What Are Managed Services?
Managing IT is not an easy task with so much involved. Your small or mid-sized Cincinnati business may be growing in leaps and bounds, requiring a lot more IT management in the process. Are you able to handle it all on your own? Hiring an IT department for managed services might mean them becoming overwhelmed keeping up with a recurring list of challenges. One of those is usually IT security and the growing threats to data.
Jon Fausz, director of operations at 4BIS, recently posted a new YouTube video explaining what managed services are if you need them.
What Are Managed Services in IT?
You’ve likely heard the term “managed services” for years in the IT world, yet didn’t really fully comprehend what that meant. As Jon explains, he usually has businesses come up to him asking the same question.
He defines it as an outsourced IT company that manages some or all of your IT systems. You’re in the driver’s seat in the choices you want to make about how much you want a third-party managing your technology.
In today’s more complex world, having real experts take over to manage your business tech is more than a smart move. Various cyber threats continue to rattle businesses across the world, including here in Cincinnati.
What might you experience if you decide to get managed services from an outsourced IT company? You’ll be surprised at how comprehensive and helpful IT management is, including the experience level.
A Hawk’s Eye on Your Network Security
One of the biggest benefits of managed services is bringing peace of mind and cost savings all at the same time. Part of that comes in knowing an outsourced partner can watch out for your security when your own IT team doesn’t have time to.
Having that element of peace helps you focus on growing your business rather than constantly worrying about being hacked every day. After all, with hacks occurring daily in businesses across the globe, the repercussions are serious.
Many hacks occurring aren’t even noticed by most businesses. It may be months later until you find out data was compromised and identities were possibly stolen.
Other pros exist with managed services, but keeping an eye on your security is #1. This can happen with remote monitoring, plus providing the right security platforms working autonomously.
Taking Care of Regular IT Maintenance With Managed Services
Some IT jobs are overly laborious and can take too much time for your IT team. Maintenance is one of those. A managed services company takes care of that for you.
For this scenario, the managed services team would handle maintenance while your in-house team takes care of more serious internal issues. Part of the maintenance involved would entail upgrades (necessary security patches/new equipment, etc.), including continual checks on security vulnerabilities.
Having maintenance done for you is a great help if you’re still a small business and can’t afford a huge IT team to take on issues like this. Besides, how great is it to know that you’re getting maintenance done to keep your tech running smoothly?
Managed service companies always work in the background without getting in your way. All maintenance is easily done remotely nowadays.
Eliminating Other Complex Tasks
The more skilled your managed services company is, the more complex tasks they can take on. Things like service implementation and software integration are two things taking considerable time due to their complications.
Your IT team may not be well-versed enough in handling the harder technical challenges you face. A quality managed services team is going to always have a combined force of knowledge to handle any scenario.
Experience in the real business world is what’s important here. Those of you new to the business world need a trusted provider that’s worked with other businesses like yours.
Still, the best-managed service providers don’t get in your way. They can become a valued partner, yet won’t be moving into your offices to take over.
Only Pay for Managed Services You Use When It’s Needed
Let’s not forget about the cost savings of using managed services. Placing multiple IT professionals on your payroll could make you lose money in the long run. The reason being is you may not need them for certain services during the year. Why just wait for something to happen before putting an IT tech to work?
Outsourcing helps you simply use whatever IT services you need at a given time. Now you can just pay for whatever you need when it happens, which may only be a couple of times per year.
Your labor costs will be much lower this way, of course. You also don’t have to worry about training time for your IT staff, something always taking too much time and money.
Managed services also help you have someone in your corner so you don’t have to turn to temp employees. Some IT temp employees don’t always have enough training to qualify toward keeping your business running optimally.
Bring in the Latest Technology
One of the greatest benefits of having managed services is the ability to have experienced technicians who know what your business needs. Having access to the latest technologies only benefits you and helps you grow your business faster.
Outsourced professionals work with hundreds of other businesses like yours, so they’ll know exactly what you need while still saving you money.
Where Can You Find a Quality Managed Services Provider?
At 4BIS, we’ve been serving the Cincinnati community for 25 years. Our managed services give you everything you need to keep your business safe and running at an optimal level at all times.
As Jon pointed out in our recent YouTube video, every business needs their computers to work. We’ll make that happen for you while managing only the IT systems you want. All of this can be done conveniently through a monthly invoice system.
Contact us to learn more about the type of IT services we offer at 4BIS.
