Businesses face increasing pressure to reduce costs while maintaining more systems to collect, deliver, and interpret data. The demands on IT staffs and budgets are considerable. Keeping pace with the growing demands prompts many to choose IT service management solutions from external partners staffed with experts.
Here is a closer look at the essentials of transformational managed IT services excellence.
A Managed Service Provider Adds Value
For years, managers and executives have sought more nimble IT solutions to help propel business. One MIT study of 500 senior business executives indicated that the quality of IT infrastructure lagged behind what was actually needed for transformative change.
Corporate IT managers and directors, desperate to play a strategic role in the organization, bemoan the constraints they face, including legacy systems, dysfunctional software constrained by a lack of development, and the constant demands of staffing, software support, and server costs.
Managed IT eliminates many key issues that hinder in-house staff, including:
- Remote monitoring and management of IT systems
- Backup and data recovery
- Enhanced systems security
- Proactive maintenance of the IT infrastructure
- Project drain with multiple divisions competing for in-house resources for projects
How should an organization decide whether managed IT services are a sound choice? Begin by considering the following questions:
- Is there a need? Go-it-alone IT operations require management of systems and people that are considerable budgetary strains. Recruiting, hiring, training and retaining talented IT staff are often a constant churn of activity. Organizations need specific expertise with the systems used within the company and the resources to commit to ongoing maintenance and storage. Can your organization afford to go it alone?
- What return is expected? After calculating the real costs of personnel and systems, as well as the opportunity costs sunk into hiring, training, and maintenance,
- What return would be expected for an investment in managed IT services?
- What efficiencies would the company expect to gain – faster adoption of new technologies, improved uptime, infrastructure improvements, reduced personnel costs?
- What are the desired outcomes? Consider what might be driving a managed IT solution:
- cost reductions
- process improvement
- resource reallocation.
A Managed Service Provider Makes Sense
Managed IT services provide considerable advantages for companies, including:
- Scalability. Organizations can grow strategically without needing to add additional personnel, servers, or space.
- Reliability. Companies can rely on business partners to ensure systems are operational, accessible, and responsive at all times with seamless access by employees and customers alike.
- Compliance. Businesses need to ensure that technologies and controlled processes are compliant with federal, state, and industry guidelines. Whether it’s patient or student privacy, payment card industry compliance, reporting and security needs, organizations need systems that are fully compliant and provide accurate reporting and verification for internal and third-party audits and the scrutiny of government regulators.
- Predictability. Monthly and annual costs become stable and predictable because they are provided contractually.
- Access. Your staff has direct access to top experts in digital technology, providing your business with insights and solutions to be more efficient, improve processes, and leverage the latest technologies.
- Peace of Mind. Your business is buying peace of mind by having a service provider doing the work and the worry about technology, security, uptime, and efficiency.
For 25 years, Denovo has been a market leader in providing enterprise applications and cloud services. We provide expert consulting services and appropriate software solutions.