Technology is ever-changing at a lightning-fast pace. Technology experts have increased collaborations and productivity but keeping up with the evolution can be challenging and time consuming. As a business grows, it's IT requirements change. A managed services provider (MSP) will assist your business in success no matter the industry. The right MSP will help reduce and control costs, increase competitiveness and efficiency, and provide scalability. Here are the four key benefits businesses experience by outsourcing IT through managed services providers.

For any business, it is a priority to stay on top of your systems to ensure they are functioning properly and consistently.  Most small to medium businesses can't afford in-house support that larger companies maintain. Managed Services Providers can help small to medium companies act "big" by providing access to similar technology and expertise.

Preventative Maintenance and Crisis Management

Managed Services Providers offer routine maintenance like backups, virus and software scans and updates, patches, monitoring, and inventory auditing and control. Additionally, they offer problem resolution that ensures less downtime when a crisis does occur.

Is your Firewall up to date? Do you audit your workstations and servers? Does your company meet PCI security standards? With today’s technology, businesses have an abundance of ways that they can receive payments such as:

• Credit and debit cards
• Gift certificates
• E-checks
• Wire Transfers
• Mobile Payments
• Bank Transfers
• PayPal

These different types of payments come with the need for due diligence. Through an MSP who is familiar with PCI Compliance standards, you can rest easy, knowing that the risks associated with maintaining client data, credit card numbers and other sensitive information are mitigated.

Managed Services Provides Cost Savings

One of the greatest benefits of partnering with an MSP is extreme cost-effectiveness. Organizations can reduce operational costs and lower IT expenses.

Most MSPs operate on a subscription-based system where clients pay monthly or annual fees for services, giving them the opportunity to determine if it is feasible to keep in their budget. Each Service Level Agreement (SLA) is customized to company needs, allowing them to efficiently manage hardware and software, increase productivity and reduce total costs of application ownership all within the flexibility of paying for the services the business requires, rather than paying for expensive packages with services they don’t need.

Managed Services Can Lighten Your Workload

You stay in control. You are in charge. Outsourced MSPs are only an extension of your IT department there to ease your workload. Whether you need to maintain a website, digital inventory, database, or register systems, all business can benefit from managed services. Refrain from waiting for a crisis to happen before you start exploring your service options and regularly update your systems. Protect your investments in your business and get guaranteed protection from professional providers.

Managed Services Provides Scalability

Scalability is critical to supporting business growth and development. At the rate that technology advances, businesses need to scale up or scale down resources on demand. As a company expands, one hurdle that should be anticipated is technology requirements outgrowing available resources. MSPs provide the support and services needed to handle growth.

Scalable solutions not only accommodate rapid change but they also assist firms with maintaining productivity, improving system availability and wipe out negative downtime. MSPs address pain points and remain receptive to their short-term and long-term needs, while proactively exploring and identifying enhancements to improve client support for key business objectives.

Immediate benefits can be gained from utilizing a managed services provider for IT services. Organizations that try to resolve all IT services internally spend much more time on implementation, research, developing, all of which increase costs. Every business investment carries a certain amount of risk, but a quality MSP has all the resources to take on tasks right away.

About the Author

Jeff Hall is a Business Technology veteran who advocates for clients to have the best Managed Services experience at the best price.  Jeff has over a decade of IT experience helping business solve technology challenges. When Jeff is not at work, he likes to spend his time outdoors backpacking and mountain biking.

Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, today!