Category Archives: Managed IT Services

INTRODUCTION

Managed IT services enable enterprises to entrust their IT operations to a third-party who are called as Managed Service Providers (MSPs). MSPs are entirely or partly responsible for the business’ IT systems, as per the Service Level Agreement (SLA), providing round-the-clock monitoring, issue resolution and reporting, and more.

MSPs adopt a holistic approach to IT services, that result in much more efficient standard of operations as opposed to in-house IT management. Competent managed service providers support in management and maintenance of the overall infrastructure besides giving end-user support.

Evidently, in 2014 merely 30% of companies used MSPs. However, in a year’s span the number doubled with reduced IT costs by 40% and higher efficiency. The number of enterprises embracing the managed service outsourcing doesn’t seem to stop since then.

MANAGED IT SERVICES MODEL

MSPs employ extensive IT expertise to resolve issues efficiently, keep systems up-to-date and prevent issues before they arise. MSP services are typically offered in tiered levels, deploying thesophistication of automation and enhanced degree of management at higher levels based on SLAs. End users generally pay for the services they need and are offered tailored services based on the business requirements and demands.

There are other important business functions such as utilities that the end users pay for all the services provided offsite, like remote monitoring and management, help desk solutions, backup and disaster recovery, and beyond.

Slowly yet steadily Managed IT services has become an important operating expense to maintain core functionality, as opposed to additional expense incurred during one-off issue resolutions with break/fix models.

BENEFITS OF MANAGED IT SERVICES

MSPs offer a virtue of experience in abundance by proactively managing multiple clients for each of the organization that is otherwise nearly an impossible task for the in-house team. In addition, while using the MSP services, businesses can efficiently plan and forecast their IT spend and free-up their core team from focusing on operational readiness. Which also empowers small businesses to completely shift their focus towards growing their reach and achieve organic growth without wrecking their brains on routine IT issues. MSPs are always equipped with compliance to individual organization security policies, thereby impart maximum security expertise to the entire IT infrastructure.

Let’s discuss some of the key benefits of having a third-party IT partners for IT managed services a bit further:

Free-Up In-house IT team

Often the IT team in an organization is stretched thin. By outsourcing back-end functions or complex and rapidly evolving technology solutions, organizations develop the capacity to free-up their core IT team in-house and deploy their technology expertise to critical projects. This endeavor further enables businesses to achieve core objectives via focused innovation.

Geared -Up with evolving IT demands & keeping pace

Organizations both in India and globally face a major challenge of finding the right resource for their IT requirement, mainly for cyber security and mobile application services. By outsourcing these functions to a technically robust IT partner, the pressure of hiring specialized engineers frequently is quelled to a great extent.

Higher Scalability

IT infrastructure requires exhaustive time and cost which can stretch from months to few years to set-up an agile, streamlined and secure massive systems. Under volatile market dynamics, it is huge risk take for organizations. Therefore, organizationsprefer a more viable option to start on a smaller scale, move rapidly and dwell on expansion based on growth.

IT partners such as CMS IT Services enables enterprises to fulfil their business goals while adopting a modular approach to advanced managed services. This further makes is easier for enterprises to scale their operations based on demand.

24×7 Availability

A 9-10 hours of service provisioning is as obsolete as searching for a phone booth to make a phone call. When users work throughout day and night, the network support must be equally efficient. MSPs make that possible by offering 24x7x365 help, irrespective of weekends and holidays to provide seamless and secure IT infrastructure support to their users.

Offload the Compliance burden

Besides theroutine audits, often enterprises have to go through the rigor of meeting various excruciating standards and requirements while implementing their IT initiatives. There are numerous stringent Acts of Privacy and Compliance that organisationsmust abide by as per the government instructed directives, regardless of the sector they operate in.

A smart and efficient MSP partner understands all the IT regulations their clients must fulfil and clearly specify their bounds while managing the IT infrastructure with due diligence. There are systems, processes and reports set in place by MSPs to vouch for compliance without burdening the in-house team.

Planned Expenses

Every IT investment entails certain peripheral costs. Organizations require plentiful networks, storage, and security. They are obligated to periodic hiring and training, deploy systems and manage equipments to suffice those requirements, resulting in unforeseen sudden surge in IT spend.

MSPs charge a flat fee for delivery of their services as per the SLAs over a set period of time. The SLA clearly marks out what services will be provided and to what extent they will be provided, and they also furnish the metrics to measure the performance and output.

By outsourcing the IT managed services to a third party, organizations become efficient in breaking down their costs into fixed periodic payments, as opposed to the huge expenses resulting from managing systems in-house.

CONCLUSION

While new technologies and evolving IT landscape provides outstanding opportunities for enterprises, in parallel they pose unique challenges. For many organizations, those challenges spiral into uncontrolled enormousexpenses – starting from cost of hiring, training to regular maintenance and update of the IT infrastructure.

To circumvent the struggle and keep pace with technology, modern enterprises turn to managed services providers with advanced capabilities for help. Choosing a trusted IT partner offers a cost efficient and streamlined approach towards robust managed IT services without having to deploy in-house resources.