How can a Managed Service provider free-up my time?
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it quickly became one of the busiest times for San-iT in recent years. Helping businesses lift and shift their staff from offices around the UK into their homes caused an onslaught of anxious calls and support tickets around the clock, whilst we were also managing a similar process ourselves.
Over the period of the last 18 months, we have continued to help our clients adapt to what has been a generational event of unprecedented business disruption, and quickly transitioned them to remote work environments on a sustained basis.
But what are the time benefits of working with a Managed Services Provider?
The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified issues around a shortage of the right resources in-house, especially with staff needing to be furloughed and hiring freezes. By providing core and strategic IT services, we have helped our clients’ leadership teams focus on their core business without needing to acquire additional resources to achieve this in-house.
The advantages of scalable offerings can also make life easier for many businesses. They provide clients with the ability to flex offerings up and down dependent on current needs, with processes and procedures in place to assist with quick and effective onboarding and offboarding of members, whether it’s regarding Hardware, Software or Telephony services.
This flexible approach to delivering managed IT services can come in several models, depending on the needs of the business.
What is a fully managed service?
Fully managed service offers businesses that have limited IT resources a variety of products and services, packaging them all together to provide a comprehensive solution on a per-user basis. To all intents and purposes, we essentially become an outsourced IT department for the business.
What is a co-managed service?
Co-managed services offer businesses a solution when they do have some internal IT staff. This could include a variety of roles, from a Chief Information Officer (CIO) to an IT Manager or internal technicians. The business may want to free up these people to focus more of their time and energy on the vision and the future of the team, and hand most of the day-to-day blocking and tackling duties over to a managed services provider.
Are managed IT services right for my business?
The success of any managed IT service offering relies on offering flexibility and scalability for the business they work with, whether this is through increasing the speed of digital transformation or helping to digitise business processes. It can also involve taking time to audit the technology within the company and then providing a roadmap for the future, once again freeing up time for in-house staff to concentrate on the business itself.
Additionally, like any outsourced service relationship, the scope of work and service levels are clearly defined and documented. This provides predictability, which is rare for technology investments. Whilst there may be projects that demand a little extra budget, for the most part the work is predictable and scalable. As a business expands and contracts, for example through an acquisition, this ensures that managed services can adapt along with it. Even if a business is adding people along the way, managed services can provide flexibility to account for that give and take.
Managed services empower businesses to grow
Managed services can empower businesses to be more agile and proactive, rather than responsive and reactive. When you don’t have to worry about unplanned downtime, it frees you up to build strategies and future-proof your business. Along with other critical lessons, the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that focusing on tomorrow is just as important as focusing on today.
If you are interested in outsourcing your IT to a Managed Services provider, you can talk to a San-iT expert today on 0800 084 2575. You can also email us at info@san-it.co.uk.
