn’t working and simply focus on what will grow your business.
Having Managed IT services in Australia is basically owning a magic computer that would automatically upgrade to having the latest parts, the latest software, and just the right tools for your work at all times, without you having to pay for every upgrade.
Analogies aside, a Managed Services Provider (MSP) would be a company you would hire to permanently and robustly manage every IT needs of your company- from how internal emails and chat would work to your website and the back-end servers. Rather than calling in someone to have a look whenever a system fails, an MSP would be able to anticipate your business’s IT needs and future problems and maintain the same standard of systems throughout.
But why do Managed IT services exist?
There are several reasons, primary of them being that if you are running a graphic designing company, you have to spend exactly zero hours a day, figuring out what systems to buy and use, which software and tools are the best in the market, how much load your website can take at a time, or when your hard drive is randomly going to die. That means that now you can focus on being the best graphics designing company instead of spending large amounts of time, energy, and money on your computer and network systems.
MSPs first arose in the 1990s when people realised that computers are more complex than just “restart it, it’ll work” and that it’s foolish to try to micro-manage every technical part of the business.
The most valuable asset any business owner has is undeniably their time, and there are many hurdles that come in the way. So, spending that time on things that matters plays a key role.
- Rapidly changing technology –
Be it the transition from offline to online and the accompanying challenges, or being able to effectively use cloud storage and processing, it is not only extremely hard but at the same time, it is practically foolish to try to keep up with every technological change that comes about.
Finding exactly the right technology tools that would not only make your job easier but save you time and money is an always ongoing process that requires large amounts of commitment and expertise. - Allocating your IT Budget wisely –
Even if you do find out what changes your company needs, allocating your IT budget effectively into procuring new technology, maintaining your current systems, preparing for unexpected crashes, and hiring and training personnel for the same is a challenge business owner shouldn’t have to face.
Simply put, unless your expertise is corporate-level IT, you are bound to face trouble in streamlining new measures taken. - Accident Resiliency –
There isn’t a whole lot you can do about your server crashing – it can happen to anyone, at any time. So, unless you have a 24x7x365 monitoring system, there is no way to be prepared for these unexpected crashes without having lost precious data, traffic, reputation, money, and time. These are things that happen way too often, and which you can’t be prepared for.
In these regards, it is indeed a dim world for let’s say, someone who dreams of running his own company successfully or someone whose computer crashes often at work, causing immense annoyance and an abrupt loss of opportunity. However, there are ways to overcome all these problems and save a lot of money in the process – outsourcing.
What exactly are the benefits of Managed IT Services?
- Focus on what matters –
Small businesses can’t hope to compete with the in-house IT departments of large companies, but outsourcing these requirements allows small businesses to be at the same level as other companies in terms of tools and reliability of their systems, thus levelling the playing field. For example “Office 365 consultant” MSPs generally provide full-time monitoring and coverage to make sure they fix every problem before it arises. - Unlock growth potential –
One of the biggest factors keeping companies from exponential growth is the fact that such growth comes with an exponential development in the complexity of the IT systems required to support the business. You can either focus your energy on solving the small problems that arise daily or you can focus on how you’re going to take your business to where you thought it would be when you first started it. - Free up valuable time by deferring the workload –
One of the biggest benefits of hiring an MSP is that you don’t have to worry about hiring and training new IT staff, while that work is done by industry experts at a cost lower than you would’ve otherwise spent. This opens up plenty of room for things like automation, migration to the cloud and being at top of the latest technology advances.
Make your problems someone else’s problems so that you can focus on your other problems.
